As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth; and he said, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him. (Matthew 9:9)
People ask me quite often, "How could these people simply leave everything behind and go with Jesus?" I must admit, I wonder that myself too. Still, the biblical witness is that they did exactly this.
Later in this reading, we come to find that the religious authorities did not take kindly to Jesus breaking their purity laws of who was appropriate to relate to and eat with. Matthew, a tax collector, was seen by the Jewish people as a traitor. He worked for the oppressive Roman regime, and would tax the people more than he needed to so as to make himself wealthy. The people couldn't argue because the tax collector had the power of the empire behind him. No wonder the people hated the tax collectors.
And then here is Jesus showing grace and mercy to Matthew. We are told that other tax collectors (and sinners) were eating with Jesus. I imagine that this was quite refreshing for Matthew and the others, to be invited by a religious leader to eat with him. I can't imagine they got many of these invitations. While certainly not in the same exact way, the tax collector was an outcast not dissimilar to the leper. And Jesus' embrace of Matthew and the others was consistent to his message of a big tent kingdom of God.
In fact, Jesus says as much when he says, "For I have come not to call the righteous but sinners." We can suppose that this includes everyone, even those who believed they were the righteous ones. Jesus was changing a paradigm in a significant and controversial way. He offers a maddening equality that is not easily digested.
So, I have come to believe that the reason people simply left to follow Jesus was born from His willingness to invite them and include them when their culture did not. Following Jesus gave them an identity that was different from what society claimed for them. I can imagine that for those whom have felt marginalized, an invitation to inclusion was worth a drastic change in their life.
I believe we can identify with this!
Inviting Lord, help us be as open to others and you have been to us all. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment