Matthew 9:9-13

https://youtu.be/GwM27Vb9LWg

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, [a]to repentance.”

A man, Matthew ( also known as Levi) - A tax collector is sitting at a tax office 

Jesus looks at him and say’s to him – Follow me 

Of all the people Jesus would ask, He calls a tax collector

They worked for the Roman governmentThey were seen as traitors, they worked for the other side, the foreigners that came to take from the localsThey were charged with a certain amount and anything over, was for their keeps They abused the system and only fed their mouths They were despised – If you ever know or read about colonization you would understand

Let’s paint a picture, you are in America today and another country comes over and takes over America, you are now required to pay taxes to them and they pretty much own you

And some of our people decide to work with these oppressive country to inflict oppression to you

 And you see Jesus the one that is supposed to save them from the Romans 

And you can’t help but ask, why is Jesus talking to the sinners?

I can see why the Pharisees were asking the question- What is Jesus doing

Jesus is passing by 

In Matthews life it another week, Day starts out like any other

The Bible does not tell us if Matthew had heard of Jesus before but knowing that he was powerful, it would be safe to assume so 

He has his life set, but there must have been something missing on the inside 

We all know that feeling when we are looking great on the outside, yet inside, there is a miss

The “thing” was not strong enough to get him up and go look for Jesus but it was enough to bring awareness that a change is necessary

He had learnt to live in this state – Afterall, he had great job, good friends, many FB friends, his Instagram was popping with luxuries and new this and the lavished life 

Jesus comes by and there is a call, Matthew doesn’t know that this is what he needed but there is a stirring in his heart 

We don’t know if he has been just going with the motion, if he felt caught up and there was no way out 

He hears the call come and for the first time in his life, there is an opportunity to change his life 

He has a choice to make, ignore the call and keep on pretending that he is complete 

Or, heeds the call and let healing begin

Like some of us- We know deep inside that we are not who we ought to be, who God has called us to be

We have addictions, behaviors, places we frequent, things we look at online or in person, in a relationship that is toxic, things that we are afraid to confront