#39 Matthew
Called
Please first read: Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17; Luke
5:27-32
President
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.:
Jesus
goes forth again by the seaside, and multitudes follow him, he teaches
them; seeing
Levi - Matthew - son of Alphaeus, sitting at the receipt of custom, he says, “Follow me,” and
Matthew follows; Matthew makes a great feast for Jesus (in Matthew’s house) and
a great company of publicans and sinners come and sit down; the
Pharisees murmur at this, asking why he eats with publicans and
sinners; Jesus answers that the sick, not the well, need a physician, and
that he comes not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (some
Pharisees may have detected a bit of irony here of Jesus implying that they
were at the top of the list of those needing to repent and change.) (p.218)
Apostle
Bruce R. McConkie:
By now in
His ministry Jesus’ notoriety as a teacher and worker of good (miracles/healings)
is established throughout all the Holy Land. Pharisees, Scribes,
Sadducees, and “doctors of the law” come from Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem to
see and hear Him. Jesus is in the process of restoring the gospel for his day
and dispensation. So far he has revealed new doctrine, ordained new
officers, approved the baptisms of John, and preformed baptisms
himself. In time he will call his Twelve special witnesses, give them the
keys of the kingdom, and the power to bind on earth and seal in heaven. (Volume
2. p.55)
Apostle Bruce
R. McConkie:
It
appears that when Jesus saw Matthew and said unto him, “Follow me.” Matthew
immediately “left all, rose up, and followed him.” Matthew was a Jew. He
was also a publican (a collector of taxes for the Romans) and all such were
hated and despised by his people. It was particularly offensive for one of
their own race to be so engaged. Publicans were customarily considered to
be sinners. Rabbis ranked them as cutthroats and robbers, as social
outcasts and religiously half-excommunicated. They were forbidden to serve
as judges or to give evidence, and it was common to say of them: “A
religious man who becomes a publican is to be driven out of the society of
religion. It is not lawful to use the riches of such men.”
Matthew
was one of these social outcasts; his friends and associates obviously belonged
to the same group; and when he gave a feast (a sort of reception) for Jesus, it
was publicans and sinners who assembled to meet the Master. When Jewish leaders
criticized Jesus for eating and associating with such unsavory individuals,
Jesus’ reply was “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are
sick.” The Pharisaic religion was one of ritualistic forms, of rules and
ceremonies, of rites and sacrifices; actually, no one needed a physician
more than the spiritually sick Pharisees. (p.180)
The
author, Farrar, in his book titled “Life of Christ,” provided the following
passage:
At or
near Capernaum there was a receipt of custom. Lying as the town did at the
nucleus of roads which diverged to Tyre, to Damascus, to Jerusalem, and to
Sepphoris, it was a busy centre of merchandise, and therefore a natural place
for the collection of tribute and taxes. These imposts were to the Jews
pre-eminently distasteful. The mere fact of having to pay them wounded
their tenderest sensibilities. They were not only a badge of
servitude; not only a daily and terrible witness that God seemed to have
forsaken His land, and that all the splendid Messianic hopes and promises of
their earlier history were merged in the disastrous twilight of subjugation to
a foreign rule which was cruelly and contemptuously enforced; but more
than this, the mere payment of such imposts wore almost the appearance of
apostasy to the sensitive and scrupulous mind of a genuine Jew. It seemed
to be a violation of the first principle of the Theocracy, such as could only
be excused as the result of absolute compulsion. We cannot, therefore,
wonder that the officers who gathered these taxes were regarded with profound
dislike. It must be remembered that those with whom the provincials came
into contact were not the Roman knights – the real publican, who farmed the
taxes – but were the merest subordinates chosen from the dregs of the people,
and so notorious was a class for their mal-practices, that they were regarded
almost with horror, and were always included in the same category with harlots
and sinners. When an occupation is thus despised and detested, it is clear
that its members are apt to sink to the level at which they are placed by the
popular odium. And if a Jew could scarcely persuade himself that it was
right to pay taxes, how much more heinous a crime must it have been in his eyes
to become the questionably-honest instrument for collecting them? If a
publican was hated, how still more intense must have been the disgust
entertained against a publican who was also a Jew? (p. 199)
Geikie:
Capernaum
had a strong staff of custom-house officers, or
publicans. Much goods, merchandise and traffic flowed through
it and dues and fees were required on most of it. There were
tolls on the highways, the bridges, docks at the lake and various other
locations where payments of duty were required. The Roman
contracts required set amounts to be paid…anything extra they could charge and
collect could kept as payment for their services. This
obviously opened the door for much fraud and animosity.
This was
a critical time for Jesus, and his admission of a publican as a disciple could
not fail to irritate his enemies still more, but he had not hesitation in his
course. Sent to the lost, he gladly welcomed to his inmost circle one of
their number in whom he saw the germs of true spiritual life, in calm disregard
of all prejudices of the time.
It was
natural that Matthew should celebrate an event so unique as his call by a great
feast at his house; and no less so that he should invite a large number of his
class to rejoice with him at the new era opened to him/them, or that he should
extend the invitation to his friends of the proscribed classes generally … persons
branded by public opinion as “sinners.” To the Rabbis, and the Pharisees at
large, nothing could be more unbecoming and irregular than the presence of
Jesus at Matthew’s feast. To be Levitically “clean” was the supreme
necessity of their religious lives. (p.401)
Note: I
first read Papini’s book, “Life of Christ” in 1958. I very much
enjoyed the style of writing, it’s beauty, and the feelings of love for the
Savior which I felt from the author’s words. I include a couple of
paragraphs, hopefully, for your enjoyment.
“Matthew
is the dearest of all the Twelve. He was a tax-gatherer, a sort of
under-publican, and probably had more education than his companions. He
followed Jesus as readily as the fishermen. “And after these things he
went forth, and saw a publican name Levi, sitting at the receipt of
custom: and he said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose
up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house.” It
was not a heap of torn nets which Matthew left, but a position, a stipend,
secure and increasing earnings.
“Giving
up riches is easy for a man who has almost nothing. Among the Twelve
Matthew was certainly the richest before his conversion. Of no other is it
told that he could offer a great feast, and this means that he made a greater
and more meritorious sacrifice by his rising at the first call from the seat
where he was collecting money.”
“Matthew
and Judas were perhaps the only ones of the Disciples who knew how to write,
and to Matthew we owe the first collection of Logia or memorable sayings of
Jesus. In the Gospel which is called by his name, we find the most
complete text of the Sermon on the Mount. Our debt to the poor excise-man
is heavy; without him many words of Jesus, and the most beautiful, might have
been lost. This handler of drachmas, shekels and talents, whom his
despised trade must have predisposed to avarice, has laid up for us a treasure
worth more than all the money coined on the earth.” (p. 228)
Edersheim:
The term
Pharisee means “separated one,” setting ones-self apart. This implies
the Pharisee wants no contact, nothing to do with these unworthys; the
exclusion of sinners. This was a main point of contention between them and
Jesus. By calling Matthew (a publican, a sinner) to Jesus’ inner circle,
Jesus would be knowingly attacking a very basic tenet of their
doctrine. The actions and teachings of Christ are an absolute and
fundamental contrariety to that of the Rabbis. This also sends a message
to others who are ostracized by the Jews that they too may be welcome in this
new gospel. (p. 508)
Glenn R.
McGettigan
August
2015; Revised October 2015
References:
“Our Lord
of the Gospels.” Clark
“Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah.” Edersheim
“Life of
Christ.” Farrar
“Life of
Christ.” Geike
“Doctrinal
New Testament Commentary.” Volume 1. McConkie
“Mortal
Messiah.” Book 2. McConkie
“Matthew:
A New Translation.” Albright & Mann
“Life of
Christ.” Papini
