The New Rabbi

“As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow Me.’ He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.” -Matthew 9:9-

Matthew the tax collector used to be Levi the good Jewish boy. It’s likely that he tried to become a disciple of one of the rabbis. Perhaps he was even expected to become a spiritual leader in Israel. But something had definitely gone wrong. Instead of serving the Lord, he decided to serve himself. He turned his back on his own people and became a tax collector for the occupying Roman government. And in those days, there was no such thing as an honest tax collector. They cheated people to line their own pockets. They were religious and social outcasts, ceremonially unclean, and not even allowed into the outer court of the temple.
Matthew could never imagine that God would still want anything to do with him. Then one day, when he was sitting at his tax-collecting booth, a new rabbi came right up to him, extending this simple, life-changing invitation: “Follow Me.”
Jesus may have been a homeless, unconventional rabbi, but He was a rabbi, nonetheless. Rabbis were teachers of God’s Word, and every rabbi had a class of students or disciples. But this was an exclusive group; not just anyone could be a disciple. Disciples had to earn their way into the rabbi’s graces, proving that they possessed an impressive knowledge of Scripture as well as brilliant minds. The rabbi’s reputation depended on accepting only the most highly qualified candidates.
But this wasn’t the way Rabbi Jesus went about getting followers. Instead of followers applying, Jesus invited followers. And in this case, he was inviting the lowest of the low — a tax collector. Someone who was not only a sinner, but who sinned for a living! Someone whose friends were prostitutes, drunkards, and thieves. You know how we know this about Matthew? Because he tells us himself.
These days, people don’t know Matthew as a failure and embarrassment who had sold his soul to the Romans for a lucrative job. We know him as a follower of Jesus who wrote the first book of the New Testament.

Following Today
Have you ever felt disqualified from being accepted by God? How? When did you hear Jesus’ invitation for you to follow Him? What did you leave in order to respond to that invitation?