As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
It was Jesus himself who initiated this contact with Matthew. Matthew was still sitting at the customs post, tethered to his past. To take a job such as tax collector would seem to imply that he was desperate for money or that he didn't care about his fellow Jews or both. It was at least somewhat sinful that he wasn't strong enough to avoid having recourse to such a profession, and perhaps blatantly sinful if he simply didn't care. Being a tax collector probably meant he didn't see himself as having many other options, or at least not ones that were especially appealing. It also meant that he would have been ostracized from the larger social community, only finds friends with other sketchy individuals and questionable characters who had made similar life choices. There wouldn't have been an easy way to reconsider his choice and choose something better now that he had become a pariah in the eyes of his people. He was all but trapped in his position. And even if he wasn't immediately moved to change knowing that there was no alternative available would have been an unsettling thought.
He said to him, "Follow me."
And he got up and followed him.
Suddenly, somehow, a new world opened up for Matthew were he had only seen impossibility and a lack of options. There had been no open paths for him to choose. But now, with a word, Jesus created a new path for him. He had been tied to a past that seemed to preclude any kind of desirable future. But Jesus was obviously aware of this liability and chose him anyway. And so his past no longer mattered. It had seemed that there were no choices available to Matthew, but now he himself had been chosen by Jesus. Fellowship with Jesus did not mean fellowship with the world had been restored. Rather he was allowed to share in table fellowship with the new community being built around Jesus.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
Matthew's past actually had strategic value for a messiah who was interested in repentance and forgiveness. Matthew was a bridge into a community of individuals whom Jesus desired to reach. Without Matthew many of them may have regarded Jesus as an oddity outside of their spheres of life, with no relevance to them, who would likely have no interest in them. But choosing Matthew was implicitly a choice in favor of tax collectors and sinners. Matthew's accepting that choice at least spoke to the possibility that to do so might be worth considering for them as well.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
Matthew thought change was impossible because of his past until he met Jesus. But the Pharisees thought change was unnecessary because they kept up a pristine facade, even though their hearts were closed to the true priority of God, which was mercy rather than superficially offered sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.
Jesus did not imply that the Pharisees where righteous in fact, but merely that they thought themselves to be so. The posture of both Matthew prior to his encounter with Jesus and that of the Pharisees each came with its own set of liabilities. But the liabilities of Matthew's position were such that he was able to welcome the invitation of Jesus whereas the Pharisees could not.
This Gospel should encourage us to look at our own lives and to ask what is the customs post at which will still insist on sitting even in spite of the call of Jesus to move onward and upward. At the same time we should ask ourselves in what ways we have been Pharisees who believe ourselves too perfect to need to change, too holy to associate with rabble apparently less perfect than us. Have we become content with an external and performative religion and used this as an excuse not to care about those who are clearly in need of what Jesus has to offer?
I will make them mourn as for an only son,
and bring their day to a bitter end.
The only Son was offered for the sake of everyone, whether tax collector, sinner, or Pharisee. He was given for our sakes even if we were among those who trampled upon the needy and destroyed the poor and fixed our scales for cheating, as Matthew may in fact have done. The Savior came to save us all. But we, for our part, must realize our need in order that we too might heed the call to follow him.
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