Matthew: From Tax Collector to Disciple

“Then as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ And he arose and followed Him.” –Matthew 9:9

In the gospel that Matthew the former tax collector, Matthew the disciple wrote, he tells of his call to be a follower of Jesus.

He was on the job in his usual work, that of collecting taxes. Where was Matthew’s “tax office”—or the “place of receipt of customs” or “tax booth” (as some translations render this verse)? In biblical geography, the tax booth would have been on the main road leading from Damascus, down into the Jordan Valley to Capernaum, where the coastal road from Acre to Egypt and southward to Jerusalem converged. It was a place of heavy traffic. He collected “toll” or transport taxes from local farmers hauling their produce to market, from local merchants, and from caravans that came through on this popular trade route. He would have known the value of goods and the local and foreign monetary systems. He no doubt spoke the local Aramaic language as well as Greek and maybe understood some other languages as well. His communication skills were good.

Matthew, a Jew, would have been despised by his fellow Jews because he was a tax collector. They already had a taint upon their name and character. An employee of Herod Antipas, the Roman ruler, he would have made a “bid” for the taxes and agreed to pay the Romans a certain amount of what he collected. All above that would have been Matthew’s personal wages. Whether he was one to get rich on this procedure, we know not, but everyone knew the potential was there, and for that reason, the Jews hated the tax collectors.

What did Jesus see as Matthew’s potential for a disciple? Jesus can see more than the ordinary in people. Matthew immediately left his tax collection booth and followed Jesus. In Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, he is called Levi, and we find he is the son of Alphaeus. James, another disciple, was either a full or half-brother to Matthew (Levi). With his attention to detail and skills in communication, Matthew would indeed become a valuable disciple, one whose pen under the direction of the Holy Spirit gave us the Gospel of Matthew. One of the major themes of this gospel is to show that Jesus had the power to command His disciples to spread the good news of His coming to the ends of the earth. (Matt. 28:18-20).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, March 8, 2010