A Sermon on Matthew 9:9-13 for the feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.

Today we celebrate St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist, the author of the Gospel that bears his name. Mark and Luke refer to this man using his Hebrew name, Levi, that would have been given to him at his circumcision, and name his father as Alphaeus. But Matthew refers to himself with his Greek name, Matthew, the name he would have used in his business dealings as a tax collector and doesn’t mention his own lineage. And even in that simple detail, we see a profound truth. Mark and Luke, by using his Hebrew name and lineage, cast him in a better light and as a good Jew, while Matthew himself uses his Greek name, associated with his life of sin, and avoids naming his father, lest his former sin contaminate him as well. We are to overlook and downplay the sin of others, while being honest and ruthless with ourselves. All that in the simple detail of which name to use.

And that same theme engulfs our entire text: how we see sin in ourselves and in others and how Christ interacts with the sinner. We see here what Jesus does with sinners. He converts them. He calls them out of sitting in sin to arise, follow Him, and recline with Him.

I. Sitting in Sin

Matthew’s occupation is a tax collector. We don’t know what kind of taxes he collected or what his exact status or rank was, but people have to come to his booth to pay their tax.

I had always thought that this was a novel, Bible times kinda thing, until I moved to Florida and learned that, to get a driver’s license, you don’t go to the DMV, you go to the tax collector. And it’s funny how little things have changed.

Sitting in line, waiting for my number to be called, filling out paperwork, and jumping through hoops, I don’t think anyone at the tax collector’s office is very happy to be here. But I don’t have any personal beef with Joe Tedder, the tax collector for Polk County, but that was different in antiquity.

Now, in Galilee, where this scene takes place, taxes were collected by King Herod, not the Romans, so there wouldn’t have been the same level of animosity here as there was in other places. But tax collectors are still grouped with sinners. And not because it’s a pain to schedule an appointment several weeks in advance, but because that system was known for being abused.

The contract to collect taxes was given to the highest bidder. And once that bid was accepted, the king or whoever was only really concerned with receiving that amount. But the tax collector worked on commission. He could charge people far beyond what they actually owed and line their own pockets with the difference. Tax collectors have this extremely negative connotation because of their greed. And it’s hard to imagine a man noble enough to resist that temptation.

So here’s Matthew. And Jesus comes to him at what must have been the most awkward time imaginable: while he’s sitting at his tax booth.

Jesus called Bartholomew, through Philip, when he was sitting under a fig tree, relaxing. He called Peter, Andrew, James, and John while they were fishing, which is less ideal in the middle of a workday, but whatever. But Matthew He calls while he’s sitting at the tax booth, while he’s sitting in his sin.

So what makes Matthew get up and leave? The call of Jesus isn’t this sudden, miraculous, irresistible draw, Jesus doesn’t force anyone to follow Him. So although this is the first recorded interaction between Jesus and Matthew, it’s not like Matthew has never heard of the guy.

They’re in Jesus’ “own city” (9:1), Capernaum, His headquarters. Jesus has probably been doing His ministry for about a year already. And He’s famous, people come to hear Him teach and spread the news of His miracles. Matthew has probably had a significant amount of interaction with Jesus and His teaching before this.

So he sees in Jesus what his life should be. He sees in Jesus the path to a better life. He knows his sin. He hates himself for it. But he can’t muster up the courage to leave.

Beyond the wealth that his greed could provide him, this is, more fundamentally, his livelihood. If he leaves, who’s going to hire an ex-tax collector? He’s burnt those bridges already, that stigma won’t just go away. So Matthew stays at his tax booth. He sits in his sin. He knows what he’s doing is wrong. But he can’t muster up the strength to do better.

I hope you can relate to that portrait of Matthew, because all of us are in that same boat. When I speak of Matthew being stuck in his greed, I don’t know what sin comes to your mind. But you do.

What sin are you struggling with? What sin do you feel like you just can’t get rid of? What sin would you be the most embarrassed by if Jesus caught you right in the middle of it?

We all have our tax booths. The sins that we can’t seem to give up, that we can’t seem to live without, the sins that we sit in. But you’ve heard enough of the teaching of Jesus to know what that sin is. You’ve heard enough of the Law to hate yourself for it. So now what?

II. Following Him

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth.” When Jesus sees a man, He sees more than we see. He sees his thoughts, his struggles, the condition of his soul. And as Jesus looks at Matthew sitting at his tax booth, He can see that that is right where He wants him to be. “And he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.”

This is not an impulsive decision. This is not an irresistible call. This is the invitation that Christ extends to every sinner, an offer of forgiveness which frees us from the sin we’re stuck in.

We see a powerful picture of conversion. One moment sitting in sin, the next arising to a new life. When our text says that Matthew “rose” that’s the same word for the resurrection. And that’s exactly what’s going on here. The call of Christ raising him up from the death of sin into a new life.

Matthew has found his courage and his bravery. But it is not his own. It is Christ’s. It is the power of the resurrection, the power of Christ’s triumph over sin, that enables us to leave our sin behind and follow Him.

Christ has issued that same call to you when you first came to faith. And although there’s sin that we’re stuck in, sin that we don’t have the power to overcome yet, Jesus gives us more than the offer of a new life. He gives you the forgiveness of all of your sins.

Although we are dead in sin, by His death on the cross, Christ has defeated death and sin. Although we struggle against sin, He has won that victory and washed away all of your sins.

And this new life in Christ is more than just following Him, it is also reclining with Him, the position of eating and feasting. We rejoice that Jesus still eats with sinners, as the Pharisees accused Him. When we approach the altar, we do so recognizing that we are not well, but that we are sick and in need of a physician. We come recognizing that we have not perfectly followed Him, that we are still stuck in sin. But He “came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus eats with sinners because that is an invitation for forgiveness. Jesus invites you to come to His table to receive the medicine of the Great Physician. As you recline with Him at the feast here, He gives you Himself, His Body and Blood, and forgives your sins.

We recognize our unrighteousness. That even after the call of Christ to follow Him, we still struggle with sin. But that is right where Jesus wants you to be, because Jesus eats with sinners, heals the sick, and forgives your sins.

There’s another big thing that we can learn from Matthew as God uses us  to extend Christ’s call to others. That is, that although conversion is instantaneous, it also takes time.

You either have faith or you don’t. There’s no inbetween, no grey area. When God creates faith in someone it’s not there one moment and then there the next. Conversion happens in an instant, just like how Matthew, at the call of Christ, immediately got up and left his sin.

But as we’ve said before, this wasn’t the first exposure Matthew had had to Jesus. I mean, we’re in chapter 9 and Matthew only has 28 chapters. He hasn’t been following Jesus for a third of the story he’s writing. It took a while for everything to build to this moment.

Sometimes when you’re interacting with someone and trying to bring them to Jesus, it just feels like banging your head against a brick wall. But you don’t know what that’s doing from God’s perspective. Maybe with every slam of your head that brick wall is softening, being prepared for the call of Christ. So keep it up! Don’t give up. Give it your best and let God do what He wills according to His timing.

As important as Capernaum once may have been, it lay in ruins for hundreds of years and efforts at its excavation are still ongoing. There’s no archeological record of Matthew’s tax booth or his home. But out of the dust arises a monument that time can never efface. Out of that wasted, ancient city rises the first of our Gospels, written by St. Matthew, once a tax collector, now an apostle and evangelist. The Church has been immeasurably blessed by Matthew and the Gospel that bears his name and we learn great things about Christ by looking at his own life and conversion. That Christ calls those sitting in sin to arise to new life, follow Him, and recline with Him at His table. Amen.

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