There are two places where I don’t like to go: the doctor’s office and the dentist’s office. I put those appointments off as long as possible. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to hear bad news. None of us does.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus referred to himself as a physician. He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:7 NLT).
In this passage, we see the doctor making a house call. Jesus went to see a man named Matthew (Levi), and the Bible tells us that he was a tax collector.
It’s hard for us to understand what a first-century tax collector was like. Of course, we don’t like paying taxes today. But in the first century, it was far worse. Not only did the Roman government tax the people, but the tax collectors could add their own taxes as well.
It would be like IRS agents collecting taxes and then adding extra for themselves. That is what the tax collectors of the first century did. They were considered traitors because they worked for the enemy. Tax collectors barely ranked above plankton in first-century Israel.
Matthew had aligned himself with the enemies of his own people. He went out of his way to offend his fellow Jews and even God.
There are people like Matthew today. Sometimes they get mad at God. Maybe an unexpected tragedy happens, and they say, “It’s God’s fault. I’m going to take it out on God.” Or maybe they went to a church where a minister misrepresented God. Or perhaps someone they knew was a lousy witness for Jesus Christ. As a result, they’ve decided they don’t want anything to do with Christianity.
But let’s notice what Jesus said to Matthew. He didn’t say, “Follow my people.” Rather, he said, “Follow me.”
That is what it means to be a Christian. It’s to follow Jesus.
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Yet I need to clue you in. God’s people are going to mess up. They’re going to disappoint sometimes, and they’re going to fail. They’re not perfect. In fact, I’ve often said that Christians ought to have an “under construction” sign hanging around their necks. We fall short and aren’t always the examples that we should be.
And here’s something else to consider: Sometimes there are people running around today who say they’re Christians when they aren’t Christians at all. The Bible says there are false apostles, false teachers and false prophets – people who pretend to be one thing when they’re another.
I don’t know what it was that turned Matthew away, but something did. And he determined that he would collect money for the occupying force and live the way that he wanted to live.
Still, Jesus was different from all the other religious leaders. He didn’t dress in ornate robes or speak in phraseology that Matthew couldn’t understand. Instead, he was loving and compassionate, and he worked miracles.
Clearly Matthew knew the Scriptures, because when he wrote his gospel, he made more than 99 references to Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. I think Matthew probably observed Jesus day after day, week after week, and his heart was moved. And I think that deep down inside, Matthew wished that he could be a follower of Jesus.
But no one wanted to hang around with Matthew. He was a lonely, isolated man. Then one day, everything changed. Jesus walked by and saw Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. I think most people didn’t even look at Matthew when they passed by him. But Jesus made eye contact.
In the original language, the writer used a word for “saw” that means “to gaze intently upon,” “to stare,” or “to fix one’s eyes constantly upon an object.”
Have you ever had people stare at you as though they were looking right through you? That’s what Jesus did. Yet these were the eyes of God looking at Matthew. Jesus knew everything about him. He could see through everything that Matthew was.
I think Matthew saw love in Jesus’ eyes. I think he saw compassion. And that’s what drew him in.
Jesus said to him, “Follow me and be my disciple” (Mark 2:14 NLT).
It reminds me of a conversation between a rich, young ruler and Jesus that we find later in Mark’s gospel. This man was wealthy, influential and powerful, but there was something lacking in his life. So, he approached Jesus, knelt before him, and said, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (10:17 NLT)
In a nutshell, Jesus told him to keep the commandments. But the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young” (verse 20 NLT).
So, Jesus said, “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The Bible says that he went away sorrowful because he was very rich (see verse 22).
This man’s sin wasn’t that he was wealthy. There’s no sin in having possessions. Rather, the problem was that, in his case, he was possessed by his possessions. His things were his gods, indicated by his response when Jesus told him to let them go.
To someone else Jesus might have said, “You’re in a relationship that’s dragging you down. If you want to follow me, you need to cut that relationship off.”
The point is that God wants to be No. 1 in our lives.
The young ruler didn’t pass the test, but Matthew did. He stood up that day and walked away from his tax collector’s booth. He walked away from his position of influence and everything he had been. He lost a career but gained a destiny. Matthew knew it was a privilege to be called by God.
When I was a confused, 17-year-old kid, Jesus spoke to my heart and said, “Follow me.” So, I followed him. I have never regretted making that decision, not even for a moment. And if you follow him, you won’t regret it either.
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