The Invitation

      Matthew is the apostle of Jesus who is credited with writing the first book of the New Testament. He is also identified as a tax collector. In this role, he is despised by other Jews because he is assumed to have betrayed the people of Israel by partnering with the Romans to not only collect taxes from other Israelites, but to also miscalculate the taxes in ways that allow him to become personally wealthy. When Jesus accepts the invitation from Matthew to have dinner at his home, the Jewish religious leaders try to discredit Jesus by asking ‘why does your leader eat with publicans and sinners?’  Jesus responds by explaining that he ‘has come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ (Matt. 9:13).

      The Gospel of Matthew was written especially for the “lost children of Israel” (Matt 10:6). It was intended to highlight the ways that the people had strayed from the teachings of God and to invite them to use their talents in ways that would build the Kingdom of God rather than the personal spheres of influence of the local Jewish leaders or the leaders of Rome.

      Matthew (who was also known as Levi) was a particularly interesting selection to be a disciple because he was so widely despised. Tax collectors were known as publicans which is a derivation of the phrase “public sinner.” Jews did not want to be seen socializing with publicans. However, Jesus defies the traditions of the Jewish culture and ultimately helps establish connections among those who had become enemies.

       Matthew was distinguished from the other disciples because while they were fishermen, he was an educated individual who had secured a desirable “desk job.” However, once Matthew was invited by Jesus to become His disciple, he focused his efforts upon restoring those that he had exploited and he invited his friends to also become followers of Jesus.  

        Our days are filled with opportunities to extend invitations to the people around us.  Some people are eager to accept your invitation for various reasons from they’ve often felt excluded to they are simply interested in learning more about you. The invitations that we extend to people to join us in worship are intended to connect people to God and to help build the kingdom of God. Like Matthew, there are those who may be skeptical because of the jobs that we’ve selected or other assumptions that they have made, but Jesus wants us to invite others so they can become better acquainted with Him.  

  We’ll look forward to seeing you in church Sunday morning.  

In Christ, 
Jon McCoy