Jesus seems to befriend the people that we write off the quickest. In Levi’s case (also known as Matthew), he was a tax collector. Believe it or not, tax collectors were even less popular then than the IRS is now. They were responsible not only to collect taxes, but also to collect an extra amount to keep for themselves as payment. The Jewish people saw the tax collectors as friends of Rome, and thus held a lot of animosity towards them.
I have to wonder what was going on in Matthew’s mind when this happens. There’s no question that he would have heard of Jesus. I wonder if he had dreamed of following Jesus, but yet had written that off as a possibility since he was a tax collector. All that we know is that when Jesus calls him to follow him, Matthew leaves everything to do so.
Obviously, the Pharisees were not happy about this. They looked down upon Jesus for this and apparently even ridiculed him about it. This doesn’t phase Jesus though, as he knows his mission. It is here that Jesus gives us the very memorable line: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Our temptation as religious people is to hang out with a lot of people who look and act like us. While it is important to have Christian friends, we must constantly strive to build friendships and reach out to the ‘tax collectors’ and ‘sinners’ in our world. So how’s your life look? Who are you reaching out to that makes you or those around you feel uncomfortable? It is there that God does some of his greatest work.
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