A Taxing Decision

Scripture: Matthew 9:9–13, especially verse 9: As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

Introduction: When you think of the four Gospels, try thinking in terms of Monday night football. When they replay the touchdown, they do it from one camera angle, then from another, then from another, and then from another. The four Gospels look at the life and times of Jesus from four different angles. It’s the story of the Lord Jesus, but told from four different points of view with four different audiences in mind. That’s why we get slightly differing angles on the same events. The first of these four Gospels was written by Matthew, who was also known as Levi which indicated he had a rich and godly heritage. But he had sadly strayed far from his roots. He was a tax collector, which doesn’t mean he was an upstanding employee of the Internal Revenue Service. Israel was an occupied country, and the Israelites were required to pay taxes to Rome. To collect these taxes, the occupying Romans recruited turncoat Israelis as collaborators. They were told, “You can collect any amount of money you wish, just make sure we get our official share. Anything collected over that, you can keep for yourself.” So the tax collectors were not only collaborators, but extortionists. They were utterly despised. One day Matthew was sitting in his tax booth on the main road through Capernaum. Imagine his surprise when along the busy thoroughfare came Jesus. Without apology or introduction, Jesus walked up and said with compelling urgency and irresistible authority, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and left his booth and his business, and followed Christ. Now, there’s little likelihood that when you’re sitting at your office desk tomorrow morning Jesus will walk in, tap you on the shoulder, and say, “Quit your job and follow me.” Yet He still invites us to be His disciples. His final instruction to the church was to make disciples. The call to discipleship stands to this day. What does that mean?

1. He Wants Us to Love Him. He wants to draw us into a loving relationship. We love Him because He first loved us. How do I know Christ loved me? I look at the Cross.

2. He Wants Us to Trust Him. In His love, He made certain promises and on the basis of His promises it is possible for us to come to a point of trusting Him. Christ promised that if I commit my future to him, He will guard it, protect it, and guarantee it. This removes an enormous amount of stress and strain about the future.

3. He Wants Us to Obey Him. He has also given certain commands and instructions. There are things we must be aware of, and we must get around to doing them.

4. He Wants Us to Abandon Our Former Lives. Matthew left all and followed Christ. This is a sticking point for many who are rather attracted to the Lord Jesus. They are attracted to the idea of having their sins forgiven and to the idea of going to heaven. What they don’t find attractive is giving up and walking away from certain things. But have you ever noticed that some oak trees hang on to their old, dried-up leaves no matter how much snow and rain fall? But when springtime comes, without fuss or bother these leaves drop off. Why? Because new life has begun to flow, and as the new life begins to flow in the branches and tendrils, the old things drop off. Don’t concentrate on what you have to walk away from, concentrate on the new life, and the old things begin to drop away. That’s what happened to Matthew.

5. He Wants Us to Share Him. Almost immediately Matthew threw a big bash and invited his friends. Now his friends were from impolite society; the banquet was to introduce them to Jesus. Then at the end of Matthew 9, we read that Jesus saw a large crowd milling around, and He sensed a lostness about them, like sheep without a shepherd. Turning to His disciples, He said, “The harvest is very plentiful, but the laborers are few.” He was impressing on His disciples the enormity of human need and the fact that the Lord of the Harvest wants to send people out to meet this need in His name. In Matthew 10, Matthew explains this in further detail, and he devoted the rest of his life to sharing Christ. He even became the writer of the first Gospel.

When Jill Briscoe was converted at Cambridge University, she went home to Liverpool and wrote letters, inviting all her friends to come over to her home for a special celebration. The invitations said that she had some very exciting news to share with them. Well all her girlfriends assumed that she had gotten engaged. They arrived for this special evening, bringing little presents. “What’s he like, tell us.” She said, “Just wait till you’re all here,” and then she sat them all down and told them exactly what Jesus is like. She introduced her friends to Jesus. That is just what Matthew did. Now, actually, some of her friends didn’t take very kindly to this. They thought she had gone off the deep end. But two of them came to her and said, “Jill, you were our friend before this and we’ve no idea what has happened to you. But you’re still our friend.” Years later both of them became committed disciples of Jesus, too.

Conclusion: Christ is the Lord of the Harvest, and that means He must have charge of our lives. Some years ago, there was a man who used to drive with his little boy sitting on his lap. One day while driving along, the little boy grabbed the wheel. When the little fellow turned the wheel, he turned it the way the father didn’t want it to go, and a wrestling match for the wheel began. They took a zigzag course down the road. I want to suggest that the person who grabs the wheel that the Lord of the Harvest is supposed to be holding will find his life taking a zigzag course and maybe ending in a wreck. But when the Lord of the Harvest is in the driver’s seat, He takes very ordinary people like you and me—and Matthew—and uses us to do extraordinary things.

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[1]Morgan, Robert J. Nelson's Annual Preacher's Sourcebook: 2003 Edition. electronic ed., Page 78. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002.