Encounters with Jesus #2a
If that first encounter with Jesus wasn’t enough for you, something even more incredible is about to happen:
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” (Matt 9:9-12 NLT)
Has this shaken you up a little?
It should do – I have been struggling to take it in, but it is essential.
What was Matthew doing?! He had either not heard that Jesus had arrived in town or, for the time being, had thought earning a living was more important meeting this ‘saviour’ who was a carpenter’s son (or perhaps he had seen the sudden influx of people into town as opportunity to make some money – tax collectors were not honourable civil servants they are today). Whatever the reason when Jesus turned up he found Matthew working.
Salvation is never something cute or ‘heart warming’ (although it is always worth singing about), it is a point of conflict; death attacked by life, grace slaughtering sin, our way or God’s way – “Follow me and be my disciple.”
That morning Matthew wasn’t sick requiring the Healer’s touch, he wasn’t poor needing provisions from the Miracle worker. He was OK just like us, and yet [just like us] he was in more need than anyone else that day because he was not pursuing Jesus. Jesus could see how much trouble Matthew [like us] was in, he had no-one to take him to Jesus, and so Christ pursued him. And now, in this town full of repentance and faith, in the middle of a busy working day Matthew found Jesus stood before him; his ears rang with Jesus’ words as his eyes stared straight into those of Christ. Matthew’s life was about to come together.
We live as though we own life, but we don’t; God gives us breathe, and He takes it away. We have a saying that expresses the idea that we live on ‘borrowed time’ and this is true, from the moment we cry our first breathe as a child our time is not our own – it does not belong to us. When Jesus calls each of us to follow him it is not an imposition, even though it may remove our income or position of honour. Often we make ourselves believe that we live by faith trusting in God as our Provider even though we will not do anything to jeopardise our earning potential even though. But to deny Christ is to deny Christ.
Matthew was no pushover. He was a tax collector, he had the influence and sense of threat that perhaps the Mafia have in our day (think Don Corleone from ‘The Godfather’). He was used to making people crack with just a look; they would sell their children to meet his [threatening] demands. But here, in this [salvation] conflict with Jesus, eye to eye, all he could see was truth and life. He cracked, he sold himself to Christ – at last, for the first time in his life, he was free to live!
Not every response we make to Christ’s call requires us to abandon our jobs or families, sometimes Jesus instructed people to return home and bear witness in their daily lives. Others he told to start an honest life, to raise a family, to live honourably, but they all realised that they had to live for Christ – he created them and he gave them life [to live freely for him]: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Col 3:23-24 NIV)
How do we respond?
I know that I am still locked in that look with Christ, but a response is required.
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” (Matt 9:9-12 NLT)
Has this shaken you up a little?
It should do – I have been struggling to take it in, but it is essential.
What was Matthew doing?! He had either not heard that Jesus had arrived in town or, for the time being, had thought earning a living was more important meeting this ‘saviour’ who was a carpenter’s son (or perhaps he had seen the sudden influx of people into town as opportunity to make some money – tax collectors were not honourable civil servants they are today). Whatever the reason when Jesus turned up he found Matthew working.Salvation is never something cute or ‘heart warming’ (although it is always worth singing about), it is a point of conflict; death attacked by life, grace slaughtering sin, our way or God’s way – “Follow me and be my disciple.”
That morning Matthew wasn’t sick requiring the Healer’s touch, he wasn’t poor needing provisions from the Miracle worker. He was OK just like us, and yet [just like us] he was in more need than anyone else that day because he was not pursuing Jesus. Jesus could see how much trouble Matthew [like us] was in, he had no-one to take him to Jesus, and so Christ pursued him. And now, in this town full of repentance and faith, in the middle of a busy working day Matthew found Jesus stood before him; his ears rang with Jesus’ words as his eyes stared straight into those of Christ. Matthew’s life was about to come together.
We live as though we own life, but we don’t; God gives us breathe, and He takes it away. We have a saying that expresses the idea that we live on ‘borrowed time’ and this is true, from the moment we cry our first breathe as a child our time is not our own – it does not belong to us. When Jesus calls each of us to follow him it is not an imposition, even though it may remove our income or position of honour. Often we make ourselves believe that we live by faith trusting in God as our Provider even though we will not do anything to jeopardise our earning potential even though. But to deny Christ is to deny Christ.
Matthew was no pushover. He was a tax collector, he had the influence and sense of threat that perhaps the Mafia have in our day (think Don Corleone from ‘The Godfather’). He was used to making people crack with just a look; they would sell their children to meet his [threatening] demands. But here, in this [salvation] conflict with Jesus, eye to eye, all he could see was truth and life. He cracked, he sold himself to Christ – at last, for the first time in his life, he was free to live!
Not every response we make to Christ’s call requires us to abandon our jobs or families, sometimes Jesus instructed people to return home and bear witness in their daily lives. Others he told to start an honest life, to raise a family, to live honourably, but they all realised that they had to live for Christ – he created them and he gave them life [to live freely for him]: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Col 3:23-24 NIV)
How do we respond?
I know that I am still locked in that look with Christ, but a response is required.
-Andrew Carey
posted by Andrew at 8:01 am
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