By izartirta
Matthew was one of Jewish tax collector in his time, who then became Jesus’ disciple. He filled his writing with lots of Messianic languages because he intended to write for Jews at the first place. The phrase like “Son of David” for example, is being used throughout his writing. And he also quoted many references from the Old Testament.
The story of his calling from Jesus was quite calmly described in the Bible. There was no wondrous event happening as it was happening with Apostle Paul. Yet, Matthew’s calling was awesome in a way of how he immediately responded to Jesus’ call.
The Bible describes that moment like this:
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. (Mat 9:9)
“Just like that?” we may ask, wondering how simple it was. But as a matter of fact yes, just as simple as that. What then can we learn about from this? I think one of many lessons that we may learn from this event is about the grace of God. Just like every human being ever lived in this planet, we are all saved by the grace of God. If God determined someone to be saved, nothing can avoid that, not even himself.
More than any other disciple, Matthew had a clear idea of how much it would cost to follow Jesus, he would loose his job as the tax collector which off course could generate much money for his life. Yet Matthew did not hesitate a moment. And once he decided to follow Jesus and leave his job behind, Matthew knew that there will be no turning back. There always be fish in the lake for any Jesus’ disciple to catch, but there will be no job for tax collector who once left without permission while he was on duty.
If we were in Matthew’s position, what would we do? Will we brave enough to respond Jesus’ calling and leave everything behind? Will we trust Jesus enough to keep our life in His hand?
Jesus Christ is Lord, He has the power to save us, He has the power to keep us alive.
Come to Him just like Matthew did. Give yourself to Him just like million of people in this planet have done. If you can have an eternal life as something in return, why not you do it right now? What more can we expect from this life than everything Jesus offered to us? God bless you.
