The Tax Collector Who Followed

“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” — Mark 2:17

As Jesus walked along by the lake, He passed a little booth where a man was sitting, collecting taxes. The man’s name was Matthew, and he was also called Levi.

Nobody liked tax collectors. They worked for the Romans, who ruled over the land, and they collected money from their own people to give to them. And many tax collectors cheated, taking more money than they should and keeping the extra for themselves. People thought of them as traitors and thieves.

Jesus stopped at Matthew’s booth. He looked at him and said, “Follow Me.”

And Matthew got up, left everything behind, and followed Jesus.

Matthew was so happy that he threw a big party at his house for Jesus. And he invited all his friends, which meant lots of other tax collectors and people who were known as “sinners”. Jesus came and sat down to eat with them all, along with His disciples.

Some Pharisees, the very strict religious teachers, saw this, and they were shocked. “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked Jesus’ disciples. They would never sit down to eat with people like that!

Jesus heard what they said.

“It is not healthy people who need a doctor,” Jesus said, “but sick people. Go and learn what this means: ‘I want you to show mercy, not just offer sacrifices.’ For I have not come to call people who think they are good, but sinners.”

A doctor doesn’t stay away from sick people. That’s where a doctor is needed most! And Jesus didn’t stay away from sinners. He came to find them and make them well.

The Pharisees thought they didn’t need Jesus, because they thought they were good enough already. But the people at Matthew’s party knew they weren’t good enough. And those were the people Jesus came for.

Matthew went on to be one of Jesus’ twelve closest disciples. And later he wrote the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, telling the story of Jesus. The tax collector everyone hated became one of the people who told the whole world about Jesus.

The promise kept: Jesus told the Pharisees to “go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13). Those were God’s words, spoken long ago through the prophet Hosea (Hosea 6:6). Jesus showed what God had always wanted: mercy.

Read it in your Bible: Mark 2:13–17; Matthew 9:9–13

Dear Jesus, thank you that you came for sinners, and that includes me. Help me to be kind to people that others leave out, just like you were. Amen.