Matthew, the Apostle - A testimony of gratefulness

Matthew the Apostle (A.D.60)

Matthew, also called Levi, was a former tax collector and later an apostle.  The Jewish folks during Matthew’s time considered the tax collectors at par with sinners and viewed them as traitors as they collected tax on behalf of the Romans.  Like the other tax collectors, Matthew also may have collected taxes using illegal means because the Lord told the judgmental Jewish folks that He came to call the sinners.  The love that Matthew received from the Lord must have come as a surprise to him considering the routine animosity he faced in his hometown, Capernaum.  Later, we read that Matthew was moved by gratefulness that he arranged a feast at his home inviting Christ, his friends, and the other tax collectors.  Though he was running a highly profitable enterprise, he followed Christ immediately leaving it all behind when he received a call from the Lord.  Further, it is clearly understood by Matthew's writing style that he was a person with great humility. 

Matthew, the apostle was a man with fewer words to speak, yet he wrote the gospel with such perfection covering a wide range of events happened during the time of our Lord Jesus Christ extensively with over 130 Old Testament quotes.  The way this gospel is structured alone will tell how Apostle Matthew was a spiritually strong and mature person in the Lord.  He wrote his gospel in Hebrew, which was afterward, translated into Greek by James the Less, which was cited by the early Christian Historian Eusebius. The scenes of Matthew’s labors were Parthia and Ethiopia.  Later, he suffered martyrdom in Nabadah, Ethiopia, being slain with a halberd in A.D. 60.

Matthew the tax collector became an evangelist who laid down his life for the Lord because he was touched by the real love right when he was sitting in his tax collecting office.  He had done nothing to deserve such a love.  The Lord Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him and then later visited his home and dined with him.  What I learn from the testimony of a person like Matthew is to be grateful for God's love.  In a way we all are tax collectors of this world, doing sinful things, taking more than what we deserve and giving less in return, still holding our offices of sin.  This is when we were loved by the Lord and to the judging people of the world, He proclaimed that He came to save sinners like us.  Such a reach of love by our loving God should create an overwhelming surge of gratefulness above everything in all our walks of life.  Amen