Daily Devotional For Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Good morning Southside! The Bible says, “This is the day the Lord has made. We can rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24). So, take some time today to rejoice in the Lord. We are making our way slowly through Matthew’s Gospel and today we come to the story about Jesus encountering some first century IRS agents and the reaction He got. Look at Matthew 9:9-13:
“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. (10) Later, Matthew invited Jesus and His disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (11) But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with such scum?’ (12) When Jesus heard this, He said, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.’ (13) Then He added, ‘Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’” (NLT).
This Matthew is the same Matthew that was a disciple of Jesus. We know that he was also called Levi, the son of Alphaeus” (Mark 2:14). Matthew is his Roman name and Levi is his Jewish name. Knowing how Jews hated Rome and anyone employed by Rome or Roman soldiers, I wonder if the other disciples ignored Matthew or kept their distance from him. Of all the disciples Jesus called, Matthew would have been the most hated of all. Matthew 9:9 tells us that when Jesus called Matthew, he was sitting at his Roman tax collector’s booth. He was not sitting like some kind of Optima Tax Relief person to help people figure out how to pay their taxes. He was there to collect them.
We know from other writings of that day that any Jew who worked for Rome was considered to be a traitor to their own people and nation. It was this “traitor” that Jesus called to be one of His disciples. Even though he was a Jew, he would have been banned from attending the local synagogue, no Jew would befriend him due to being guilty by association, shunned by everyone and considered to be a murderer and a thief. These are not credentials that help you make friends and have a family. The point that Matthew makes here is that no one, no one, EXCEPT Jesus wanted anything to with him.
Now I like to put myself in the story. Imagine for a moment you are one of Jesus’ disciples and you see Jesus making His way to this tax collector’s booth. Maybe you whisper to the other disciples, “Do you know what Jesus is doing?” And since tax collectors were considered “unclean,” maybe you kept your distance from Matthew’s booth. You hear Jesus speak to Matthew and probably, it is not what you hoped and expected. Instead of getting a tongue lashing for being a traitor, you hear Jesus invite Matthew to be one of His disciples. You probably shake your head several times wondering if that is what you heard. You’re shocked by this, but guess what? – so is Matthew.
In Jesus’ day there were two types of tax collectors . First, there were the chief tax collectors like Zacchaeus Luke 19:2 and then Matthew, your regular tax collector who collected taxes for Rome from the people. Tax collectors were known to be dishonest and extortionists. They would overcharge and keep the difference. This is why Zacchaeus makes the promise he did in Luke 19:8). Though this was against Roman law to charge more, Rome turned a blind eye as long as the taxes were paid in full. Rome taxed the people in two ways: First, Rome taxed in the way our government does today with sales taxes. There were fixed rates for commodities and this gave the tax collector very little wriggle room to extort. Second, Rome taxed on customs, imports and exports. There was a lot of room to extort with these kinds of taxes. This tax was subjective to the tax collector.
New Testament scholar Michael Green writes this: “There was limitless opportunity for the bribery and extortion that made the publican so hated. Matthew had his tax office at Capernaum, on the main road from Damascus to Egypt, which passed through Samaria and Galilee. He was working under the direct employ of Herod Antipas, who, in turn, had to make massive block tax disbursements to Rome. It was a very lucrative place in which to work” (Source: Michael Green, The Message, p. 25).
To everyone’s shock, Matthew dropped everything and immediately began to follow Jesus. For Matthew to join this brigade, in the eyes of everyone else it would have tainted Jesus’ ministry. For Jesus to associate with such “slimeballs” would have made the “Capernaum Daily Gazette" the next day. You would have heard whispers all over town. Everyone would have been talking about this – not in just back alleys, but right out in public. Matthew throws a party and invites other tax collectors. Jesus loved being at a party of hated tax collectors to show them how much He loved them and to show His disciples that the Gospel is for everyone – even a hated tax collector and traitor.
Caperaum was a port city. So, Matthew had his booth probably on the most traveled road to collect taxes. Matthew was making a killing in this job and he knew it. Matthew was taxing commercial goods being transported from the sea to the land. Mark’s Gospel tells us Matthew’s tax booth, an elevated bench, was right on the seashore (Mark 2:13-14). He had a direct line of sight to make sure everyone paid their taxes. Tomorrow we will look at how others were not happy with what Jesus did.
Assignment: Who is it when you see them or come near them, you want to avoid them and be as far from them as you can? If Matthew was not the most likely person to be asked to be Jesus’ disciples, who in your mind fits that bill today and why? Who is it you think may never come to Christ but if they did, you would throw a party?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 22:9-10, “So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ (10) So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, help me to see and invite the hated into my life. I am a sinner and if it was not for your grace, I would be on my way to hell. Who is it that I fear may never come to Christ. God, help me to pray that You will use me to help them come to saving faith in Christ so that heaven throws a party as in Luke 15:7. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly