Monday Devotion-September 22, 2025

Two Words

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.    Matthew 9:9

   *from May 2016      

         Just two little words was all it took.  Jesus approached the Tax Collector's booth, a place most people wanted to avoid as much as possible, looked Matthew in the eye and said,  "Follow Me."

            What was up with that?  Here is a guy with a steady job and all the money he needed and more and he just drops it all?  Hard to figure, unless you know Jesus.

            More than any other of the 12 disciples Matthew had a "clear idea of how much it would cost to follow Jesus yet when he was summoned, he did not hesitate to follow Jesus.  Even though this would guarantee unemployment and he didn't know what the future held he left that tax collector's booth behind and never looked back." (Life Application Bible).

            A couple of things to consider.  As a tax collector the people despised him.  Had no friends to speak of.  So, by leaving all this behind he was, in effect, getting a new life.  And by accepting this new way of life, he also was accepted unlike his previous situation.

            Secondly, he only carried one thing with him from his old job…His laptop computer.

Just kidding. :)  He took his pen with him.  By trade he had been a record keeper and now he would keep track of events of a different nature.  Matthew now kept track, not of tax dollars owed, but, of miraculous healings and speeches to multitudes of people and how the lives of all who followed this man, Jesus, were being dramatically changed.

            As the commentary so aptly puts it:  "Mattthew couldn't have known that God would use the very skills he had sharpened as a tax collector to record the greatest story ever lived."

            That's a good lesson for each of us.  Obviously, Matthew was a work in progress when it came to being a disciple.  He knew nothing about that.  He stepped out in faith.  He trusted Jesus.  There was something about this Man that caused him to accept the challenge.

            We are all a work in progress in one way or another.  When Jesus tells us to follow Him, and we do, we will be changed.  Not necessarily in a way that changes our life completely.  We will be changed in the way we view our lives, especially our lifestyle.

            It is no longer us alone.  It is a team effort.  And who better to be leader of your team than Jesus.  I view my life as a writer kinda like Matthew's situation.  He was able to use the talents that he was previously utilizing in a different way.  Now they were used to honor the work of Jesus and become a member of the most important team he could possibly have joined.

            After many years of broadcasting and writing about sports the Holy Spirit showed me how to do it differently.  I began to consider these opportunities as a gift. I also started noticing ways in which the games I reported on and the sports I enjoyed had lots of similarities to the principles Jesus had laid out for us to follow.  Then my writing and reporting became even more fun, and I feel like it took on an important new dimension.

            The Bible says that Jesus went to have dinner at Matthew's house and "many tax collector's and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples."  Wow a collection of sinners all in one place.  That would never happen at our house, right?  Ahem!...

            Of course, the Pharisees jumped on this big time. Don't you just feel like there are a bunch of Pharisees out there just waiting to criticize what you do even when it is done with the best of intentions.  Even when it is Jesus-approved, which is really the only approval that counts.

            "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" they asked. 

            Jesus heard them and answered: "Hey jerks who made you so perfect and sin-free?"

            OK I'm kidding again.  That is what he could have said.  It's probably what you and I would have popped off and responded with.  When someone is critical of us it is natural (well it is for me) to want to criticize them back.  "Ha, Ha we are even now.  So, what's your next complaint Mr-Ms-Perfect Person?

              Obviously, that is not what Jesus did. He responded with a question and an answer that left no room for debate.  Here is what he said :  "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means.  I desire mercy not sacrifice.  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."   Or as the Message puts it: "I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders."

            Yeah.  Take that Pharisees. They were more concerned with their own appearance of holiness than with helping people.  As LAB says:  "God's concern is for all people including the sinful and hurting ones.  The Christian life is not a popularity contest!  In other words, the Gospel message is for everyone.

            Then a little later followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus and said, "Hey why do we have to fast, and your followers don't?"  Oh, my goodness here we go with the in-fighting.

Are we in the church sometimes guilty of that?  Maybe we get a little too concerned about stuff inside the church we forget about our role outside of the church.

            So, they were complaining about the hard things John was asking them to do when they follow him and what he was teaching.  Hey people think about this: If you are following John the Baptist, guess who he is following?  If he thinks you can get closer to Jesus through rigid disciplines he has his reasons.  He wants you to block out a lot of the temptations and concentrate on the main thing.

            Jesus didn't criticize John or his methods.  Nor was he critical of fasting. He just felt that there was a time to fast and a time not to fast.  Jesus actually fasted at times, but He emphasized that fasting should be done for the right reasons.

            So here is what we take from Matthew.  We can learn from his new attitude and life when he followed Jesus.  It doesn't mean that we have to neglect or throw away the things we are good at doing.  It doesn't mean we have to go around with long faces, mourning and fasting to show how holy we have become.  It just means that when Jesus said to us:  "Follow Me."  He would lead the way, and it would be a better way than any way we could go alone.

Prayer:  Lord thank you for the story of Matthew and the record he left behind to instruct us about the value of following you.  Amen!