CXXXIX. ST. MATTHEW CALLED. St. Matthew ix. 9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. Our Lord had just come from healing a poor man sick of the palsy in the town of Capernaum, and "as he passed from thence" He walked by the Sea of Galilee. "There sat Matthew the publican, busy in his counting-house;"1 so busy, it might be, as never to see the Saviour, who seemed in His humiliation as any other man. For we read, not that Matthew saw Jesus, but Jesus, as He passed by," "saw a man named Matthew." He saw him, and it might be He saw in him that energy in the service of Mammon shortly to be exchanged for the service of God. Happy those who, with St. Matthew, become as faithful servants of God as hitherto, it may be, they have been of Mammon! How diligent is many a man in the business of his choice (perhaps a doubtful one), how earnest in the pursuit of pleasure, how quick to all that concerns himself and his worldly interests! If only the same diligence were shown in seeking the true riches, the same earnestness in the pursuit of those pleasures which are for evermore, the same promptness in the concerns of the soul and its immortal interests, then might we hope to see many publicans and sinners numbered among the Apostles and Evangelists of the Lord. CXL. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew ix. 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Here then we have an actual instance of a man who absolutely quitted the service of Mammon, and gave himself up to the service of God.' It was Levi 2 the publican, known henceforward in the Church of Christ as St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist; who from a publican became a chief pastor in the Church of God, became a witness for Christ instead of remaining a mere worshipper of Mammon.3 He was a publican, by which was meant not what we now understand by that term. It simply meant a receiver of the revenue, a collector of tolls and taxes. And His "receipt of custom," at which he is described as sitting when the Lord called him, was simply the toll-booth, the custom-house as it would now be called, at which he collected the dues from those who sailed upon the Sea of Galilee. He was therefore not an unlettered man, as those other disciples of the Lord and fishermen, though his calling would even be more contemptible than theirs. Few men like to pay such levies, and fewer still when they are paid to a foreign power. For the Jews were at that time under Roman rule. Their country had been conquered and made a province of Rome, which they resented with a deep and bitter resentment. When therefore any countrymen of their own, like Levi, became, as they considered it, so unpatriotic as to accept 1 St. Matt. vi. 24. 2 So St. Mark and St. Luke both call him here. In their lists of the Apostles they each give him his other name of Matthew. St. Mark here adds that he was the son of Alphæus, though not that Alphæus who was the father of St. James the less. St. Matthew himself, in his list of the Apostles, calls himself "the publican." 3 "Grace disengages Matthew from the love of money, to make him an Apostle. The love of money will separate Judas from Christ, to make him an apostate.”—Quesnel. office under a foreign government, and collect tribute for it from the men of his own 'nation, we may imagine the hatred and contempt with which he would be regarded. Now this was the office of a publican, and this is what St. Matthew was before the Lord called him and said unto him, "Follow And in addition to the horror and the hatred which attached to the office itself, what made it still more odious was the fact that the publicans as a rule were really given to extortion. For the Roman government was in the habit of farming its taxes; that is, they let out the revenue to certain collectors, and, provided they paid in the sum agreed upon, they might have as much more as they could make for themselves. All this shows what a gainful trade it was, what large fortunes might be made in such an enterprisethough to be sure not always by the most honest meansand how much therefore St. Matthew had to give up when at the call of Christ, as another of the Evangelists informs us (for St. Matthew seems too modest to record it of himself)"he left all, rose up, and followed Him." How simply he tells the story fraught with such consequences to himself and to all who have his Gospel in their hands! CXLI. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew ix. 11-13. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. In the feast that followed, "a great feast" (so a brother 1 St. Luke v. 28. Evangelist tells us) and which we find also (here again we may see St. Matthew's modesty) was "in his own house "_ he is not forgetful of his former fellows. There seems something noble in this. But when it came to the ears of the Scribes and Pharisees 2 that our Lord had associated Himself with those who went by the common name of "publicans and sinners," they found fault, and expostulated with the Disciples.3 The Lord, to whom the Disciples seem to have referred what it may be was even to them a difficulty, comes to the rescue; as afterwards He shielded the holy woman at whose devotion of the ointment some had cavilled.* He reminds them of what seems to have been a proverb of their own. He came, as His late miracle might have suggested to them, as a Physician. If these were what they were represented to be, this would be but a justification of His conduct. Who blames the Physician for frequenting the Hospital? And He bids these, who were confident that they themselves were guides of the blind, to go and learn the meaning of that very law of which they were professors. What He does is according to the word and will of God. So had He revealed His will by His Prophet. Where sacrifice seems to come into competition with mercy, the one is to be preferred to the other. God had enjoined both; each in its proper place was good; but mercy rather than sacrifice. Mercy shown to penitent publicans would be more acceptable with Him than the sacrifice of Pharisees in their pride. Had they known the true meaning of that passage in the Prophet, they would not have condemned the guiltless. And He adds, in words which mark a Divine mission, that this is the very purpose of His coming, to call, not so much those who had already proved their repentance, as those who needed it; rather those who are still sick than those that have already been made whole. The Pharisees included themselves in this latter class. They "trusted in themselves that they were 1 St. Luke v. 29. 2 The remonstrance does not seem to have been made at the feast itself. 3 Bengel notes that when they found fault with the Master, they attacked the Disciples; when they would reprove the Disciples, they re- righteous." They need not therefore complain at His devoting Himself to "publicans and sinners." It was as Physician, not companion, that He frequented their society; not to share in their moral sickness, but to rescue them out of it. He dare put forth His hand and touch the leper. CXLII. HE DEFENDETH HIS DISCIPLES FOR NOT FASTING. St. Luke v. 33-35. And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. It would seem as though this objection originated with the Pharisees, shortly after the feast given by Matthew the publican, when they had expostulated with the Disciples because of the presence at it of their Master. They probably persuaded the disciples of the austere Baptist to accompany them in this formal deputation and remonstrance. It is possible that the former may have been sincerely desirous to be satisfied upon a point on which the practice of those of their body who had become Disciples of Jesus 3 differed from that of those who still adhered more closely to John. Their subsequent conduct warrants us in putting the best construction on their conduct here. But the uniform conduct of the Pharisees prevents our taking the same view in their case. They are in any case the spokesmen, and they draw an invidious contrast between the disciples of John and of 1 St. Matt. ix. 11. 2 St. Matt ix. 14. 3 St. John i. 35-40. St. Matt. xi. 2, 3; xiv. 12. |