A Disciple

A Disciple

All week I have been thinking about the different disciples, and which one I was going to choose. I was reading my Bible and I realized that Matthew was the last person that I thought about. It was so interesting to me at that moment. Matthew reminded me of myself in the way that his life totally changed when he started following Jesus (9:9-13).

As I sent more time trying to find out more about him, I asked myself the question, “How can a person with a bad reputation really change?” Basically being a tax collector for the Romans like Matthew was made him earn a bad reputation. Jesus knew without a doubt Matthew’s reputation; yet called him anyway.

Matthew’s life did a 360˚ shift. His life totally changed when he started to follow Jesus. First he not only belonged to a new group (Jesus’ disciples); he found a new home in God. As soon as I gave my life to Jesus everything in my life began to change, but the first was my friends, the people I associated with. This was the beginning of Matthew as well. That blows me away. I can only imagine how awesome it must have been from being a hated tax collector to one of Jesus’ disciples. Second, Jesus gave Matthew a new purpose for his skills. When he followed Jesus the only tool that he carried with him from his past was something to write with. From the very beginning God had made him a record keeper. This really stuck out to me because in every skill that we have God uses it, but in his own time. Jesus’ call eventually allowed him to put his skills to their greatest work, recording the steps of Jesus. It’s so awesome for me to think about how observant you must have been. Matthew probably had to mentally take note of some things, and then goes back and writes them down. As a result there is a Gospel that bears his name.

Matthew’s life reminds me that I am a work in progress, always growing. God trusted me with skills before I even knew what to do with them, but he called me to him anyway. He made me capable of being his servant, and everything else is just falling into place. There is no way that Matthew could have known beforehand that God would use the very skills he had sharpened as a tax collector to record the greatest story ever lived. It’s humbling that God has no less meaningful purpose for each of us.