Matthew in the Bible

Matthew, also called Levi, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and the human author of the first Gospel of the New Testament. Before his calling he was a tax collector, a profession despised by his fellow Jews because tax collectors served the Roman occupiers and were often guilty of extortion. The Gospels record his call with striking simplicity: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he rose and followed him" (Matthew 9:9). The parallel accounts in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27-28 name him Levi and add that "leaving everything, he rose and followed him." Matthew's immediate response reveals the transforming power of Christ's call. He left a lucrative but corrupt livelihood at once, and shortly afterward he hosted a great feast in his home for Jesus, gathering many tax collectors and sinners so they might meet his new Master. His old life of collecting Rome's taxes became the soil from which a Gospel writer grew, and his trained skill with records and detail may well have served the careful structure of the book that bears his name. Matthew is listed among the twelve apostles in Matthew 10:3, Luke 6:15, and Acts 1:13, where he is counted among those who waited in the upper room before Pentecost. His Gospel is distinctly Jewish in tone, written to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of David and Son of Abraham, who fulfills the Law and the Prophets. He records the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commission, and more of Jesus' teaching than any other evangelist. The lasting significance of Matthew is the picture of grace it offers. Christ deliberately called a despised tax collector to be an apostle, proving that no one is beyond the reach of his mercy. Matthew's life testifies that when Jesus says "Follow me," he can turn a sinner into a saint and a outcast into a herald of the kingdom of heaven.