Jesus Sees You: The Story of Matthew the Tax Collector
Have You Ever Felt Invisible?
I’m not much of a hunter, but I have been on a few hunting trips with friends. Even if you’re not a hunter, you know how this works. If you’ve ever stumbled into Bass Pro Shops, you know what you need. It’s every guy’s favorite color. It goes with everything. It’s perfect for date nights and hunting trips, ball games and movie nights. It instantly makes every man look better. We’re talking about our favorite color: Camouflage.
Put on camo pants, a camo shirt, and a camo hat and you instantly disappear in nature. Wear that same get up to your favorite restaurant, and you instantly stand out and make a fashion statement.
A few years ago I went on a duck hunting trip with some friends up in Arkansas. We had a duck blind on the water that was just perfect. We had a couple of guys who were world class duck callers. And, we were all wearing camouflage. Those poor ducks never saw us. We were completely invisible to them.
Sometimes we want to be invisible. We don’t want to be seen. And that can be for a lot of reasons.
But sometimes, we don’t want to be invisible, we just are. We may not even know why. But it seems like no one sees us. No one acknowledges our presence. Maybe we feel like no one sees what we’re doing, how hard we’re working, all the long hours we’re putting in, or the contribution we bring to the table.
The People We Choose Not to See
Then, if we’re honest… can we be honest for a moment? Sometimes there are people who are invisible to us.
In fact, there are invisible people all around us. And they aren’t wearing camouflage, they’re not trying to hide, they are just people that, for whatever reason, we choose not to see. We don’t make eye contact. We don’t look in their direction. We notice them in our peripheral vision and we intentionally avoid placing them in our line of sight. And that can be for a lot of reasons.
It could be that they’ve hurt us or offended us in some way. It could be that we think they want something from us. It could be that we’re just busy, or in a hurry, and we don’t feel like we have time to stop and talk. There are several reasons why we choose not to see the people we choose not to see. These people are all around us. They are at work, at school, at the grocery store.
Have you ever intentionally gone down a different aisle at the grocery store to avoid someone? Me neither. 🙂
Sometimes we see these people while we’re driving, on the streets, at the gas station.
Sometimes we feel invisible.
And, there are invisible people all around us.
The God Who Sees
But no one is invisible to God. He sees everyone, even the people no one else sees. Even people who don’t want to be seen. Even people who are ashamed of who they are and what they’ve done and so they put on the camouflage, hoping they can stay in hiding, that no one will see them.
Here’s the Good News: God sees you. God cares about you. And, God loves you. He loves you right where you are, as you are, yet He loves you too much to leave you where you are, as you are. He sees you and He’s going to invite you to come and follow Him.
You see this truth about God revealed all across the pages of Scripture, beginning with Adam and Eve who tried to hide in the Garden, yet God loved them too much to allow them to remain in hiding.
You see it in the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, where God is revealed as the God who Sees. When Hagar felt lost and alone, God reminded her that He was with her.
And you see this over and over in the ministry of Jesus. So many stories reveal this powerful truth, but let’s look at Matthew 9.
Listen to what happens when Jesus takes notice of someone no one notices, no one else wants to see, a man who was more or less invisible to everyone but Jesus.
Matthew: The Man No One Wanted to See
Matthew 9:9-13, NIV
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.
There’s more to this story and we’re going to get to it in just a moment, but before we do, I don’t want us to gloss over this important detail. The first reader’s of Matthew’s Gospel would not have missed this note. Matthew says that Jesus “SAW a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.”
Two quick observations for you….
1. Matthew Is Writing His Own Testimony
Traditionally, people have believed that the Matthew in this story is the same Matthew that wrote this Gospel. So Matthew here is writing a story about himself. He’s recording a personal story, a testimony, about the first time he met Jesus. And the first thing Matthew says in his testimony story is that Jesus SAW him. The fact that Jesus saw him, took notice of him, wasn’t afraid to make eye contact with him, and talk to him forever changed the trajectory of Matthew’s life.
When he became a tax collector, he effectively put on camouflage. He effectively became invisible to everyone around him. He became the guy no one wanted to look at, talk to, or make eye contact with. If you saw Matthew at the grocery store, you intentionally went down a different aisle and you didn’t feel bad about it, not even a little. You avoided him on purpose.
Why?
2. Matthew Was a Tax Collector
Because Matthew was a tax collector. That meant that he was a collaborator with the Romans, the empire, the super power that was in control of and occupying the land that God had given to your ancestors. Tax collectors were considered the worst of sinners because they had turned their backs on their own people, collecting taxes from their own people for the Roman government. What’s worse, they were adding to the taxes they collected to make themselves rich.
You’ve probably heard all that before. I think what we fail to realize sometimes is just how severe the pressure of taxation was on the Roman provinces. In Galilee, under Julius Caesar, tax collectors would take as much as a quarter, 25%, of a year’s harvest as taxes to Rome. And then, tax collectors like Matthew would take a little bit more to line their own pockets. Is it any wonder they were hated so much? Is it any wonder these were the people that you avoided? They were despised. Hated. Considered the scum of the earth.
For most people, tax collectors were invisible. You didn’t look at them, talk to them, or make eye contact with them. And if you did, you treated them with contempt.
But not Jesus.
Jesus SEES Matthew, the tax collector, sitting at his tax collector’s booth. And when Matthew tells this story, his story, about the first time he met Jesus, the first thing Matthew says is that He SAW me.
If you’ve ever felt like God wouldn’t want you to come to Him because of your past, because of what you’ve done, or maybe because of things you haven’t done, or maybe because of something that was done to you, consider Matthew’s story. Jesus sees you where you are, as you are, He knows everything there is to know about you and He still loves you. Scripture says while we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).
9 As Jesus went on from there, he SAW a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.
Jesus SEES Matthew. And then, Jesus SPEAKS to Matthew. And listen to what He says…
“Follow Me”
“Follow me,” he told him…
Jesus SEES the one person everyone else intentionally overlooks, and then He calls Him to come and follow Him, to come and be His disciple.
Who else would do that?
Who else would SEE the worst of sinners?
Who else would INVITE the worst of sinners to come be one His twelve closest friends and followers?
“Follow me,” he told him, and (do you know what Matthew did?) Matthew got up and followed him.
I’ve always wondered, what was it about Jesus, whenever He called someone to follow Him, they dropped everything to follow Him?
Matthew doesn’t give us any commentary here, there’s very little context, there’s no explanation, no play by play. Jesus SEES Him, SPEAKS two words to Him, “Follow me,” and Matthew responds. Matthew gets up and starts following Jesus immediately.
If you’ve been putting off following Jesus, consider Matthew’s example here. Don’t delay that decision. Don’t wait for whatever it is you’re waiting on. Hear Jesus calling you to follow Him and respond. Drop everything else and follow Him. Ask Matthew, it will be unequivocally the best decision you will ever make in your life.
Matthew follows Jesus, but Jesus isn’t done seeing people that often go unseen. He isn’t done loving the unlovable. He isn’t done caring about the ones everyone else couldn’t care less about.
Listen to what Matthew says happens next…
A Friend of Sinners
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus goes to a dinner party at Mathew’s place! Being a friend to one tax collector would have been enough to send most people over the edge, but now Jesus is befriending and associating with a house full of tax collectors and sinners? What is He doing? Doesn’t Jesus know there are certain people you’re not supposed to hang around? The Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, surely can’t believe it.
But listen to what Jesus says to their complaint…
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Healing for the Sin Sick Soul
Have you ever been sick? Ever known anyone whose been sick? Have you ever needed a doctor to help you heal?
That’s what doctors do. They heal people. They are physicians. They are healers.
Jesus, hearing the criticisms and complaints of the Pharisees, says something that I find really interesting. He says… “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
Right here, Jesus makes a connection that we see all throughout Scripture as well. He connects sin with sickness. The problem these tax collectors and sinners were facing was a sickness, a disease called sin.
One of the names we often ascribe to Jesus is “The Great Physician.”
The prophet Isaiah said that our “hearts are sick.” (Isaiah 1:5).
And he said that it is by His “wounds that we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The psalmist prayed for God’s healing saying… “heal me, for I have sinned against you.” (Psalm 41:4).
The prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” (Jeremiah 17:9).
In Exodus 15 God declares that He is the “Lord who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26).
There is a connection, and I think it’s a helpful connection, between sin and sickness. We need help and healing for our sin sick souls.
A Picture of Healing
Living in the Houston area, a lot of people travel here from all over to come to our hospitals. The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical complex in the world. They encounter about 10 million patients each year. We have major hospitals, research institutes, medical schools, and specialty centers, all in one place. We are home to the world’s largest children’s hospital, Texas Children’s, and world’s largest cancer hospital, MD Anderson. They say that one baby is delivered about every 20 minutes in the Texas Medical Center. More than 100,000+ people work here across healthcare, research, and support roles.
People come here to Houston for Cancer treatment, Pediatric care, Heart care, Complex surgeries, transplant, and trauma care, second opinions for difficult diagnoses, and access to cutting-edge clinical trials and research.
People who are sick often come here to our hospitals for healing. They don’t come to our hospitals because they are healthy. They come because they are sick. Often, because they are really sick. They need help. They need healing. That’s why they are here.
So, could you imagine a scenario where someone comes to one of our incredible hospitals here in Houston and the hospital turns them away simply because they were sick? Can you imagine the ambulance pulling up to the ER with someone who is in critical condition and the ER doctor telling the paramedics they are only admitting healthy people today? You know, people who have it all together.
Could you imagine someone walking into a hospital with a serious injury and being completely ignored, as if they were invisible? Completely unseen by those who have the power, the ability, to help and to heal?
No! That’s ridiculous. The whole reason a hospital exists in the first place is to care for the sick.
Historically speaking, you could make a strong case that the very idea of a hospital came from Christian roots. Because of Jesus’ teaching about loving the vulnerable, caring for the sick became a central Christian practice.
In the second and third centuries, when plagues swept across the land, Christians were known for taking in the sick and caring for those affected at great risk to themselves. When babies were left abandoned and exposed, Christians were known for taking them in, caring for them, and raising them.
The very idea of caring for the physically sick has always been connected to Christian practice.
Jesus even once said,
39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'” — Matthew 25:39-40, NLT
Jesus cared for the physically sick. When He came from Heaven to Earth, He came as a Healer. He healed the lame, the blind, the sick. Who else could do that?
And Jesus cared for the spiritually sick. When He came from Heaven to earth He came preaching repentance and calling people to live the way of the Kingdom of Heaven. He became a friend to sinners and He forgave sin over and over again. Who else could do that?
And when Jesus SAW Matthew, the one who was invisible to everyone else, unseen by everyone else, the despised tax collector, the notorious sinner, He called him to follow Him. Why? Because…
12 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
That last line, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” is a quotation from the prophet Hosea 6:6. Any time Jesus is quoting Scripture to religious leaders, you can be sure they know the rest of that passage. Listen to what Hosea said right before that in verse 1:
“Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces;
now he will heal us.
He has injured us;
now he will bandage our wounds.”
Hosea 6:1
Jesus has come, and He has come as a Healer. He’s come to heal our sin sick souls. And no matter your past, no matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve gone, the God of all creation knows your name, He sees you, He loves you, and HE wants to heal your sin sick soul.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
The Good News
Jesus sees you and calls you to come and follow Him.
Would you allow Him to heal your sin sick soul?
How?
1. Pray: Remember what the Psalmist said: “heal me, for I have sinned against you.” (Psalm 41:4).
2. Follow: Do what Matthew did, follow Jesus without delay. (Matthew 9:9).
Seeing People the Way Jesus Sees Them
Every person is a person of immeasurable worth. This is what we believe. Every person is created by God, in the image of God, for the glory of God. Because we believe that, let’s put what we believe into practice.
Let’s SEE people the way Jesus SEES people.
Let’s LOVE people the way Jesus LOVES people.
And let’s INVITE people the way Jesus INVITES people to come and follow Him.
Let’s throw parties like Matthew, create opportunities for people to gather so they can get to know Jesus, because it’s not healthy people who need a Healer, it’s the sick.
And if you’re one of those people who has felt invisible, unseen, let me just remind you, God sees, God cares, and God knows. It’s because God sees you, it’s because God cares about you, it’s because God loves you that He sent Jesus, His one and only Son, to die for you. So that you might receive healing forgiveness for your sin sick soul and experience eternal life.
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