Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus’ Unconditional Call

The first point that we need to see if we want to understand who Jesus is, is that Jesus’ Call is Unconditional

Look at verse 9,

Matthew 9:9

The first point that wants us to understand about the Jesus way is that His Calling is Unconditional.

Look at what Matthew tells us in verse 9, “As Jesus went

We dont know much about this Matthew character at this point in the story, all we know about him is that he is called by Jesus while sitting at the toll booth.

Luke and Mark tell this same story but they use the name “Levi.”

It was common for people in this time period to have multiple names.

Saul was renamed Paul after he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, Thomas also went by the name Didymus, and Peter had three names: Peter, Simon, and Cephas.

Both Luke and Mark give us more detail about who Matthew is, but Matthew’s Gospel doesnt probably because he didnt want to draw much attention to himself in the story.

He wants us to understand that he isnt the main character here, Jesus is.

But the one detail that he does give us is where he is when Jesus calls him.

Matthew says that he was “sitting at the toll booth.”

Matthew wants us to know that there couldnt have been a more unlikely candidate for Jesus to call to become one of His disciples than himself.

Matthew was a tax collector, and as a tax collector he was totally unfit to be a disciple of a Jewish Rabbi.

Why is that important?

It is important because of who tax collectors wer

Tax collectors were despised in this culture because they were seen as friends of the enemy of God.

They worked for Rome, and good Jewish people hated the Romans.

The Romans were Pagans.

They worshiped weird gods and had weird customs.

400 or so years prior to the time of Jesus, the Romans had invaded their land.

And this wasnt just any land, this was the Promised Land of Israel, this was God’s Kingdom the land he had given them to prosper in, or so they thought.

Tax collectors were despised in this culture because they were seen as friends of the enemy of God.

They worked for Rome, and good Jewish people hated the Romans.

The Romans were Pagans.

400 or so years prior the time of Jesus, the Romans had invaded their land.

And this wasnt just any land, this was the Promised Land of Israel, this was God’s Kingdom on that He had promised them.

Jesus had called fisherman to follow him, and that would have been unconventional, Jewish Rabbi’s typically only discipled people who had good religious resumes to be, and fisherman were dirty, uneducated, and probably smoked Camel cigarettes.

Fishermen were bad enough, but a Tax Collector?

Calling a tax collector wasnt just frowned upon, it was a slap to the face of any good Jew, it was scandalous.

Tax collectors were

What makes Jesus

The scandal of the calling of Matthew is that he was totally unfit and unqualified to be considered the type of person to be discipled by a Rabbi....and that is the point.

And if I founder, or am marooned,

if I am swallowed by a wave and become

bride to the sea, it will be better for me.

I will find rest on the cool floors of the ocean.”

Not too long ago I read a children’s book to my son that summarized my spiritual history, it is called the Runaway Bunny.

It’s this story about a little Bunny who wants to runaway from his mother

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away.

So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”

This was his first mistake.

“If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you.

I would swallow my own heart before I let you escape.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny,

“I will become a fish in a trout stream

and I will swim away from you.”

The little bunny had a small and a desperate magic.

“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother,

“I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.

I will always be bigger than you.

I will always be stronger than you.