Chosen for a Purpose
Matthew 9:9-17
Why does Jesus choose who he chooses?
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” - Matthew 9:9-17
He chose a tax collector to be one of his closest disciples.
Was it a personal decision or a political one? Did he want to pick the outcasts of society to rub it in the faces of the elite?
If we look closely at who Jesus chose to be among the twelve, we will see that some held diametrically opposing views toward one another.
He had a pro-Roman tax collector and an anti-Roman zealot.
His choices were unexpected among the people and among the chosen themselves.
Each choice was a personal one. He showed compassion, mercy, and inclusivity in his choices.
The world doesn’t value choices like this. I know. I tried.
When I was running a feeding program for the poor, I chose to hire from the community we served. Those weren’t popular choices.
I believed it was better to give the job to someone who could be trained to do the job, than to someone more qualified who could get another job if this one didn’t work out.
My thinking was that someone who can help feed the hungry and feed their family at the same time was a valuable employee.
I thought, at the time, that was what Jesus would have wanted me to do. Use the job as a form of help as well as the food we distributed.
I didn’t expect it to be controversial, but it was. Did Jesus call people who would be more likely to stay on the job?
I think so. It is not a matter of choosing the less qualified over the more qualified to make a political statement. It is actually good business.
The people who drove the trucks and distributed the food were known by the community they served. They were among their own.
They were trusted.
Sure, there were conflicts. Until people get comfortable with the new arrangement, there are challenges. Imagine being around so much food, and your family is starving back home.
The temptation is great. So, we had a simple policy. If you need something, ask.
Don’t take, ask.
No one was denied anything they asked for.
Looking back on it, I now see how similar it was to Jesus’s teaching about the Father.
The Holy Spirit guides us to be like Jesus. We learn what is important in the lives of those we meet, and we give from the heart.
So, Jesus was building a team that would be dedicated to the cause, because they understood the cause firsthand.
They lived it.
When Jesus comes for us, to offer us something to do for others, bear in mind that this calling is for us as well.
More to come...
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