Where are we?  Last year we tried to answer the question: What’s so great about salvation?  We said it’s important to every single individual for every aspect of his or her life forever.  Each of us wants to make sure they know about it.
Recently we studied the story of David and Goliath as a tutorial on doing mission. Each of us is on the lookout for mission opportunities in our own neighborhood – ways to spread salvation.
On Palm Sunday and Easter, the story of salvation challenged us to keep Jesus in the center of mission and everything else we do.
So now we return to the gospels to see Jesus in action, to hear his words and to study his strategy for advancing the kingdom.  We’re going to do that in the gospel of Matthew.  And today we’re going to profile Matthew.

Luke 5:27-29. 
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting in his office. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”  28 Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.  29 Then Levi had a big feast in his house for Jesus, and among the guests was a large number of tax collectors and other people.

 The thing that stands out about Matthew is that he was Jewish and a tax collector.  Rome didn’t have an IRS or 1040’s so they contracted out tax collecting to rich citizens.  They in turn hired managers who hired locals to actually count the fish or whatever else was being taxed.  It was up to the local publican or tax collector to assess a value, write up a ticket and enforce payment. 
It was all kind of loose so they could cheat and bribe and extort.  And of course what they collected went to the Romans who often made life miserable for the tax collector’s own people.  The Jews hated the Romans and they were bitter and hostile toward tax collectors.
That’s what Matthew was. He was getting rich at the expense of his own people and aiding and abetting the enemy in the process.  What happened to him?  Had he fallen on hard times?  Had he turned against God?  Was he a sociopath?  Or was he just a common criminal? 
It might help if we knew how old he was. When you think of the disciples how old do you picture them being?  Think about Matthew and pick an age. 30?  40?  50?
 Matthew tells a story (17:24-27) that hints at their age.  On one of their trips to Capernaum, the officials there came to Peter and asked him if Jesus was going to pay the two-drachma temple tax.  It was Jewish regulation handed down from Moses that all men over the age of 20 had to pay up.
They discussed it and Jesus told Peter, “Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you’ll find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
All the disciples were there and none of them would have had any money.  So either Jesus stiffed them or they didn’t have to pay because they were under 20.  Hard to imagine Jesus neglecting them!  So it’s pretty safe to assume that all the disciples except Peter were nineteen or younger.
Did any of you peg Matthew as a teenager?  It’s kind of interesting to think of an 18-year-old launching a lucrative tax business. He reminds me of these kids who become successful businessmen pushing drugs and driving luxury cars.  They become rich and powerful before they have time to worry about the social or ethical implications. Matthew:

• We wouldn’t want our daughter to bring him home.
• We wouldn’t expect to see him in polite society.
• We wouldn’t ever say, ”He’s one of us.”
• We might say, “Would I ever like to get my hands on him.” Or shake our heads: “What a waste!”

At best Matthew was a cocky, streetwise entrepreneur.  He shrewdly put his tax booth by the lake, the center of commerce. Savvy kid. Gutsy kid.
There aren’t a lot of other details about Matthew.  The story we just read took place in the vicinity of Capernaum, Peter’s hometown and where Jesus was making his home at the time.
That raises some intrigue.  Just before Jesus called Matthew, he had called two sets of brothers: Peter and Andrew, James and John.  The last two were called the Sons of Thunder because of their volatile tempers.  Know any teenagers with that kind of reputation?  But these guys were also fishermen.  They were in business with their fathers.  And since they lived in Capernaum, their tax collector would have been Matthew. 
Jesus might as well have gone to the Westside and recruited four Jets and one Shark.  Or four Capulets and one Montague. Or four Hatfields and one McCoy.  Or four Democrats and one Republican.  Or four capitalists and one socialist.
Whatever happened it must have been an eye opener for those five Jewish businessteens. 


 
 It all raises a set of interesting questions:
1. What would entice a young man to turn against his own people and cheat them out of their money for Rome’s benefit – and his own?

2. Why did Jesus call a guy like him to be one of his disciples?

3. Why did Matthew follow Jesus? 
4. How did a numbers guy become a missionary and a writer?

We can only speculate but as we study Matthew’s gospel we’ll see that one of the themes he was interested in was the kingdom of God and Jesus as King.
Matthew was a guy who wanted to be associated with the winner. The teen must have been intrigued by Rome’s power and pomp.  Maybe Herod, who was a Jew who had acquired power from Rome, was his hero. Maybe Matthew just liked living on the edge – an excitement junkie.  Maybe being ostracized was the price he was willing to pay to be to get where he wanted to be.
But when Jesus said, “Follow me.” Matthew saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime.  He was trading up – from earthly Rome to the Kingdom of Heaven. He may not have realized it at the time but he was singing on to help spread that kingdom one mission at a time.
 One final thought.  After Jesus called him, Matthew had a big feast in his house for Jesus, and among the guests was a large number of tax collectors and other people (29) – including the disciples.
Now let’s back up to the beginning of this chapter. Peter, Andrew, James and John had been out all night fishing and caught nothing.  Then Jesus strolled by in the morning and told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat.  They were tired and reluctant but:
6 They let them down and caught such a large number of fish that the nets were about to break.  7 So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full of fish that the boats were about to sink.  

Matthew, sitting not far away in his tax booth wouldn’t have missed that.  He would had a windfall that day.  And maybe, just maybe it he funded his party with the taxes he collected from those four fishermen.   At any rate, that party was his first mission.  Jesus called him and then he threw an outreach party so all his friends could meet Jesus.

    Let’s talk about students and school and see how they work in the United States.  How old are you when you start to school?  How do you get there?  Who is your teacher?  How long does school last.
    Back when Jesus was a boy, children went to the temple.  From ages 4 to 12 the boys memorized the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible and the girls memorized the Psalms.  After that some continued learning with a rabbi and the others started learning to do whatever their fathers did.
    If you wanted to continue, you had to find a special teacher called a rabbi.  Then you asked him, “Can I be like you?”  If the rabbi thought you had what it took and that you were intelligent and eager he would say, “Yes, I believe you can become what I am.”  Very few were chosen.
    Jesus had been a carpenter so when he was ready to have disciples of student, he had to choose them for himself.  He chose 12.  Some of these guys may have tried with other rabbis but been turned down. He picked guys that had already started to learn what their fathers were doing.  In other word he didn’t choose the Einsteins or the winner of American Idol.  He chose regular kids just like you and me.  So let’s say three cheers disciples:  Hip, hip, Hooray!
    For your treat, you each get twelve Skittles – one for each of the twelve disciples Jesus chose.