Matthew the Tax Collector
Matthew was a tax collector. This may have been a hated occupation but it was also very exacting. It made Matthew a very precise man. So where he placed different stories in his gospel is worth noting. Remember that the gospel writers followed the writing tradition of their day of grouping stories together that had a common theme, not necessarily stories that followed chronologically.
Where does he tell us about his own call to follow Jesus? He puts it right in between the miracle of the man let down through the roof (Matthew 9:1-8) and the twin miracles of the woman with the issue of blood being healed (Matthew 9:20-22) and the official’s daughter being raised from the dead (Matthew 9:18,19,23-25).
What’s the significance? The man let down through the roof had to know he was forgiven before he could be healed. Matthew could well have felt the same. Tax collectors were notoriously corrupt with money.
The woman with the issue of blood would have been “unclean” under Jewish Law and anyone touching her would likewise be immediately ceremonially unclean. Again, Matthew would have felt in many ways like her, ashamed of a condition he felt he couldn’t change.
What about the ruler whose daughter was dying? Though a Jew, he would have been appointed by the Romans. This would have earned him rejection by the common people.
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