Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth and said to him, 'Follow me.' That's it. No apology for who Matthew was, no request that Matthew clean up first. Just 'Come.'
Matthew was collaborating with Rome, which meant he was a traitor to Jewish people. He was also wealthy through extortion. He was the kind of person respectable Jews would cross the street to avoid. So when Jesus calls him, everyone watching knows it's outrageous. This is the thing that breaks open the religious establishment's whole system—Jesus doesn't grant legitimacy based on moral achievement or ethnic righteousness. He grants it through relationship. The moment Jesus calls, Matthew exists differently. He doesn't have to earn his way to worthiness; he receives it as a calling. I think about my own tendency to think spiritual growth has to happen before relationship, and I'm pretty sure that's backward. Relationship is where transformation lives.
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