St. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist + Matthew 9:9-13 + September 22, 2017
In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 1) Before Matthew was known as ‘Saint Matthew,’ before he was a disciple and apostle, and before the Holy Ghost inspired him to write the account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that bears his name, Matthew was simply a tax collector. He writes, “ As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office .” Matthew had a tax booth at the edge of the Capernaum city limits, so that travelling merchants and traders would have to stop and pay tax on their wares as they headed to market. Being the tax man is just another God-pleasing vocation. Paul tells the Roman Christians that we pay taxes so that the civil rulers can govern. He says, “ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor ” (Romans 13:7). But it goes for the tax man as it does for all m...