Note: This day (Monday, September 21, 2026) marks the minor festival of the church year for St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. The following is a devotion on St. Matthew from Richard E. Lauersdorf’s With Our Eyes on Jesus.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. (Matthew 9:9,10)
Matthew, the Disciple Who Was Qualified by Grace
Ice cream never tasted so good! Back in the late 1930s, one of the highlights of the week was the pint of ice cream my father bought after church on Sunday. It was divided among the six of us, and every one of the few spoonfuls we received was a treat. Now we have it in bulk in the home freezer and no longer treasure it so highly.
Is that how we at times view our discipleship? Something we’ve had for so long and in such measure that we take it for granted? If so, perhaps there’s a lesson for us in Matthew’s call to discipleship, one that reminds us so vividly of God’s grace.
What we might have remained
What might Matthew have remained if God’s grace had not called him that day?
Among other things, perhaps a rather disliked and distrusted tax collector. Taxes have never been popular, and when the tax collection system was riddled with corruption, as Rome’s was, we can understand how the dislike grew. A Jew turned tax collector lost his standing among his fellow citizens. They would no longer allow him to worship in the synagogue or accept his word in court. He was classed with the scum of society.
Such was Matthew at whose desk Jesus stopped. To the outward eye, even if Matthew were one of those rare ones who kept his skirts clean, his credentials for discipleship were skimpy indeed. To Jesus’ eye there were no credentials at all. When the master looked at Matthew, he saw the same things once visible in us. He saw unbelief and sin. That’s what Matthew was and would have remained—but for the grace of God!
They tell us that less than 25 percent of the world’s current five billion people can be called Christian. That means that three out of every four people alive right now either haven’t heard of Jesus or, having heard, don’t have Jesus. They also tell us that at the present population growth rate, by the time a baby born today graduates from high school, another two billion will have been added to the world’s population. And most of them will have been born among people who are, for the most part, non-Christian.
What do such statistics shout out at us?
Do we realize what our chances were of remaining in the ranks of unbelievers? Do we realize what the chances were of our children and grandchildren never leaving those ranks in a burgeoning world? From Matthew comes the vivid reminder of what we too might have remained—but for the grace of God!
What we instead became
“Follow me,” Jesus said, and Matthew did. Called and moved by grace, he walked in the company of the master. For Matthew discipleship meant getting. Great were the things he received, all that the Savior had to offer. Tax careers and custom receipts must have seemed petty compared to the treasures received from Christ.
For Matthew, discipleship also meant giving. One form his giving took was the holding of a dinner party for Jesus. In the parallel account (Luke 5:29), it appears that he gave this party just as much for his friends as for Jesus. Was Matthew hoping that by talking and listening to Jesus, his friends would find what he had received? So the tax collector became a soul gatherer, the recipient, a sharer—by the grace of God! Matthew still shares today. His legacy to all of us is the inspired gospel that bears his name. In it he gives convincing testimony of what treasures await us in Christ Jesus.
Would we want to give up what God’s grace has given us?
Such a thought horrifies us. No beautiful Savior to tell me, “My blood purifies you from every sin.” No heavenly Friend to remind me, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” No mighty Victor to calm me, “Because I live, you also will live.” No loving Judge to welcome me, “Come, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.” Who would ever want to lose such treasures?
Still the nagging question remains, “How come I’m not more eager to share such treasures with others?”
How concerned am I about that three-fourths of the world’s population that doesn’t profess Christianity? How concerned am I about the world mission thrust I help carry on through my synod? Does it bother me to hear that my synod has expatriate missionaries working in barely two handfuls of countries besides my own? Does it bother me to hear that less than four cents out of every dollar given by the members of my synod for overall church work goes to world missions?
Does such information only momentarily alarm and mildly disturb us? Or does it make us more eager to share what God’s grace has given us and even to sweat in trying?
Prayer:
Lord, when we look at the rich forgiveness you have prepared for us and the faith to receive what you have given us, we have to thank you for your grace. Help us appreciate the gift of your grace and then help us show that appreciation in our desire to share your grace with a needy world, as Matthew did. Let your Word and the spreading of it occupy our hearts, receive our daily efforts, and call forth our honest offerings that more may praise you for your grace. Amen.
For Further Reading
Want to learn more about the minor festivals of the church year? Beloved NPH author Richard E. Lauersdorf’s With Our Eyes on Jesus contains 35 excellent devotions, including the one you just read, based on what Scripture says about the saints and their connection to the Savior to remind believers of God’s amazing grace.
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