Matthew writes a Gospel. Matthew walks with Jesus. Matthew was a tax collector. One of those facts should absolutely shock you. In the Roman Empire, tax collectors were not pedantic role enforcers. They were traitors to their own people who leveraged the the power of the evil empire for their own sordid gain. So, eating with a tax collect ranks right up there with being touched by a woman with a medical condition that rendered her ritually unclean and touching the dead. It shows that Jesus sees beauty where the world often doesn't.
","author_name":"Trey Comstock"}