Levi the tax collector, who Jesus calls to be his disciple in verse 14, is the famous apostle later known as Matthew. The name Matthew, which means "gift of the Lord," may have been given to him by Jesus (as he gave Simon the name Peter, "the Rock") or the other disciples. Matthew was a new man as a follower of Christ, with a new name to go with it. I love how the names the disciples were given helped them to see themselves as Jesus saw them.
Tax collectors in any culture are unpopular, but in first century Israel they were hated and condemned. They were Jews betraying their own people by doing the bidding of the hated Roman occupiers; and they were thieves, lining their own pockets as they collected taxes. They were outcasts in Jewish society: they were not allowed in the synagogue, essentially kicked out of Jewish religious life; they could not serve as witnesses in a trial because their word was assumed to be worthless. Their only friends were other tax collectors. No respectable Jew would be caught associating with a tax collector, but Jesus seemed to have little interest in being respectable.
Jesus found Levi at his booth, probably a toll booth for the road between Egypt and Damascus called "The Way of the Sea." (Jesus' association with this road is actually prophesied in Isaiah 9:1). Merely speaking to Levi would have made an impression; asking him to become his disciple was completely absurd. A tax collector would never have been allowed to become a disciple of a great teacher. Jesus is ruining his own reputation by filling his ranks with such people. His reputation is further soiled by joining Levi for dinner at his home, then completely trashed when Levi's friends arrive. Sharing a meal with someone was the highest expression of friendship--a tradition we carry on today at the Springs.
To his community, this man was Levi the tax collector, Levi the thief, the traitor. Nothing sticks like a bad reputation. But to Jesus, he was Matthew, the gift of the Lord. Matthew, the friend. Matthew, the man who would bring his friends to Jesus, who would one day be an eyewitness to Jesus' resurrection, who would write the gospel that bears his new name and become a hero of the faith. Jesus does not see what most men and women see in others or even in themselves. Jesus saw Matthew, and sees each of us, as the gift he made us to be, as the people we can become if we follow him.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? The failure, the fraud, the afraid, the hopelessly average? Do you see a reputation you'll never be able to escape? Jesus never sees that. He sees the person he created you to be, and that person has a name you may have never heard before: gift, treasure, rock, hero, princess, beloved. Following Jesus is the adventure in which you discover your true identity.
I like the whole 'new name' thing that Jesus does. I guess because he picks a name that characterizes us, identifies who we really are. He uncovers the real person beneath the layers of guilt, shame, fear, anger and circumstance that life seems to leave us trapped under. He names us and says "this is the true you".
ReplyDeleteRevelations 2:17 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." To me the white stone represents a token of something pure and permanent, an undeniable truth about who I am. And who are those who overcome? Those who hold to the name of Jesus.
I wonder what my "name" is to Jesus?
ReplyDeleteI must also confess that I tend to give other people names too. Names that are surely a contradiction to the name that Jesus has for them. I hate it because I know it disappoints and hurts God. I look forward to new names...