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sinners

Matthew 9:9
"And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him."

That's it.
It's that simple: rise and follow Jesus. Easy. Right? We want to follow Jesus. We don't want to be goats. The metaphor of "sheep without a shepherd" is used to illustrate people's need for guidance and protection. In this part of the Gospel, Jesus is healing the blind and making the lame walk. There is buzz spreading about Jesus. Matthew is seeing and hearing this. We don't know to what extent. The Chosen TV series does a great job showing Matthew very attentively following what Jesus is doing. So, it makes sense when Matthew drops everything to rise and follow Jesus.

And, Matthew’s conversion is a miracle. When Jesus called Matthew, he is sitting in the seat of the tax collector. He was collecting money for the Roman Empire. The money went to support the occupation and subjugation of Israel. Tax collectors, like Matthew, would use the muscle of the Roman army to collect from the Jewish people. Brutality would not be out of the question in tax collection. Matthew’s peers would have HATED him. Matthew’s fellow Jewish people would know he was chief among SINNERS.
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