We love to hear about the man with the palsy being brought by friends to Jesus.
It is stirring to read and hear about them tearing off the roof and dropping the man down before the Lord.
We love the fact that the Lord forgave his sins and then in the face of complaints about who He was/is, he heals the man.
Of course the Lord and his followers move on and He reaches out to more crowds and He teaches valuable lessons that we can learn and prosper from.
But, let's stop at verse 14:
And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.
Who was this man that with only two words spoken would choose to follow Jesus? Of course we know he became Matthew, the apostole and a pillar of the inner circle around Jesus. Levi was the tax collector and probably not a very popular fellow. He sits with his hand out day after day and, no doubt, is looked upon with scorn. He was an unlikely candidate to be at the center of the greatest spiritual movement the world has seen.
What did Jesus see in Matthew? On the other hand, what did Matthew see in Jesus?
We can surmise what Jesus saw in Matthew. It had to be a willingness and desire to change. A willingness to become something he had never been, to experience things he had never experienced. He saw in him a man willing to follow, based simply on two words: Follow Me.
What did Matthew see in Jesus? Hope. Hope beyond his situation. Hope for a better day. Hope for reality that he had never experienced.
Would we have picked Matthew out of the crowd to be a follower of Jesus? What do you think?
Would we have picked ourselves out of crowd to be a follower of Jesus? Answer for yourself.
Let's look today at everyone around us as someone who could/would Follow Jesus.
George Jinks
