What's In A Name

I go by the first name Matt, but my full name is Matthew. To my knowledge, there are no other people in my family that are named Matthew, so it's not a family name. My middle name as well as my son's middle name, David, is a family name.

This leads people to ask why I got the name Matthew. I tell them I was named after an evil tax collector that had a change of heart. This part is true, I was named after Matthew, an apostle of Jesus Christ. For my little blog post this week, I'm going to talk about this evil tax collector with the change of heart.

Matthew, was born Levi, and was a tax collector for Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. Tax collectors in Matthew's day are much like tax collectors today, very disliked by the masses. The difference is how taxes were collected back in the day. The Roman government collected a tax on catches that fisherman made. It was the tax collector's job to first value the catch, then tax it accordingly. For example, a fisherman catches fifty dollars worth of fish, he would have to pay a tax of five dollars (arbitrary amounts used in modern day terminology). Now what Matthew, as well as many of the tax collectors of the day, would do was to say that a fifty dollar catch was actually worth $100 and then take $10 instead of the five. Then only give the five to the Roman tetrarch. This was generally accepted by the Roman government, as long as they got the money they asked for. Furthermore, the Jewish population treated their Roman occupants with disdain, and for a Jew to work for the Romans and steal from fellow Jews was a grave sin.


This all changed one day when Jesus came to him. Even though Matthew was despised by the people as a sinner, Jesus chose him to be one of his apostles. Later that day, Matthew invited Jesus in for supper. The Pharisees didn't like this one bit, as it was a faux pas to associate with someone of Matthew's ilk. Jesus responded by saying "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." This is exactly what Jesus did, he gave Matthew a calling. This calling was to follow Jesus during his life. After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Matthew still followed Jesus by taking the Gospel all around the known world.

Okay, I have never been a tax collector, I'm not one of the twelve apostles, and I never wrote anything bigger than a fifteen page undergraduate paper, much less a Gospel account. Not to mention that Matthew was born under the name Levi and changed his name after his conversion. Even with these glaring differences, when you boil it down, we are very similar. We both lived sinful lives apart from Christ. Even though we were both sinners, we were saved by the love of Christ. In addition, Christ has called us both to take His Gospel all over the world. The circumstances may be different, the mission is the same.

I guess there is something in a name after all. I just hope I'm not martyred. That would suck.