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. – Matthew 9:9
Many a times we think that we can receive recognition for our much words and big speeches. God’s love through the Lord Jesus proved it wrong. Here is Jesus in Matthew 9, as He just finished ministering to a large group of people and healing a paralysed man who was brought down through the roof of the house by his friends as they had no space to get in where He was and Jesus was now walking back home.
As He crossed by He saw a man named Matthew who was sitting in the tax collector’s booth, Jesus spoke two words to Him ‘Follow Me’. The bible says that Matthew just arose and followed Jesus. You might also remember Jesus saying ‘Follow Me’ to peter and the others with him. There is a difference in the way Jesus called Peter, Andrew, Simon and John from the way He called Matthew. In Peter’s case, Jesus used His boat to preach to the people then took these fishermen for a ride and did a miracle which provided them their needs and then He said, ‘Follow Me, I will make you fishers of men’. Jesus gave them a small insight on what they might do if they follow Him which was catching men. But, here in Matthew’s life, he was not a poor man, or a blind man by the way. Matthew was doing good and he had a job sitting at the tax collector’s booth which also is not like fishing. But when Jesus said, ‘Follow me’, the waves of love that Jesus carried hit Matthew and he just arose and followed Him just like that and later became an apostle of God and wrote the Gospel of Matthew and turned a blessing to generations and billions of people.
