Sick of Religion? Week 3: Devotional Day 1

DAY 1 – Monday

Daily devotional

Read

Mark 2:13-14; Matt. 9:9; Luke 5:27-28

Ask

What people groups do I avoid?

Reflect

When Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax booth, he saw a person that could be—and would be—his disciple; a person that was despised and known as a traitor and an extortioner. Tax collectors in biblical days were to be avoided. They worked for the Roman government and were the most visible Jewish collaborators with Rome. They were turncoats. Jesus saw a person not for how they identified at the moment, but how they would identify eventually. Matthew was a tax collector; his life was identified by what he did and not who he would become by the matchless grace of God. Matthew left everything he had to become a follower of Jesus and his new identity was found in him.

How can we see people for who they can become and not how they identify?

What makes this story amazing is that Jesus chooses Matthew the tax collector and then Matthew chooses him. So we ought to believe there is something deeper going on here. There was nothing random about Jesus’ invitation or Matthew’s response. I truly believe Matthew longed for something more in life. I believe he wanted to have worth and belonging and Jesus would give him just that.

We tend to lean towards the influential and the “in crowd” when we want to make a mark in this life, don’t we? We choose the best and brightest because we want to be a part of what the world says is the best. Jesus chose a rag-tag bunch of nobodies, tax collectors, traders, and fishermen. Jesus never gets sucked into what the world deems “best,” does he? He knows what his mission and purpose are.

Ask Jesus to open your eyes to see what he sees.