Vigils Reading – St Matthew

ST MATTHEW,

APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST

From “The Saints” by John Coulson1

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Few people love the tax collector… Much more was this so in the Palestine

of the first century, when it was in his interests to bully and harry and falsify.

But even the mild and honest tax collector was not acceptable to official

Judaism: he did business with the gentile and handled his money; he was legally

impure, socially outcast. A Jewish Rabbi would be bold indeed to invite him to

join his inner circle of disciples: it would be a gesture of defiance to the

established prejudice. And so, the formula ‘publicans and sinners’ slipped even

into the phrase book of the evangelist and, quaintly enough, into the Gospel of

Matthew the publican. This term ‘publican’…does not accurately describe

Matthew’s profession but flatters it. The Pharisees might despise it, but the

trade was a profitable one and much sought after: whether it be pursued

honestly or dishonestly would depend on the character of the officer.

“And Jesus passed further on, he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at

work in the customs-house and said to him, “Follow me”; and he rose and

followed him. That this was a call to the apostolate there is no doubt – its terms

too closely match those of the call of Simon and Andrew to be otherwise. Yet

‘Levi’ does not appear in any list of the Twelve. Now the vocation of the tax

collector is reported in the first Gospel too, but there he is called ‘Matthew’, thus

identifying him with the Matthew who appears in all the apostolic lists. The

widely accepted and most natural explanation is that Matthew and Levi are one

person with two Semitic names. It may be that our Lord himself gave him the

name Matthew (Mattai, ‘gift of God’, in Aramaic) as he gave Kepha to Simon.15

This Matthew then got up from his registers… The change destroyed all

Matthew’s worldly prospects: Simon and Andrew might return to their fish, but

Matthew had thrown over a coveted business and could never recover it. He

left it gladly…and completely. It was not he but Judas who kept the accounts

for the apostolic group…

When the need for a written gospel record began to be felt, upon which of

the Apostles would the choice fall? Upon one who used the pen, no doubt. Poor

Matthew was back where he started, but this time with an eager will and high

purpose. In Palestine, sometime between the years 40 and 50, this ex-civil

servant produced not the lively and artless Gospel of St. Mark but the orderly,

almost ledger like, treatise, which we know as ‘The Gospel according to St.

Matthew.’

And so, Matthew’s old trade entered a new service; the accountant

became an evangelist. It is not surprising that he alone records his Master’s

words; “Every scholar whose learning is of the kingdom of heaven…knows how

to bring both new and old things out of his treasure house. For there is no poor

tool of ours that God’s service will not perfect and dignify.

It is commonly but not unanimously affirmed he died a martyr’s death;

but we know for certain that he lived a martyr’s life – and that is enough. And

for us he will always be the man who knew what money was and what it was

not.