Week 9 - Follow Me (Part 2)

Tax collectors were often considered traitors and sinners in the first-century Jewish context. They were outcasts. The Roman authorities employed them to collect taxes from their fellow Jews. It was common for them to exploit their position for personal gain, which ostracized them socially and religiously from their friends, family, and other Jewish countrymen. Jesus' choice to call Matthew, a tax collector, one of His disciples was a radical act that defied cultural expectations and demonstrated the boundless reach of God's grace.