Great Faith
Day 1: Follow Me Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” REFLECTION Matthew was not waiting in a synagogue or seeking a rabbi. He was at his tax booth — a place of commerce, compromise, and social shame. Tax collectors were viewed as collaborators with Rome, traitors who profited from their own people. Yet it is here, in the ordinary and even scandalous details of daily work, that Jesus shows up and speaks two simple words: “Follow me.” What strikes us is Matthew’s response. There is no recorded hesitation, no negotiation, no “let me think about it.” He simply got up and followed. The call of Jesus carries with it its own power — not coercion, but an irresistible invitation to something better than what we already have. Perhaps you have felt unworthy of being called. Perhaps the place you sit feels too ordinary...