One Fine Day
My first and greatest brush with fame occurred on the first day of classes at Baylor University in the autumn of 1979. I went to the Baylor Stadium to convince the football coaches that they needed me to walk on the football team. As they gave me an initial physical – looking with unimpressed eyes upon my 6’2″ 180 pound frame with dubious expressions, they began to explain rather matter-of- factly that I was wasting my time trying to play division I football as a 180 pound defensive end. As I was being shown the door, I spied an obvious scholarship player sitting at the trainer’s table waiting to get his ankles wrapped. He was a human rock. His giant muscles seemed to move with a kind of grace that I had never seen or experienced. My sizable pride in my own strength and athleticism bowed in reverence. I was suddenly a broken man. With mouth gawking and eyes bulging, I stared like an art critic looks upon a Rembrandt. I could never look like that guy, nor could I ever play like him at my favorite sport.
Two weeks later, as I read a periodical about Baylor’s star Middle Linebacker, I saw pictures of the man I had seen two weeks earlier… It was Mike Singletary. Yeah, that’s right, the Singletary that led the Chicago Bears to Superbowl victories and now reigns as one of the greatest pro bowlers and hall of famers the sport has ever known. And I saw him in his underwear!
My guess is that my experience can be compared (in a very small way) to that of a guy who lived a long time ago in a little place called, Galilee. His name was Matthew, also known as Levi, and he was a despised, lowlife tax collector for the latest and greatest oppressor called, Rome. Though he was a Jew, he collected taxes for Rome, and this made him a traitor in the locals’ eyes. Not only that, but Rome gave tax collectors permission to take above and beyond the tax bill to line their own pockets – pushing them way below the level of just a “traitor”. The New Testament reveals between the lines that tax collectors hung out with the only clientele who could stand them – prostitutes and “sinners,” who were the lowest of the low. These were the veritable “non flyers” of the day.
As Matthew was sitting at his tax table one day, Jesus walked by and said two words, “Follow me.” Matthew got up immediately and followed. The text in Lukes Gospel chapter 5 goes like this:
(Luke 5:27-28) After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.
Matthew saw something in Jesus that struck him with such awe that he left all his money behind when He was invited to follow. As we read the story, we declare, “Why surely Jesus did something more, or said something more than that to challenge Matthew in such a way!” People don’t just drop everything and follow a carpenter turned Rabbi on a wim… or do they? Matthew saw with physical and spiritual eyes that day. He saw something awesome!
I saw something awesome myself, but was briskly shown the door. I didn’t measure up to the group of guys around that great athlete I saw. The tax collector didn’t measure up either. Matthew saw the Lord of Glory, and was invited to come along. He was even asked by the King himself. Somehow, the Holy, the Perfect, the Unattainable – stooped… and looked someone who should not be on the team in the eye, and asked him to come along. I think that’s why Matthew was so changed by that experience, and why I just came home with a fun story about seeing a great athlete.
Later, Matthew would write what became the first book of the New Testament. I’d like to spend some time with you talking about Matthew’s “Gospel” about Jesus, the guy who changed his life from day one.
