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Saint
Matthew the Evangelist
21 September
One
day Jesus was walking and saw a tax collector named Matthew sitting at a tax
collection post, and said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew stood
up and followed Him, and became one of His twelve apostles.
Tax collectors in those days were social outcasts. Devout Jews
avoided them because they were usually dishonest (the job carried no
salary, and they were expected to make their profits by cheating the people from whom
they collected taxes). Patriotic and nationalistic Jews hated them because they
were agents of the Roman government, the conquerors, and hated them with a
double hatred if (like Matthew) they were Jews, because they had gone over
to the enemy, had betrayed their own people for money.
The name "Matthew" means
"gift of the LORD." Mark and Luke, in the story of his calling, name him
"Levi." Perhaps this was his original name, and he received a new name
from Jesus when he became a disciple. (It has also been suggested that he
was simply a member of the tribe of Levi.)
The same day on which Jesus called him he made a "great feast"
(Luke 5:29), a farewell feast, to which he invited Jesus and his disciples, and
probably also many of his old associates.
Whether the Apostle Matthew is also the
Evangelist Matthew -- that is, whether the Apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel
that bears his name -- is disputed. The Gospel itself does not say who
wrote it, but the designation "according to Matthew" is very old.
Of Matthew's life after Pentecost the Scriptures tell us nothing. Later accounts of his life vary, some reporting that he was martyred, others that he died a natural death. The Christian community since early times has commemorated him as a martyr.
Text adapted from James
Kiefer's Christian Biographies
Image from The
Christian Place for Kids