Prayer of the Day:
O Son of God, our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, You called Matthew the tax collector to be an apostle and evangelist. Through his faithful and inspired witness, grant that we also may follow You, leaving behind all covetous desires and love of riches; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
About St. Matthew:
St. Matthew, also known as Levi, identifies himself as a former tax collector, one who was therefore considered unclean, a public sinner, outcast from the Jews. Yet it was such a one as this whom the Lord Jesus called away from his occupation and wealth to become a disciple (Matthew 9:9-13). Not only did Matthew become a disciple of Jesus, he was also called and sent as one of the Lord’s twelve apostles (Matthew 10:2-4). In time, he became the evangelist whose inspired record of the Gospel was granted first place in the ordering of the New Testament. Among the four Gospels, Matthew’s portrays Christ especially as the new and greater Moses, who graciously fulfills the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17) and establishes a new covenant of salvation in and with His own blood (26: 27-28). Matthew’s Gospel is also well-known for the following:
The Visit of the Magi (2: 1-12)
The Sermon on the Mount, including the Beatitudes and The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 5-7)
The Institution of Holy Baptism and the most explicit revelation of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 28: 16-20).
Tradition is uncertain where his final field of labor was and whether Matthew died naturally or a martyr’s death. In celebrating this festival, we therefore give thanks to God that He has mightily governed and protected His Holy church through this man who was called and sent by Christ to serve the sheep of His pastures with the Holy Gospel.
St. Matthew was an excellent, noble man–not only one of the 12 fountains of consolation, the apostle of Jesus Christ of paradise, a holy evangelist, whose words flowed from the great fountain in paradise, Jesus Christ. He not only praised the Lord in his heart and with his tongue but also put his quill to paper and wrote his account as a memorial…pay attention so that everything in and about you is directed toward the glory of the Lord, according to David’s example in Psalm 103:2. In the kingdom of God it is said…”Strive with every skill and word, to please your Savior, Christ the Lord.” None of the other evangelists described the history of the Lord Jesus to such an extent as Matthew. He also has many beautiful passages that cannot be found in the others.
Here the Lord Jesus says (Matthew 11:27-29), “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
And again (Matthew 18:19-21), “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.”
Andin Matthew 28:19-20, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
These three passages, which should cause the legs of all devout Christians to run quickly to the Church, were written only by Matthew.
—Valerius Herberger
(Quotes above from The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)
Reflection: One word that can not be found in the other three Gospels is “church”. The two times the word “Church” is spoken is by the Lord and both are in the first Gospel, St. Matthew:
Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
The Apostle Peter wrote in his second Epistle:
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
WE have been granted “precious and very great promises”. His divine power grants all thing that pertain to “life and godliness”. To be joined in Christ Jesus, Immanuel, comes by His precious and very great promises, not by the Law. The Law shows us the pattern of our life together, and the Lord’s promises alone is the divine power for faith in the teaching of the Holy Spirit so we, “…may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” Here in these two verses from St. Matthew we have two of the Lord’s precious and very great promises: He builds His Church and in His Church He forgives us of our wrong in joyful repentance. In His Church we have escaped worldly corruption on account of sinful desire, not because we are good on our own (when we do that we become self-righteous as a Pharisee or a social justice warrior) but by God by His goodness in Beloved Son, alone, we are redeemed to be partaker of the divine nature.
Don’t go to a church where the corruption of the world is allowed in denying basic Christian doctrines as the need for the Law of God, the Atonement, the sanctity of life and of marriage between a man and woman alone and the inerrancy of Scripture. For all such churches are the communities of the self-righteous for once you deny what God has shown is sin, there is no forgiveness, just cheap grace. If the Church is corrupted, as the Lord says of the corrupted salt of the earth in St. Matthew alone, “It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.’ (St. Matthew 5: 13).
Why is the Church only mentioned twice in all the Gospels? Answer: Christ Jesus had not been crucified, died, rose again, ascended to send the Holy Spirit. Christ builds His Church by His Word of His crucifixion and resurrection. As Matthew was careful in collecting taxes, he was ever more careful in teaching us the One who bought us for a price no tax collector could ever get. Only St. Matthew begins the Gospel with Baptism: Jesus’ Baptism (Mt. 3: 13-17) and the command and the promise to baptize, “…in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28: 19). Christ builds up His Body, the Church beginning in Baptism in His great and precious promises. When the Lord called Matthew from being a tax collector, he began writing of Immanuel, God with us and for you. It is in the Church we partake of very great and precious promises of His Word and His Sacraments. Go to Church!
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