by Jilene Scherenske
Matthew
Matthew is a disciple we know little about because he is seldom named in scripture, yet, as we shall see, there is much to learn from his devoted life to our Savior.
Tax Collecting
Let us begin our account of Matthew by getting an education on his profession. He was a tax collector. These men would buy tax franchises from the Roman emperor. They would then exact tax money from the people to feed the Roman government. However, it was an unspoken agreement that they could extort above and beyond the set fee to pad their own pockets. They could even make up their own tax categories and charge for them! And that is exactly what they did! They even used thugs to strong arm money from people. Reminds me of the mafia! There were two kinds of tax collectors. The Gabbai (pronounced Yahbi) were general tax collectors. They collected property tax, income tax, and the poll tax which were set by official assessments, so there was less extortion involved with this group. The Mokhes (pronounced Mocks) were the other group and they collected a duty on imports and exports, goods for domestic trade, and virtually anything that was moved by road. They set tolls on roads and bridges, they taxed beasts of burden and axles on transport wagons, and they charged a tariff on parcels, letters, and whatever else they could find to tax. Their assessments were usually arbitrary and differed from day to day on how they felt that day! There were two kinds of these Mokhes – the Great Mokhes and the Little Mokhes. A Great Mokhes stayed behind the scenes and hired others to collect for him. Zaccheus was apparently a Great Mokhes since he was called “a chief tax collector” in Luke 19:2.
The Little Mokhes were the most despised tax collectors.They would often stop people, search them, or pierce their baggage with long, sharp iron rods, looking for contraband.Matthew was apparently a Little Mokhes because he manned the tax office, dealing with people face to face.Here is how we could describe his life as a tax collector.These men were considered the worst of the worst.They were banned from the synagogue and forbidden to sacrifice and worship in the temple thus being essentially worse off religiously than a Gentile.Their alms were even refused.He had to keep his distance from any group of people because, as a tax collector, he was so terribly hated.The Jewish Talmud even taught that it was righteous to lie and deceive a tax collector, because that was what a professional extortioner deserved.What made things even worse for Matthew was that he was a Jew!No self-respecting Jew in his right mind would ever choose to become a tax collector for the Roman government!By doing so he had effectively cut himself off from his own people, most likely his own family, and from his God!He was considered a traitor to his nation because he worked with the hated Romans, a social pariah, and a religious outcast.He was viewed as among a most despicable and vile scoundrel.In Jewish eyes, he was more hated that the Roman soldiers.His occupation was lumped together with the heathen and harlots (Matt 18:17, 21:31).With his office just outside Capernaum, Matthew had an ideal location.The heavily loaded caravans traveling the only road from Damascus to Jerusalem had to stop at his customshouse and pay import taxes.He also received taxes from fishermen and the nearby Sea of Galilee.