Matthew 28:16-20
I think it is so appropriate that it was Matthew the Holy Spirit chose to relay to us the Great Commission of our Lord, since it’s all about making sure that everyone in the world has a chance to hear our Lord’s invitation to be a part of His Kingdom.
You see, when Matthew was called by Jesus to be His disciple, he was a tax collector, an outcast of society looked on as a traitor of his people and beyond God’s redemption.
In the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus is at Matthew’s house right after calling Matthew to follow Him, Jesus heard the Scribes and Pharisees grumbling about Jesus associating and eating with tax-collectors and sinners. In response, Jesus used the stories of the Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep and the Lost Son to call out the religious leaders for alienating people from God instead of doing what they could to reach them with God’s forgiveness and love. How grateful Matthew must have been that day that Jesus deemed him and his friends eligible for God’s forgiveness and love!
If there was ever a lost coin, it was Matthew, and Jesus found him.
If there was ever a lost sheep, it was Matthew, and Jesus went looking for him.
If there was ever a lost son, it was Matthew, and Jesus welcomed him home.
So listen now to these words of Jesus recorded faithfully by His servant Matthew, and as you do, may the Holy Spirit bless us with ears that hear clearly, and may the words reach deeply into our hearts.
