The Man at the Booth
Before Jesus called him, Matthew sat at a tax booth in Capernaum, a busy town on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus based much of His ministry (Matthew 4:13). Tax collectors in first-century Galilee gathered tolls and customs for the Roman-backed authorities, and they were despised for it — so much so that Scripture regularly pairs the phrase "tax collectors and sinners" as a single category of outcast (Matthew 9:10-11; Luke 5:30). Mark identifies him as Levi son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14), while the first Gospel calls the same man Matthew (Matthew 9:9), suggesting he was known by both names.
Matthew would have been financially comfortable but socially isolated — cut off from respectable religious life, viewed as a traitor by his neighbors. He is a picture of the person who has gained security at the cost of belonging.
Read it: Matthew 4:13 · Matthew 9:9 · Mark 2:14 · Luke 5:27
Two Words That Changed Everything
As Jesus passed by the booth, He saw Matthew sitting there and simply invited him to follow (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14). All three Synoptic Gospels record no hesitation: Matthew got up and followed. Luke adds the detail that he left everything behind (Luke 5:28) — a costly decision, since a tax franchise abandoned was almost certainly a career ended.
The brevity of the account is part of its power. Jesus did not require Matthew to clean up his reputation first. He extended the call while Matthew was still sitting in the seat of his compromise, and Matthew's obedience was immediate and total.
Read it: Matthew 9:9 · Mark 2:14 · Luke 5:27-28
A Banquet for Sinners
Matthew's first recorded act as a disciple was hospitality. Luke says he held a great banquet at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others joined Jesus at the table (Luke 5:29; Mark 2:15). Matthew did the most natural thing a new believer can do — he introduced Jesus to the people he already knew, the very people polite society had written off.
When the Pharisees objected to Jesus eating with such company, Jesus answered that healthy people do not need a doctor — the sick do — and that He had come to call sinners, not the righteous (Matthew 9:12-13; Luke 5:31-32). In Matthew's account, Jesus also pointed His critics to Hosea's teaching that God desires mercy rather than sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). Matthew's dinner table became the setting for one of Jesus' clearest statements of His mission.
Read it: Matthew 9:10-13 · Mark 2:15-17 · Luke 5:29-32
One of the Twelve
Matthew was chosen as one of the twelve apostles, and in the list found in the first Gospel he is pointedly identified as "the tax collector" (Matthew 10:3) — a label the other Gospel lists omit (Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15). If Matthew wrote or stands behind that Gospel, as tradition holds, it reads like a man refusing to hide his own past.
As an apostle, Matthew was sent out to preach, heal, and drive out demons (Matthew 10:1, 5-8). Remarkably, the Twelve included both Matthew, who had collected taxes for the ruling powers, and Simon the Zealot, associated with resistance to those same powers (Matthew 10:3-4) — a living demonstration that Jesus builds one family out of natural enemies.
Read it: Matthew 10:1-8 · Mark 3:18 · Luke 6:15
Witness to the Risen Lord
Matthew walked with Jesus through His Galilean ministry, the journey to Jerusalem, and — as one of the Twelve — was commissioned with the others to make disciples of all nations after the resurrection (Matthew 28:16-20). Luke names Matthew among the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, devoting themselves to prayer as they awaited the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:13-14).
That verse in Acts is the last time Scripture mentions Matthew by name. The Bible leaves his later ministry unrecorded, which makes the traditions about him — treated in the next chapter — matters of history and tradition rather than biblical testimony.
Read it: Matthew 28:16-20 · Acts 1:13-14
The Gospel Writer (According to Tradition)
The first Gospel is formally anonymous — nowhere does its text name its author. But from the second century onward, church tradition has attributed it to Matthew. The early writer Papias, as quoted by the historian Eusebius, claimed Matthew compiled the sayings or accounts of Jesus, and later church fathers echoed the attribution. This is why the church has always called it "the Gospel according to Matthew," though readers should understand this as early and widespread tradition rather than a claim the Bible itself makes.
The attribution fits the man: a tax collector would have been literate, numerate, and skilled at careful record-keeping. The Gospel's deep concern to show Jesus fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures (for example, Matthew 1:22-23; Matthew 2:15) suggests an author writing so that Jewish readers would recognize their Messiah. Later traditions say Matthew ministered beyond Judea — regions such as Ethiopia or Persia are named in various accounts — and that he died a martyr, though the details vary and none of this is recorded in Scripture. These accounts are tradition, offered with appropriate humility.
Read it: Matthew 1:22-23 · Matthew 2:15