Wednesday is St. Matthew's Feast Day. He started out as a despised and hated tax collector. I wrote an article for those who want to learn more about this interesting sinner and apostle.
“If looks could kill, he’d be dead. The Jews glared at Levi as he counted his coins. Tax collectors in Israel had great wealth and were considered renegades and traitors. Levi, a Galilean Jew who was also called Matthew, would soon be despised for more than confiscating money from his own people. He would be an outcast for following Jesus. One day Matthew, son of Alphaeus (Mk 2:14), was sitting at his booth collecting taxes for Rome and a young rabbi named Jesus walked by and “saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ . . . .
For the rest of the story, click here.
For other summaries of NT books, click here.