Come, Be My Disciple - The One Year Devotions for Men on the Go

As Jesus was going down the road, he saw Matthew sitting at his tax-collection booth. “Come, be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9

Matthew had developed complicated procedures for collecting taxes, and they ensured him a healthy profit. He had devised sophisticated formulas for assessing the value of other people’s property, and he had built himself a reputation. He had learned that you had to be tough to be successful and that good business did not always make for good friends. He was committed to success. He was skilled in negotiation, and he knew how to close the big deals. Many people disliked him, but everyone feared him. He was self-sufficient and hardened by the realities of life. He believed he had found the necessary balance of life and was content to live out his successful but lonely existence.

Then he met Jesus. There was no fanfare; there were no lectures. Jesus didn’t point out the misalignment of his priorities or argue with him over the bankruptcy of his inner life. He simply said, “Come, be my disciple.”

Matthew had never heard anything so simple and so profound. If Jesus had confronted him, he could have fought back. If Jesus had argued with him, he could have defended himself. But Jesus simply said, “Come, be my disciple.” There were no defenses and no schemes. Matthew was left with nothing to do but get up and follow him.

When Jesus calls us to follow him and be his disciples, we don’t need to defend ourselves or our past actions, and we don’t need to tell Jesus why it might not be a good idea to call people like us to follow him. We just need to get up and follow.

Lord, help me every day to obey your call to follow you.