Iron & Altar

"He said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him." - Matthew 9:9

Brother, Matthew's whole career before this morning was managing other people's money. He sat at a desk built for exactly that - collecting, calculating, keeping the books, taking his cut. Whatever else you say about a tax collector in first-century Judea, the man understood ledgers. He knew precisely what was owed, what was collected, and what he kept for himself.

Jesus says two words to him and Matthew leaves the entire operation sitting on the table. Not a resignation letter. Not two weeks' notice. He got up and followed him. A man who had spent his career keeping meticulous account of what everyone owed walked away from his own accounts without settling them.

That is the picture of a steward changing masters, not a steward abandoning stewardship. Paul's reading today names what Matthew got instead: grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Different economy, same structure - Matthew still gets a portion measured out to him, still has something entrusted to his care, still has to account for it eventually. Ephesians even lists the roles Christ appointed to build up the body, and Matthew becomes one of them - an evangelist, someone who spent the rest of his life keeping a different kind of book, the one that became the Gospel bearing his name.

What a faithful steward refuses, this final week of it: he refuses to let the ledger he's already built become the reason he can't get up when he's called to a better one. Matthew had a functioning system. It made him money. It also made him a man his own community despised, eating dinner with the only friends a job like that could get him. He left the functioning system the moment something better asked for him, without needing to see the whole plan first.

Name one thing you have been unwilling to leave, even though you suspect you've been called somewhere better, because the current arrangement is at least familiar and functioning. Take one concrete step this week toward getting up from it.

Lord, I have kept careful account of what I have and been slow to leave it, even when you called. Matthew got up the moment you spoke. Give me his speed. Amen.