By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Matthew, sitting at the customs house, as a tax collector, heard the Lord say to him: "Follow me." At that very moment he got up and followed Him. He gave him great hospitality in his house, as the Gospel says, and he was numbered among the Apostles. He, after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit and learning divine things, wrote the Gospel according to him and sent it to the Jews. He taught the Parthians and the Medes, founded a Church, and after performing many miracles, he was then perfected by fire by the unbelievers.
Saint Theophanes, the hymnographer of the service and of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, focuses our attention on two main points through his hymns about him: first, on the fact of his calling by the Lord, so that from a publican he could become an apostle; second, on the writing of his Gospel. In order to understand the significance of this conversion, one should know that the term “publican” at that time was identical with the term “sinner”. This is because the publicans were those who, by renting the taxes that the sovereign Romans had imposed on the Jews, later demanded them multiplied. They were therefore considered to be those who literally “sucked” the blood of the people, due to their great injustice. In fact, the following incident has been recorded about him, which very directly reveals the sinfulness of tax collectors. A tax collector who went to collect taxes from a poor Jew found that he had died a few days prior. So what did he do? In order to extort payment from the relatives of the deceased, he dug up the corpse and began to scourge it. Thus publican and sinner were identical terms.
The Hymnographer therefore focuses on Matthew's conversion - "“the evangelist, once a tax collector, Matthew the most excellent, as he followed you, was transformed into a mouthpiece of God, O Creator of all, through your almighty power" - explaining to us, however, that this happened on the one hand because Christ Himself gave this power, and on the other hand because the Lord, as the discerner of hearts, saw his divine intention, despite all his sinful activity, and thus redeemed him from the world of injustice: what happened, as we had previously noted, also with the Apostle Paul, for example. And this means: the Lord, foreknowing the good will of man, calls man to follow Him, so that subsequently He strengthens him in various ways. “The one who searches the hearts of men, when He saw your divinely inspired intention, Apostle, by divine foreknowledge, has delivered you from the world of injustice.” Proof of the truly good disposition of the tax collector Matthew was his immediate reaction: he left everything, every earthly care, and willingly followed Christ, for Whom he ultimately gave his very life. “When Christ called you to the heavenly discipleship, you eagerly followed, O God-possessed one, renouncing all earthly preoccupations, being fully present in His service.” Superficially, he appeared to be a sinner who did injustice to the world. Inwardly, he was ready to accept God’s call. How wrongly we humans judge and how just is God’s judgment. That is why the Lord calls us to “judge not according to appearance, but judge with a righteous judgment.”
However, Saint Matthew, as we said, also became an evangelist: “the evangelist, once a tax collector.” This is the second point that the Hymnographer highlights, using very beautiful images. He reminds us first of all that he was the first to write a Gospel: first in Hebrew and then with his own transcription into Greek. “You were the first to write the Gospel of Christ.” Resulting in illuminating the entire world – "illuminating the entire world" – and enlightening the nations with the radiance of his Gospel: "and you have enlightened the peoples with the radiance of the Gospel." This illumination of the world through the Gospel of Matthew is, according to the Hymnographer and according to the faith of the Church in general, the illumination of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Matthew reached down into the depths of the Spirit and understood His inexhaustible wealth. He therefore drew upon this grace and distributed it to all men. “You have penetrated into the depths of the Spirit, O Apostle, and understood the inexhaustible wealth; and from it, having drawn forth the abundant grace, you distribute all this to us in the Gospel.”
There is no way that anyone can study the Gospel of Saint Matthew and not be captured by its divinely-woven nets. It is enough to study it with a good disposition and with faith. He will find that the Spirit of God who enlightened Matthew will enlighten him as well. Consequently, he will be led to the awareness of God Himself, the greatest treasure in this world. As the Hymnographer says: “The faithful are captured by the divinely woven nets of the disciple Matthew, and are always guided toward Your knowledge, benefactor Lord." And yet: it is the Gospel of Matthew that emphasizes par excellence the day of Judgment, the Second Coming of the Lord. A writing that, when taken seriously, makes man wake up from laziness and walk according to the will of God. For, with the limit of God's Judgment, he chooses to think and act in ways that will withstand that hour: whatever constitutes enrichment of the soul. "You have stirred the souls of the idle… having become the first evangelist in the world, marking the hour of judgment."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
