“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me’.  And he got up and followed him” (NRSV, Matthew 9:9)

At the time when this momentous call came to Matthew, changing his whole life from that hour, Our Lord was already a widely discussed personality, not only round the Lake of Galilee but all over Northern Palestine and throughout the province of Syria.

Matthew’s office, from which he collected the customs payable by ships crossing the lake, commanded a good view of the beach where Our Lord was a frequent visitor and where much of his teaching was done when he stayed at Capernaum.  It is extremely likely, therefore, that Matthew had taken the opportunity to listen to Jesus on these occasions, and afterwards no doubt he discussed Our Lord, as indeed everyone was doing, with his own friends and business associates.

It may well be that he had thought of becoming a disciple himself, and perhaps wondered what he would do if Our Lord were to call him as he had already called some of the young fishermen he knew.  So when the call came, he got up without hesitation and, leaving the clerk in charge of the office, never went back to it again.  Like the other disciples, he also left all and followed him.

From that day forth his life no longer centred round the accumulation and spending of money, but round his personal relationship with Our Lord.  In view of his previous occupation with which no strict Jew, nor indeed any honest man, would associate himself, it is doubtful if he had made much practice of religion.  In any case, it would have been widely removed from the fervent and inspired devotion which now possessed him.  As his life became more closely associated with Our Lord’s, so religion became less and less an outside activity which could be put off like a coat.  Instead, it became a compelling force within his soul which gave impetus and direction to everything he did or planned.  His whole attitude to life, indoors and out of doors, was determined by one consideration – Our Lord first and last.

In our life, sooner or later, there comes also that moment of decision, when the issue can be delayed no more: “Is my religion – the relationship of my soul with God – to be given priority in my life or not?  Is my devotion to God to be the most important thing of all or is it to be an extra tacked on to the business of living?”

Of course, Our Lord calls only a few to give up all they possess and live a life of holy poverty.  It is not everyone whom he calls to join a religious community or go overseas as a missionary. We do well to remember, however, that it was to ordinary people like ourselves, living ordinary lives, that he addressed that hard saying, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…” (NRSV, Matthew 10:37).  For religion consists, not in obeying a list of rules, but in loving Our Lord ardently and steadfastly, and if we do that we shall find that the rules will look after themselves.

When Our Lord called the fishermen, he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).  He did not say that to Matthew but there is no doubt that Matthew knew he was being called for a further reason than that of sharing Our Lord’s life.  So he lost no time in holding a supper party that same day to which he invited his business acquaintances to meet his new Master.  Now that he was a definite disciple he was conscious of his responsibility for bringing as many as he knew to Our Lord.

Up to that day he had spent his life in getting money out of other people, now he began, and never ceased, to give other people something which he knew to be more valuable than all the money in the world – the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The same should be true of us.  If our religion is really important and valuable to us, we shall want others to share it too.  If Our Lord really matters to us more than anyone or anything else in the world, we shall not be content until we bring others to love him too.

When we have found Our Lord and our life is bound up with him in a way we cannot describe but only experience, then we have discovered the secret and the purpose of life.  But that secret is not to be kept to ourselves.

We must not imagine that people were brought to know and worship Our Lord in the early days of Christianity by the Apostles and their successors alone.  Christian congregations sprang up in places before the Apostles ever reached them.  For our holy religion was spread very largely by a cross-section of the Roman Empire – high placed officials, members of the Imperial household, professional and business men, housewives, soldiers, and often slaves.  It was the efforts of these people to win over their friends and acquaintances to the practice of the Christian religion which was the cause of the astonishing spread of Christianity in the 100 years following the Resurrection – that, and the exemplary lives they led.

The lesson we can draw from this is plain enough.  Every Christian worshipper today is also called to be a missionary in his or her own parish.  There must be many people who, with encouragement from their friends, might well be brought to Our Lord.

The need for such missionary work is as great now as ever it was, and, as St Matthew and countless others have showed, in what truer way can we prove our love for Our Lord than by bringing others to love him too?