The Call of St. Matthew and Evangelization

The call of St. Matthew is a fascinating moment in the Gospel of Matthew and offers a glimpse of what effective evangelization can look like. The story is told in Matthew 9: 9-13:

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Jesus calls Matthew to follow him and Matthew immediately gets up and follows him. We don’t know exactly what happened next, but we know that later Jesus and his disciples ate dinner at Matthew’s house. The text mentions that tax collectors and sinners were also there and sat with Jesus and the disciples. The focus of this passage usually becomes about Jesus eating with sinners and his mission to heal the sick. However, we can forget a very important point here. How did the tax collectors and sinners get there in the first place?

What does it mean that tax collectors and sinners were also there? It means that Matthew’s friends were there. Jesus called Matthew and Matthew followed Jesus and he brought his friends along with him. We do not know exactly what happened after Matthew left his customs post to follow Jesus, but surely at some point he must have invited his friends to come to his house with Jesus.

Too often we can overcomplicate evangelization and worry about what we are supposed to say or what we are supposed to do. The most simple and obvious first step is to bring our friends with us to what we are already doing. Matthew followed Jesus and he invited his friends to come join him in something he was going to do with Jesus.

There is so much we are doing in our lives already (going to mass, going to Bible study, going to events at the Church, going over to friends' houses to share authentic Christian community etc.) that we could simply invite our friends to join us in doing. Every person can think of people they are surrounded with, whether at work or in their neighborhood or other activities they are involved in, who don’t have a relationship with God or maybe very little of one. Invite those people to join you in what you are already doing. The disciple gets called by Jesus and invites his or her friends to join them in what they are already doing with Jesus.