"He is able to save...all who come to God through him." Hebrews 7:25
Back in 1996, Craig Randall was 23 years old, and he drove a garbage truck for Waste Management up around Boston. Sometimes Craig liked to bring his work home with him: There was an old-fashioned sewing machine he salvaged, also some books that he got from the trash.
Then one day, Craig lifted a cup off a pile of trash. It was a contest cup from Wendy's. The week before, Craig had found another cup, and when he peeled the sticker, he won a chicken sandwich. This time, he figured he'd win some fries to go with it. But this time the sticker said: "Congratulations -- You have won $200,000 toward a new home."
Craig turned trash into treasure. And that's what Jesus Christ wants to do in our lives.
A Christian leader writes: The Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari was a poor man. And yet his violins are now the most prized violins ever made because of the rich and resonant sound they produce. The unique sound of a Stradivarius cannot be duplicated. What may surprise you is that these precious instruments were not made from treasured pieces of wood; they were carved from discarded lumber.
Because Stradivari couldn't afford fine materials, he got most of his wood from the dirty harbours where he lived. He would take those waterlogged pieces of wood to his shop, clean them up, and dry them out. Then, from those trashed pieces of lumber, he would create instruments of rare beauty. It has since been discovered that while the wood floated in those dirty harbours, microbes infiltrated the wood and ate out the centres of those cells. This left just a fibrous infrastructure of wood that created resonating chambers for the music. From wood that nobody wanted, Stradivari produced violins that now everybody wants.
Jesus found Matthew sitting at work in the tax office, and that stirred up the Lord's enemies because Matthew was certainly considered to be a piece of human trash. Again, he was a hated tax-collector for the Romans.
William Barclay explained that "There was never a more unlikely candidate for being an Apostle than Matthew. He was what the King James Version calls a "publican." That's because these tax collectors dealt with public money, and they were hated by almost everybody because they served their country's Roman conquerors. Tax collectors were also notoriously dishonest. Not only did they cheat their own countrymen. They tried their best to swindle the government. They also made a thriving income by taking bribes from rich people who wanted to avoid paying the taxes they owed."
John Phillips added that this type of tax collector also had great power to take out "his spite on people, play favourites, and inflict hardship. They could force merchants to stop their journeys, unload their animals, and open every package. They could ransack through it all, read private letters, and generally make life miserable for people. There were bridge tolls, road taxes, harbour dues, and property taxes, as many taxes as greedy imaginations could invent.
Matthew may have been a piece of human trash, but in vs. 9 Jesus found him sitting at work in the tax office. Jesus finds us. He meets us right where we are. That's because in Luke 15 and John 10, Jesus truly is the Good Shepherd who goes into the wilderness to find His lost sheep.
You say, 'How does any of this relate to me?' Just as this violin maker transformed rubbish into treasure, God can transform you into what you were actually meant to be. You may say, 'But you don't know how low I've fallen or the things I've done. I doubt that Jesus could save and transform someone like me!' Give him a try. Put him to the test. You won't be disappointed. The Bible says, 'He is able to save completely all who come to God through him' (Hebrews 7:25).
Sources
1. BARCLAY'S DAILY BIBLE STUDY SERIES (NT) by William Barclay, Revised Edition - Copyright 1975 - First published by the Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland - The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - "The Man Whom All Men Hated" - Matthew 9:9 - https://www.primobibleverses.com/view/william-barclay/the-growth-of-opposition-matthew-91-34
2. EXPLORING THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "Matthew - The Willing Disciple" - Matthew 9:9 - Downloaded to "Bible Study 6" from Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc.
3. The Word for Today NZ
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