Matthew 10:3

My Notes

What Does Matthew 10:3 Mean?

Matthew lists the twelve apostles, and in his own listing, he adds a descriptor to his own name that none of the other Gospel writers include: "Matthew the publican." The tax collector. The despised profession. The identity that should have disqualified him from everything Jesus offered. Matthew writes his own name in the official apostolic list and refuses to let the reader forget where he came from.

Publicans (tax collectors) were among the most hated people in Jewish society—collaborators with Rome, extorters of their own people, ritually unclean and socially ostracized. For Matthew to identify himself this way in his own Gospel is an act of deliberate humility. He could have left the label off. Nobody would have noticed. But he included it—because the label is part of the story.

The inclusion of "the publican" alongside the names of fishermen, zealots, and other disciples emphasizes the radical diversity of Jesus' chosen twelve. A tax collector and a zealot (political revolutionary) in the same group would be like putting a corporate lobbyist and a protest leader in the same room and calling them brothers. Jesus' circle was defined by His call, not by human compatibility.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What label from your past would you add to your name if you were as honest as Matthew? Would you include it or hide it?
• 2.Why do you think Matthew chose to include 'the publican' when he didn't have to? What does that reveal about his relationship with his past?
• 3.How do you relate to your past—do you hide it, glorify it, or acknowledge it as the setting for grace?
• 4.If your worst label is the context for your greatest miracle, how does that change how you carry it?

Devotional

Matthew writes his own name in the list of apostles and adds a label nobody forced him to include: "the publican." The tax collector. The traitor to his own people. The man despised by everyone. He writes it down himself. He wants you to know.

Why include it? He could have simply said "Matthew" and moved on. The other Gospel writers don't add "the publican" when they list him. But Matthew does. He writes his shame into the official record because his shame is the setting for his miracle. Without the publican label, you don't fully appreciate what Jesus did by choosing him.

This is the healthiest possible relationship with your past: not hiding it, not glorifying it, but acknowledging it as the context for grace. Matthew doesn't say "Matthew, the former publican who has since made up for it." He says "Matthew the publican." Present tense. The identity he occupied when Jesus found him is permanently attached to his name—not as condemnation but as testimony. This is what I was. And Jesus called me anyway.

If you have a label that should have disqualified you—a past that polite people don't mention, an identity that respectable circles would rather forget—Matthew gives you permission to write it down next to your name. Not because the label defines you. But because the grace that reached past it does. Your label is the context for your miracle. Don't erase it. Testify through it.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture