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Thoughts on Today's Verse.... After capturing the hearts of the crowd, Jesus now calls another disciple, Levi — also known as Matthew. Two things are significant about this calling. Jesus called someone no other religious leader would have chosen, a tax collector and Roman sympathizer — to any Jew of Jesus' era, Matthew would have seemed very much like a traitor to his heritage and to his faith. Levi, this tax collector, followed Jesus, leaving behind his livelihood and his fortune. Jesus' call of Matthew and Matthew's definitive and immediate response to follow Jesus provide us a powerful reminder that we should write off no one as unreachable with the Gospel or unusable by our Lord.