The Call of Discipleship

With a heavy heart, I was wandering through the old city center in Rome looking for a quiet place to pray and read my Bible. I stepped into a church halfway between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona and sitting down in an empty pew, it took me about 15 seconds to realize that I had not chosen wisely. The church (museum) was buzzing with activity and was anything but quiet. Most of the people were gathered around the chapel at the left front of the cathedral. So as I got up to leave, I decided to see what the fuss was about.

As I walked up to the chapel on the side of the church, someone inserted a coin into a box on the wall which illuminated the chapel, revealing three magnificent, nearly life sized, paintings including the one shown above: “The Calling of Saint Matthew.” All of the paintings are by Michelangelo Merisi commonly known as Caravaggio.

In the painting, we see Christ on the far right reaching out to Matthew (also called Levi) and challenging him to “Follow me.” (See Matthew 9:9-12.) Caravaggio captures Matthew at his moment of decision, with one hand pointing to himself, and one hand still grasping the coins on the table. But not only Matthew is shown here. The different reactions of the figures around the table reflect our common responses to God’s calling in our lives: surprise, indifference, astonishment, resentment, excitement, fear, etc.

As I looked at this painting and read a bit about it, the Lord really spoke to me, reminding me of my call to follow Christ. To be completely honest, I had been in a real slump facing financial difficulties, and having trouble trusting God to provide for the calling that I know He has given me. It was as if Christ was illuminating this dark place in my heart and asking, “Brian, will you follow me, or will you be consumed worrying about money?” Coming home to raise support has been a really challenging time of trusting God and relying on his grace to lead me through a crisis of discipleship, but I am truly excited to see the growth that He brings about in my life through this time as I choose to follow Him.

There is a lot more that could be said about this incredible painting, click here to watch a little video that talks a bit more about some of the symbolism in the painting.