Mistaken Identity

Cary Grant plays a man mistaken for a government agent in the iconic Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest (1959). A mysterious organization assumes he is a spy trying to smuggle government secrets in microfilm out of the country. They pursue him, and he tries to elude them to keep himself safe. In the Wrong Man, another Alfred Hitchcock movie, Henry Fonda, a musician, enters the bank to borrow money to pay for his wife’s surgery. He is mistaken as someone who formerly robbed the bank.

Sometimes, biblical characters, too, get mistaken identities. Mark reported that when Jesus was arrested in the garden, one young man left his clothes and ran away naked. Unfortunately, he helped Christians to assume he was that naked man! Another mistaken identity is confusing Matthew with Levi, two of Jesus’s disciples.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read the story of Jesus inviting Matthew, who was sitting at the tax collector’s booth, to follow him (Matt 9:9). In the Gospels of Mark and Luke, we have a similar story where Jesus saw Levi sitting at the tax collector’s booth and invited him to follow (Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27). Putting them together, some assume Matthew and Levi were the same; even worse, Matthew the tax collector was one of Levites, the priests. But, although Matthew’s father wasn’t listed in any of the Gospels, Levi was said to be “the son of Alphaeus.” In the listings of the apostles, we don’t see Levi, but we do see Jacob, “the son of Alphaeus,” who is often paired with Matthew (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Both were tax collectors.

After healing many in Capernaum, Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee. The crowd followed him, and he taught them (Mark 2:13). As he walked around, he saw Levi/Jacob, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth and invited him to follow him. He immediately left his post and followed Jesus (2:14).

The Hebrews considered the tax collectors evil because they exchanged Hebrew coins without any image on them, shekel, for Roman coins with the emperor’s image on them to pay the taxes. Touching an image or icon of a person made them break the Law that said, “You shall make no image before me” (Exod 20:4). Thus, they were considered lawbreakers or sinners. Once they broke one law, it was easy for them to break others, including ‘You shall not steal,’ and they charged exuberant taxes, which further angered the people.

Levi’s life changed when Jesus invited him, the tax collector, to follow him. He invited many other tax collectors and sinners to his house and gave them a feast. Jesus and his disciples joined them (Mark 2:15). Scribes and Pharisees, on the other hand, were angry that Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors (2:16). Hearing their accusation, Jesus said,

“The strong ones do not need a doctor, but the evil ones [non-good] do. I didn’t come to invite the righteous but the sinners.” (2:17)

The scribes and Pharisees made a mistaken identity – they thought Jesus was a teacher like them who had come to explain the law to them. They didn’t understand his mission was to the sinners and tax collectors. He had come to help the evil ones. In thinking of themselves as righteous and strong, the scribes and Pharisees had missed the close fellowship with Jesus.

Our self-righteousness can keep us away from Jesus. Our sinfulness or awareness of sinfulness draws us closer to him.