An Iberian Wolf (Canus Lupus Signatus), a grey wolf subspecies, ranges in Northwestern Spain and Northern Portugal (a region known as the Iberian Peninsula). Essentially, all of Spain and Portugal comprise the Iberian Peninsula, all the way up to the Pyrenees Mountain Range, which is a natural barrier between Spain and France. It is the mountainous regions that are the home of a healthy population of many bands of Iberian Wolves, estimated to number just under 3,000 members.
A wolf subspecies will mate with other wolf subspecies, and even with coyotes and dogs. When that happens, the DNA pool is polluted, resulting in both gains and losses in the health of generations of wolves that arise from cross-breeding. There are no coyotes running wild in the Iberian peninsula, and in theory, pet dogs that get loose in the mountainous region will not live long in the wild. Web search images of Iberian Wolves to behold a stunning array of captivating faces, yellow eyes, and reddish-brown fur laced with patches of grey. Their looks get your attention, and although one cannot help but admire them, they also communicate, “Yeah, I’ll eat you.”
An apex predator that requires 2.2 pounds of meat in its diet every day, it is best for you not to foray alone in their territory at night, when they actively hunt in packs. The wolf’s success at taking prey, including domesticated livestock, and in olden times, a child or weak adult too, got the subspecies put on “the kill list” in most villages and towns. Today, Iberian Wolves are somewhat protected in the mountain areas, but as their population increases, so does the need for packs to range out toward humanity. Then, the old fear returns and humanity takes them out of the picture. Web search Matthew 9: 9-12 to read what happened to “a wolf of sorts” who lived among the Jewish people more than 2020 years ago.
Matthew, the author of the Christian Biblical passage that you read, was a tax collector for the Roman Empire. Jewish tax collectors were employed by the Romans because they knew which Jews made income, when, how, and how much profit they made, better than any Roman could know. The Romans did not pay them. Rather, they required the tax collectors to turn over a certain value amount at set times each week, and any tax collected by them above that amount was their fee for service to keep. The better the tax collectors did their job, the greater was their personal wealth. To the Jewish population, these tax collectors were like wolves who preyed upon their own people.
Jesus, the Christ that was promised, selected Matthew to become one of his 12 disciples, a small number of men whom Jesus taught during his 3 year ministry. In order for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, Jesus’ ministry had to remembered and understood by the rest of living mankind, then, today, and into the future. With two words (“Follow Me.”), Jesus’ invitation to Matthew compelled him to walk away from his lucrative business to become a disciple. Powerful Jewish Priests (the Sadducees) and enforcers of Jewish Religious Law (the Pharisees) publicly hounded Jesus, accusing him of being a “rogue Rabbi” for employing and being around such “wicked people” like tax collectors, adulterers, and sick people like lepers.
Why do you suppose that God would want his son to represent himself in this way? To me, there is only one answer: Because he can. I think it was a subtle demonstration of the power of God that he can wash over all of us like a mighty ocean wave and turn us into anything, yet, he chooses to show us the way, to invite us to look for him, and he will delight in you doing your best to get to know him. He already knows you. Web search four passages in the Bible that tell us how precious each child is to God, and how great are his hopes for each one of us: Jeremiah 1:5, Galatians 1:15, Isaiah 44:24, & Isaiah 49:15.
