You ever have one of those friends just remembers absolutely everything and they come through for birthdays and

and they follow up the next time you see

them on some little trifling thing that you brought up pay. How did that deal work

out at work with that one lady? Wow! Thank you for asking. I can't believe you even remembered that. You have that kind of friend? Maybe you are that kind of friend. If you are, God bless you. You are awesome. I'm not nearly attentive enough. I miss things like that too often and I don't like that sometimes it might convey to people that I don't care as much as I actually do.

I think that's a cool way to let people know that you give a rip about them and that you're being thoughtful about things in general.

And I've got a friend, though we are divided a bit chronologically in terms of when we were born. I still think he's somebody who really

does a good job of following through on things. And that is Matthew, the Gospel writer Matthew,

with whom we have spent a whole bunch of time together over the last three years and

change.

I just got a sneaking suspicion that the same thing that made Matthew a good candidate to be

a meticulous nitpicky state-sponsored stooge who went around and

made sure that everybody paid all the right things and I have some questions about

these receipts and deductions all of that stuff to make sure that the occupying Romans

got paid every last penny that they were owed. Once he got flipped to a different set of values

coming out of his encounter with Jesus in Matthew chapter 9. I bet all

that stuff went into attentiveness to little details that matter. Things about

people's lives, things about big picture stuff.

And I'm not just guessing or making that up.

I feel like I know this guy pretty well.

I feel like you do too.

I think Matthew, as we look at his book, we see that he pays off everything.

If he introduces a theme, he's going to round that theme out. We spent the last three days looking at a gigantic theme in the

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