Luke 5:27-32
After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Just a word about tax collectors. They were regularly despised by their neighbors. Why? Because they were Jews who were employed by the Romans to collect a tax from their neighbors, a tax that supported the Roman occupation and oppression. Not only that, but they worked essentially on commission. So the more they collected for the Romans – and squeezed from their neighbors – the more they made. So, yeah, they were routinely despised as traitors and profiteers who got rich off the misery of their people.
Yet when Levi hears Jesus’ call, he follows. Not only that, but in a pattern familiar to the gospel, he “got up, left everything, and followed him.” While we can speculate at length as to the reasons Levi followed – dissatisfaction with his own life, a desire to do something different, the charismatic presence of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, all of the above, and so on – we don’t finally know. Neither Levi nor Luke tells us. We only know he went.
And apparently he went in style, throwing a huge banquet for Jesus – and probably paying for it out of his ill-gotten gains – to celebrate his new life and leader. And of course about the only folks who would go to a party thrown by Levi would be, well, other tax collectors. Indeed, probably about the only friends Levi had were other tax collectors and various other folks of ill repute and low social standing.
No wonder, then, that the Pharisees grumble. Imagine seeing your pastor come out of an adult bookstore, or emerge early in the morning from the all-night casino, or stumble late at night from a local bar. That’s kind of what it felt like to them when they saw Jesus attend this “great banquet.”
But now take note: in Jesus’ response to their reasonable complaint we discover the heart and sum of Luke’s gospel, maybe of the gospel. He has not come for those who have it together, but those who are falling apart. He has not come for those who have made it to the top, but those struggling at the bottom. He has not come for the respectable, but for the despised. He has not come for those who are “healthy, wealthy, and wise,” but rather those who are sick, poor, and lost. He hasn’t come, finally, for the righteous – and notice he doesn’t dispute that his critics are righteous – but for the unrighteous.
Jesus comes for those who are in need and who are struggling. Period.
Sounds great, until you realize that unless you acknowledge that at some essential level that’s your category – that is, unless you can admit your deep down and profound need – Jesus has nothing to offer you.
Maybe that’s why Levi left everything behind and followed him.
What about you?
Prayer: Dear God, come into our lives that we might recognize our need and receive your offer to meet it deeply and truly. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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