January 31, 2021
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27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him. – Luke 5:27-28
Of all the calling stories in the Bible, the calling of Levi might be one of my favorite. It teaches us that change is not easy. Change requires a lot of effort on our part, it requires a lot of trust on our part, it requires us to do something, or give up something, or a combination of the two.
So Jesus says to Levi, a wealthy tax collector, one who is despised among his own people because, like most tax collectors in that time, a little extra is given to them off the top (or in some cases they took a little off the top) to further their personal wealth. They were seen as crooks of their own people. It’s why we often, in Scripture, see the phrase: “tax collectors and sinners” because to the Jews, and as called out by the Pharisees, these were one in the same.
Yet, Jesus calls Levi, and Levi immediately leaves his tax table behind, and goes with Jesus. Levi leaves behind the life that he has in luxury, though he is despised by his own people, for the purpose of following Jesus. In the case of Levi, he has to do the both, the giving up of something old, and the doing of something new.
This tax collector leaves his life as it was, and enters into a new life, now working with Jesus to give hope to the poor, and encouragement to the down-trodden. Eventually, recording all of these works in a gospel that we know in his geek name, Matthew.
However, at the time Matthew was called, he still had friends from his old way of life, they like him were sinners. And as Jesus called Levi from his table, collecting taxed, Levi invited Jesus into his home, he gathered the sinners he know together, to have a feast with Jesus.
Now that there is a sermon in and of itself, of how when we do change, when we do repent, our call is not just to leave behind everything we once knew, and to just forget about the people of our past; but like in the case of Levi, let’s give them the opportunity to hear this reason for a change in our life. It is the job of the redeemed let people know of our redemptions and let them make a decision for themselves. Let’s lead them to the fountain of living water that they might drink form the never ending well of the Holy Spirit and find their lives forever changed, because that is what happened to us.
Grace & Peace,
Sam