Well, a couple weeks ago now we heard about how Jesus began to call men to follow him, to be his disciples.
We heard about Peter and the miraculous catch of fish.
And today as we continue the story of Jesus, we're going to hear about someone that we might have thought unlikely to become a follower of Jesus.
We're in Luke chapter 5, and we're picking up the story in Luke chapter 5 verse 27.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.
Follow me, Jesus said to him.
So Jesus is out and about, and he sees a tax collector.
And Luke tells us the name of this tax collector is Levi.
And Levi is there sitting at his tax booth.
We might wonder where all this took place.
Mark tells us in his gospel that the location of this encounter was near the lake, the Sea of Galilee.
It's possible that there was a tax booth right out at the lake, set up there in order to monitor the catches of the fishermen,
and to ensure that the taxes were paid on the fish.
Another possibility is that Jesus was at the lake, and he walked along until he entered one of the lakeside fishing villages,
perhaps Capernaum, and that Levi had his tax booth set up there in the little fishing village.
Another important question here is, who was Levi?
The Gospel of Mark says he was the son of Alphaeus.
We don't really know who Alphaeus was, so that doesn't really help us a whole lot.
But the Gospel of Matthew records the same account with the name Matthew used instead of Levi.
And so the traditional view held by Christians for centuries is that Levi, the son of Alphaeus, was Matthew.
This same tax collector became an apostle and later wrote the Gospel of Matthew.
Either he had two names, or perhaps Jesus gave him a name, Matthew, similar to how he gave the name Peter to Simon.
I'm just going to call him Levi this morning, since that's what Luke calls him here.
And finally, what was Levi doing?
Luke says Levi was a tax collector, sitting at his tax booth.
To fully appreciate what's about to happen next, it helps to understand a little about tax collectors back then in their culture.
Let's remember that Israel is under the control of the Roman Empire at this time.
And so with that comes a very different feeling when the tax bill comes due.
These taxes are not going towards your local schools or hospitals or community projects.
They're going to Rome to be used however the emperor decides.
They're going to Herod so that he can use them for his purposes, projects, whatever he wants to do with them.
Actually, it was a very complicated system.
In the northern part of Israel, Herod was the tetrarch of Galilee.
And he functioned as a sort of client ruler, such that there was no Roman governor in the region.
And Herod was obligated to pay taxes to Caesar, whatever the Romans asked for.
And Rome had set amounts on things.
There was the poll tax, which was collected annually on every adult male.
There was a land tax of 10% on grain harvests.
And 20% on wine, fruit, and olive oil.
There were customs and transportation taxes on all the goods and merchants and travelers of about 2% to 5%.
There was an inheritance tax of about 5%.
There was a sales tax on everything of 1%.
And those numbers might not sound too bad if you're thinking about our sales tax
or some of the numbers we have in Canada today.
But here's where it gets really ugly.
These were the amounts that Rome demanded from Herod.
And then what Herod and other Roman governors did was to add their own taxes on top of those.
And then they would go a step further and auction off the rights to collect taxes to the highest bidders.
So let's say that Herod was obligated to pay a million denarii, a million days' wages to Rome for his region.
He would look at that.
He would figure out how much he wanted for himself.
In addition to having to collect that amount, to add to his wealth, to build whatever projects or buildings or monuments he wanted to.
Of course, Herod's greed factored into this.
And so he might say, well, I'm going to aim to collect one and a half million denarii.
And so Herod would add his own taxes on top.
In Galilee, he put a 25% tax on all fishing since it was a big business in his region.
So you can imagine this.
Basically, one out of every four fish that you catch goes to the tax man.
And then this tax farming system worked like this.
Herod would essentially auction off the job of tax collector to the highest bidders.
Let's say that in a local district, the sort of minimum required by Herod to meet his goal was 200,000 denarii.
A guy might bid and say, well, I'll pay you 250,000 denarii to have the rights to collect in that district.
Then another guy might say, well, I think I can do better than that.
I'll bid 300,000.
And up and up it would go.
And the highest bidder would pay his bid in advance to Herod.
So Herod was guaranteed to get the money.
But then this tax collector was now let loose in that area and was able to collect as much as he could to cover his bid and make his own profits.
They could add on their own rates.
They could add on their own fees and surcharges and interest for late payments and penalties.
And they were backed by local authorities to do the collecting.
So if someone refused to pay, tax collectors could report them to Herod's officials.
And the officials had the power to seize property, to enforce fines, and even to imprison people.
So with this sort of a system, tax collection became a lucrative business for the wealthy few.
And the people ended up paying much more than the minimum percentages required by Rome and Herod.
Basically, these tax collectors, they would try to get as much as they could without causing backlash, without causing a revolt.
And as a result of this, tax collectors were utterly despised people.
They were thought of as robbers, bullies, swindlers, immoral scum.
Now with that context in mind, we can imagine the surprise that many would have had when Jesus saw this tax collector named Levi sitting in his booth and walks over to him.
Follow me, Jesus said to him.
And Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus.
Now a couple things about this exchange.
First of all, we need to understand what Jesus meant when he said, follow me.
This wasn't just a temporary, for the moment, invitation to come along.
That's often the way we use it when we use these words today.
Follow me, I'll take you there.
Or follow me, I'll show you.
But here, this imperative comes in the context of Jesus deliberately selecting men to be his followers, to travel around with him, to work with him.
This invitation is often spoken about by commentators in terms of a rabbi or teacher calling someone to be a full-time apprentice or pupil.
So that's what we should hear in Jesus' words.
When Jesus says, follow me, both Jesus and Levi know that this is an invitation not just to come with Jesus for the day, but to go with Jesus from now on.
And we can think over what Jesus has been doing.
He's been traveling all over the place.
He's been going town to town.
He's been going through the countryside.
He's making annual trips down to Jerusalem for the festivals.
We heard about how he gave the same call to Peter just before this, not too long before this.
And Peter and his brother Andrew and James and John, the fishermen.
For them, to follow Jesus meant leaving behind their daily, usual work.
Same here for Levi.
When it says that Levi got up, left everything and followed Jesus, it basically means that he's walking away from his job to follow Jesus.
You might be thinking, well, who's going to be sitting in the tax booth tomorrow?
Not Levi.
And notice the word everything.
He left everything and followed him.
The sense this gives us is that Levi was all in.
He wasn't planning to follow Jesus, you know, three days a week and then spend the other three at the tax booth, continuing to collect.
Another thought that I had about this exchange.
You know, it might seem strange to us to hear of Jesus just sort of walking up to Levi and saying, follow me.
And then Levi just leaving everything and following him.
Like, what's going on here?
Why did he do that?
Is this the first time they've met?
Now, I've never heard anyone say or suggest what I'm about to suggest, so take it with a grain of salt.
But it would seem to me that Levi, at the least, already knows who Jesus is.
It would seem that he understands what Jesus means when he says, follow me.
Remember that Jesus has been teaching in this region, all over the place.
News of Jesus has been spreading all over, even down as far as Jerusalem.
And if Levi is here by the lake, and Jesus has spent a fair bit of time out at the lake,
perhaps Levi knows a fair bit of what Jesus has been teaching.
He's been listening to it.
This is where the miracle catch happened recently with Peter.
Who knows?
Maybe Levi even had a professional interest in that haul of fish.
Maybe he was in charge of keeping tabs on the revenues of fishing in the area.
At the least, I think we can kind of see between the lines that Jesus is not a complete stranger to Levi in this moment.
Levi's been hearing things.
He's been seeing things.
He's probably heard a fair bit of Jesus' teaching.
And I would suggest that maybe, there's no way to know this for sure, but just maybe,
Levi was one of the tax collectors who responded to John the baptizer's preaching before Jesus began his public ministry.
If you recall back in Luke chapter 3, John was preaching a message of repentance,
and that God's judgment is coming for the wicked and disobedient.
And some tax collectors were there, and they asked, well, what should we do?
If we're going to turn from our wicked ways, what should we do?
How does it apply to our profession?
And John told them not to collect any more than they were required to.
Could Levi have been one of those tax collectors?
Again, it doesn't say here, but it makes sense that something was going on in Levi's heart leading up to this moment of decision,
such that now he's just ready to leave everything behind and follow Jesus.
Imagine, if you can, what it might have been like to be Levi.
Levi, a hated individual, despised by most people.
You have the memories of all the ways that you've taken advantage of people through your career.
You maybe never allowed yourself to feel the full weight of the shame and guilt you should have felt
as you took advantage of people, as you watched them suffer at your very hands,
as you pressed them again and again and again for more and more money,
even threatening.
But then all of a sudden, God begins to work in your heart.
Perhaps, as I said, through the preaching of John the Baptizer,
and your attitude is beginning to change.
Your heart's beginning to wake up to all the ways that you've hurt people.
You're beginning to see why they despise you.
And you don't blame them.
And then suddenly this man, Jesus, comes to your town.
Everybody goes to the synagogue to hear him.
You don't even dare to try and go see him at the synagogue
because the people don't even let you come in the door there.
But out at the docks where the fishermen are working,
you see him.
There on the shore of the lake, you hear him preaching.
And the words that he speaks are beginning to soften your heart.
You hear him speaking about righteousness and about love
and about the heart that we should have towards God
and the heart that he has towards us.
And Jesus is not like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law
with their hypocrisy and pride.
And you hear of Jesus calling people to follow him.
And many are going around with him everywhere that he goes.
And most of them are the very people who hate you.
And maybe you wonder,
could I ever be a follower of Jesus?
Would he even accept me
with who I am?
A tax collector.
And with the things that I've done to people.
Can you imagine what this moment must have been like
when Jesus locked eyes with Levi
sitting in the tax booth.
And instead of doing in that moment
what everybody else did and quickly looking away,
he begins to walk
right toward you.
He sees you like nobody else
has ever seen you
while you're in that booth
as a human being.
He's actually coming to you
to initiate with you.
And maybe you wonder,
what's he going to say?
Is he going to rebuke me
for how I've wronged so many people?
And it's none of that.
He simply says,
follow me.
And you can hardly believe your ears.
Like, me?
You're calling me?
It doesn't say what Levi was thinking or feeling,
but I imagine two things.
First, a sense of deep unworthiness.
And second, a realization
that this is the most amazing
and gracious opportunity ever.
And I don't want to miss out on this
for anything.
Levi gets up,
leaves it all behind,
and follows Jesus.
Verse 29.
Then Levi held a great banquet
for Jesus at his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were eating with them.
You get the sense that Levi was happy.
So happy to have been called by Jesus.
Like, we've got to celebrate.
Let's have a feast.
Let's throw a big banquet.
Let's do it at my house.
Jesus, you'll be the guest of honor.
I'm going to invite all my friends.
Who are the friends of the tax collector?
Other tax collectors
and other scoundrels
and sinners.
Luke says,
a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were eating with them.
Matthew and Mark
both say that it was
many tax collectors
and sinners.
And we'll see why they use that term
in a moment.
So the moral people,
the religious people,
they aren't even friends
with tax collectors like Levi.
But we also remember
that Levi was probably very wealthy.
and wealth attracts
all sorts of people.
Sinners was kind of a label
given to Levi
and his buddies
by the self-righteous Pharisees.
But there was also probably
some truth to that as well.
The kind of people
that would be friends
with a guy like Levi
were probably other greedy men
of means.
Swindlers.
Men and women
who were obviously immoral,
corrupt,
maybe collaborators,
traitors,
self-indulgent people,
given to drunkenness.
I mean,
the list could go on.
We notice
the adjectives.
Levi held a great banquet
and a large crowd
of tax collectors
and others
were eating with them.
So Levi doesn't just
kill the fattened calf,
he slaughters
half the herd.
He pulls out
all the stops,
a massive banquet,
massive feast.
And notice
who the banquet is for.
For Jesus.
To honor
and celebrate
Jesus.
And as you can imagine,
this kind of banquet
or party
is the last place
that some
would expect
Jesus to be.
Held by a tax collector
in his own mansion
with a large crowd
of other wealthy
tax collectors
and sinners,
would a holy man
like Jesus
even darken the door
of such a gathering?
Well,
he did.
And it was
met with criticism
from the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law.
Verse 30.
But the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law
who belong
to their sect
complained
to his disciples,
why do you eat
and drink
with tax collectors
and sinners?
In other words,
if you're a righteous
and holy,
devout man,
Jesus,
you would not
keep company
with immoral
and greedy men
like them.
But unbeknownst
to the Pharisees,
Levi's purpose
in this great feast
was noble.
It was a banquet
given for Jesus
to honor
and celebrate Jesus
who had just
called him
whom he has now
become a follower of.
The purpose
of this banquet
is not to engage
in gluttony
and drunkenness
nor is it to impress
all his wealthy friends.
It would seem
that Levi
is attempting
to bring his colleagues
and friends
together
so that they can
meet Jesus
personally.
To introduce them
to Jesus.
And there are
the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law
sitting on the sidelines
judging Jesus
and his disciples
for even attending.
Because of who's
at the party.
Why do you eat
and drink
with tax collectors
and sinners?
Jesus answered them,
It is not the healthy
who need a doctor
but the sick.
What an answer.
These words of Jesus
are loaded.
we notice Jesus
likens himself
to a doctor.
This is an amazing
analogy.
I was thinking about
this a lot this week.
Have you ever been
to a walk-in clinic
in the city?
Sometimes if it's busy
you're waiting
in the waiting area
with all kinds of people
and you see
and you hear them
coughing all around you
and sniffling
and you know
you're starting to worry
am I going to catch
something from them?
And you're trying
to keep your distance
and maybe you know
are these arms
on my chair?
Who was sitting here last?
Did they wipe their snot
all over this?
And you start to kind of
you know
curl up in a ball.
But then you get in
to see the doctor
and if you've ever seen
a good doctor
he cares about you.
He listens to you.
He examines you carefully.
He tries to figure out
what's the matter?
What are your symptoms?
What's the solution?
And he offers
his best advice
and solutions.
And you feel better
and then you walk out
and you see all the people
still waiting
in the waiting area
coughing
and sniffling.
Have you ever wondered
in those moments
just how the doctor
how often the doctor
gets sick
just from meeting
face to face
with sick people
all day long?
Have you ever felt
admiration
for the doctor
whose job it is
to get close
to every other person
in that waiting room?
The same people
that you were
moving away from
curling up
shielding yourself from.
Isn't the doctor
worried about getting sick
too?
What about his health?
What about his well-being?
It's an amazing analogy.
It highlights
how Jesus
is not concerned
so much about himself
like the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law.
His focus
is on others
and how he can help
them to get well.
He has compassion
on Levi's friends.
He cares about
each one of them
just like he cared
about Levi
the tax collector.
Like a doctor
Jesus moves
towards these people
who are spiritually
sick
in an effort
to see them
restored.
He wants to see
them made well
again
with God.
That's why
he goes to the banquet
because he loves
them
because he has
compassion on them.
He sees their need.
In fact
Jesus goes even
further in the next
statement
he says
this is his
very purpose
and mission
to call sinners
to repentance.
How can you do that
if you avoid
all contact
with them
and never
associate with them?
How can you do that
if you're always
trying to keep
your distance
from them?
And notice
what Jesus
the doctor does.
He says
I've come to
call the sick
the sinners
to repentance.
To repent
means to
acknowledge
and confess
your sins
to God
and to turn
away from
those sinful
attitudes and
behaviors
and to turn
to God
to seek to be
restored in
your relationship
with him.
So Jesus
doesn't condone
any of the
sinful attitudes
or behaviors
of the people
that he's
eating and
drinking
with at the
table.
He's there
to call
them to
repent.
He's there
to call
their evil
deeds and
attitudes what
they are
and turn
from those.
Turn back
to God.
Jesus
preached
repentance
just like
John the
Baptist,
John the
Baptizer
did.
This last
statement of
Jesus may
have had
some nuance
to it and
sometimes it
might be
difficult to
unpack it a
little bit.
I have not
come to
call the
righteous
but sinners
to repentance.
What does
Jesus mean by
this?
Is he
agreeing with
the Pharisees
and the
teachers of
the law
that yeah
they're
righteous and
they really
don't need
Jesus but
these sinners
well they
really need
me.
They're sick.
You guys
are well.
Well the
Pharisees they
certainly
thought of
themselves as
being
righteous.
We follow
the law
right down
to the
letter.
We're
experts in
the law.
We take
it seriously.
We take
it literally.
Not like
the Sadducees
and others.
And so
these words
are really
striking aren't
they?
I have not
come to
call the
righteous
to repentance.
Why not?
Is it
because they
don't need
to?
Or is
Jesus saying
something else
here?
I think
what Jesus
means to
say is
not that
they're
actually
righteous and
don't need
to repent.
We'll see
later on in
the gospel
Jesus has a
lot more
to say about
these people
and what
they've been
up to
that's not
righteous.
I think
what he's
saying is
that they
are self
righteous
because of
their
self
righteousness
they are
deaf to
his call.
They are
blind to
their need
for Jesus.
They won't
ever come
to see
Jesus the
doctor because
they don't
see themselves
as being
sick with
sin.
They see
themselves as
being well,
as being
healthy,
being right
with God
by their
own good
works,
by their
careful
keeping of
the law,
by their
own avoiding
contact with
sinners like
Levi and
his buddies.
This should
make us
think and
ask the
question,
what about
me?
How do
you see
yourself in
relationship
to Jesus?
Do you
see yourself
as healthy
or as
one who
is sick?
Jesus has
come as
a doctor.
Do you
need his
care?
Do you
need his
help?
Or are
you good
to go
without him?
Been doing
pretty good
on your
own.
Do you
see yourself
as a
sinner?
Or do
you see
yourself as
being
righteous?
A pretty
good person.
Do you
hear Jesus
calling to
you to
repent?
Have you
done that?
God makes
it very
clear in
other places
in his
word.
Romans
chapter 3.
There is
no one
righteous,
not even
one.
There is
no one
who
understands,
there is
no one
who seeks
God.
All have
turned away.
They have
together
become
worthless.
There is
no one
who does
good,
not even
one.
sin.
That's
our
condition.
He goes
on to say
a little
more.
Therefore,
no one
will be
declared
righteous
in God's
sight by
the works
of the
law.
Rather,
through the
law,
we become
conscious
of our
sin.
And just
down the
page a
little in
Romans 3.
There's
no difference
between Jew
and Gentile,
for all
have sinned
and fall
short of
the glory
of God.
So we've
all blown
it.
Every one
of us
is a
sinner.
And no
amount of
good works
on our
part can
make up
the
difference.
Our
guiltiness
cannot
just be
undone.
It can't
be wiped
away by
simply doing
more good
things than
the bad
things that
we've done.
We've still
done those
bad things.
We've still
sinned in
countless ways.
All of us
have.
None of us
are righteous.
We are all
sinners.
But here's
the good
news.
Hear these
words of
Jesus again.
I have
not come
to call
the righteous
but sinners
to repentance.
Jesus has
come to
call us
back into
a restored
relationship
with God.
Do you
hear that
call to
repent?
He's like
the doctor
that we
all need
to save
us from
sin's
deadly
effects in
us.
Let me
read the
rest of
this verse.
For all
have sinned
and fall
short of
the glory
of God
and all
are justified
freely
by his
grace
through the
redemption
that came
by Christ
Jesus.
I love
these words.
We can
all
be justified
made right
with God
by his
grace.
his gift.
His gift.
It's a
gift that
comes
by Christ
Jesus.
It's a
redemption
that comes
through Christ
Jesus.
How does
it work
we might
wonder.
How can
sinners
be justified?
How can
we be
made to
have this
right standing
with God?
Paul just
goes on
and tells
us
God
presented
Christ
as a
sacrifice
of
atonement
through the shedding of his blood
to be received by faith.
The Apostle Paul is talking about Jesus' death on the cross.
As we'll hear later in Luke,
Jesus will go on to offer himself as a sacrifice to God
to atone for our sins.
What that means is that Jesus freely, as a gift of grace,
will put himself forward on our behalf
and willingly take upon himself
the punishment that we deserve for our sins.
And God will accept this as payment in full
such that justice is done for the wrongs we've committed
and we can be let off the hook completely,
forgiven, spared what we deserve.
This is what happened when Jesus died on the cross.
We're getting close to that time of the year
when we turn our hearts towards that
with Easter coming or Resurrection Sunday, I should say.
But each month also we take time to remember
this amazing gift of God's love and grace.
His body, which is what the loaf of bread represents,
was broken.
His blood, which is what the cup represents,
ran out of his body as he hung there
and died on the cross.
We eat the bread and we drink from the cup
to remember his sacrifice of atonement for us.
The thing that he did to make us sinners well.
And so if you have repented,
if you have believed in Jesus,
then I want to invite you to partake with us this morning.
And if not, please just let the elements pass you by.
We'll take some time now to quietly reflect and pray.
And then we'll have Charles and Dave come
and pass out the elements.
Once you've received them,
I encourage you just to hold on to them
until everybody's been served.
And then we'll give thanks
and we'll eat and drink together.