Our minds can easily conjure up people that we find absolutely deplorable, whether we think of those who are on the opposite side of us politically, or those who come from places with different customs from ours. Every once in a while, we can unite behind the idea that some people who have committed the most heinous acts are the worst of the worst. We often see those who profit from others’ suffering as traitors to their community. This is exactly how the leaders in the church viewed Levi, and Jesus bypassed them and invited him to be a core leader in his movement. We often believe we must clean ourselves up to be found by God, and we complain when messy people enter the church. However, the gospel tells a different story. Jesus seeks us directly in our sin, and a repentant response leads to a joyous invitation; if we are honest when we look in the mirror, we need the Great Physician as much as the worst offenders and the truly messy folks in our community.
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him. 29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021), Lk 5:27–32.
Looking to the results of Jesus approaching the tax booth in Capernaum. In Luke 5:27, we read: “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” In the first century, tax collectors were the ultimate traitors, as they often used extortion while working for the occupying Roman Empire. They were so reviled that the Jewish leaders made special dispensation for them and allowed the people to hide the truth or outright lie to a tax collector because they were so closely tied to the practice of extortion. When Jesus arrives, Levi is not looking for Him, because he was actively working in a corrupt and sinful system. Jesus calling out to this agent for the Roman government is divine initiative, showing us that God reaches out to us before we ever have the sense to reach out to Him. Jesus is not repulsed by the messy nature caused by the spiritual dirt on Levi’s hands. Most people in Capernaum would avoid him by moving to the other side of the road; counterculturally, Jesus walked directly toward him and engaged the man. Jesus meets us as sinners without waiting for moral purity before issuing the call, completely unintimidated and unshocked by our worst mistakes or addictions.
Jesus’ invitation demands a response, and when we see Levi’s reaction, it reveals the full understanding of his need for repentance: “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” (Luke 5:28–29). As Levi encounters the true nature of Jesus’ unmerited grace, he is changed instantly. There isn’t a period of scolding or a forced recollection of all his errors, but instead, in Jesus’ presence he is made new. Repentance is not a somber, isolated sitting with guilt to be worked off; instead, it shines through a massive, joyful feast. Levi, affected by grace, wants to hold a banquet so that the others in his life can encounter Jesus and experience change. Jesus, in turn, is not adversely affected by spending time with the messy; there is no need for shame or a shower before entering into fellowship. That’s why so many who have experienced conversion seek to share the experience and the power that changed their life; this same experience prompts Levi to invite his entire network of fellow outcasts. Seeing this reaction, we should remember when we first encountered Jesus. Therefore, as we experience grace, our instinct shouldn’t be to hide in a holy huddle, but to throw the doors open wide.
Unfortunately, much of the religious elite will not embrace this approach to welcoming in the sinner completely. Radical openness inevitably draws criticism from those who claim righteousness for themselves. If they have to live a certain way and do things for several years, then everyone should have to do the same. Instead of letting everything go in the presence of one who removes all shame and all sin, the religious complain about the sinner. Luke’s account continues: “The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘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’” (Luke 5:30–32). The complaints surface through their pride, which somehow convinces them they are superior to the people at Levi’s table. They view sin as something “those people” do. Still, Jesus’ response reminds them of the importance of repentance. We are all spiritually sick, in need of healing. If we think we are fully immune, the disease of pride has blinded us. In the grand scheme of God’s perfect holiness, we are no better off than the tax collector, and grace alone saves us, as we find no peace with God through our resumes, church attendance, or moral superiority.
To grasp the depth of Levi’s transformation in modern terms, consider Oskar Schindler. He was a member of the Nazi Party, a war profiteer, an opportunist, and a man who utilized the forced labor of Jewish people in his enamelware factory to make himself wealthy. By all accounts, he was an agent within the evil system. However, once the reality of the Holocaust became impossible to ignore, Schindler, even with his faults, eventually spent all of his money in order to bribe SS officers and buy black-market supplies to protect his Jewish workers, ultimately saving 1,200 lives. Schindler was similar to Levi: complicit in an evil empire, yet reached by grace’s transformative power. If God’s grace can reach Levi or Oskar Schindler, it can certainly reach the worst of us today. But to receive it, we must abandon the pride of the Pharisees, look in the mirror, and acknowledge our need for the Great Physician. We may be tempted to focus on others’ evil, but Jesus reminds us that grace leads to repentance. Therefore, we must stop complaining about the sinners in the world and fall back entirely on the amazing grace that saves us all.
Elpis and Shalom 