We all have a past. Every one of us has things in our life that we are not proud of: decisions that we would like back. Our past can become a barrier to moving forward, especially in our relationship with Christ. If you are struggling to grow deeper with Christ perhaps there is something from your past that you are hanging onto. Today, let it go. Set your past behind you and move forward with him.
Jesus Calls Levi
After this he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he left everything, and rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house; and there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5 : 27-32
Scriptural Analysis
At the time of Jesus, tax collectors worked as agents of the Chief Tax Collector who, in Galilee was under the tax jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. Capernaum was near the lake and had a customs post for collection tolls as well as taxes associated with fishing. Taxes were also collected on the land and the produce. When you add the Roman tax burden as well as the temple tax, the overall total tax levied was a third or more of a person’s income. The system encourage corruption and thus tax collectors were despised.
Jesus calls one of these tax collectors, Levi, to become his disciple. Levi is also known as Matthew. He will appear later in Luke’s Gospel as such when Luke lists the name of the twelve (see Luke 6:15).
Levi responds wholeheartedly to this call. He readily leave behind everything, just as the first disciples had, to follow Jesus. This radical detachment is a call Jesus makes to all his disciples, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)
In response, Levi gives a great banquet in honor of Jesus. The Pharisees view this as controversial because Jesus is eating with these tax collectors and sinners. In response to their criticism, Jesus compares himself to a physician. Jesus points out that sin is the real illness and these sinners are the ones who are in need of healing, “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.” (Isaiah 57:18) In the act of eating with these people, Jesus is calling them to repentance.
Daily Application
The calling of Matthew should all give us great hope. As long as there is still air in our lungs, it is never too late to repent and turn to Jesus. It does not matter what our past life has been like. The sins of our past do not hold us back. What matters is the state of our hearts now. Are we ready to repent and turn to God?
One of the most pernicious lies that Satan uses to tempt us is that God can’t possibly love us because we are horrible sinners. The calling of Matthew shows that thought for the lie that it is. He was a tax collector: a member of the Jewish people who turned his back on his people and profited from extorting them. He feasted on the pain and suffering of his own people. Yet he was called by Jesus.
Jesus continues to call all to himself. He desires for none of us to be lost. How do we answer that call? Do we abandon everything as Matthew did to follow Jesus? Or do we hang onto the past and only partially follow Christ? That is a question each of us must answer for ourselves. However, what can be said is that the life of discipleship Christ is calling us to is one of complete abandonment. We are to hang onto nothing that prevents us from giving our full yes to Christ.
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