Call of Levi Luke 5:27- 32

(V. 27-32). - Jesus still wanted a fellow worker. In the world, when a great man wants to find a co-worker, he chooses one from among those he considers to be the most suitable. Given the state of mankind, Jesus could find no such person, so he takes them as he finds them, empty vessels that he wants to fill with his love and power. He chooses unworthy beings, the only ones there were, for it is grace that is at work. In this case, Jesus addresses Levi [1], a publican, a man despised by the Jews because of his occupations. Publicans collected taxes on behalf of the Romans. This service, which involved usury, was a source of income for these officials at the expense of the people, and so they were hated by the Jews, who classed them as people of ill repute.

[1] Levi is called Matthew in Matthew 9:9.

Seeing Levi sitting at the revenue office, Jesus said to him, "Follow me. And leaving everything, he got up and followed him. God's call carries with it the power to leave everything behind and follow Christ. Faith does not reason; for, in following the Lord, we have everything in him, and we find along the way all that his goodness has prepared for each day.

Levi liked Jesus enough to make him a great feast. A crowd of publicans and other people were with him at table, which aroused the protests of the Pharisees and scribes, who murmured against the disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" (V. 30).

God's grace and the Pharisees' own righteousness could not go hand in hand. The Pharisees, believing that the kingdom belonged only to them and their kind, contemptuously abandoned those they called sinners to their fate. The very righteous know not of grace, whereas in Jesus it had come precisely for sinners who recognized themselves as such. Jesus replied: "Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are unwell. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (v. 31-32).

Anyone who recognizes himself as a sinner is called to repent, confessing his state before God and the judgment God pronounces on him, in order to accept the grace that has come in the person of Jesus. Those who believe themselves righteous remain outside the effects of grace; it says nothing to them; it is not for them, as long as they remain satisfied with themselves.

May God bless you abundantly

Pasteur Clémentine