Immediately after Jesus healed the paralytic man, He met a tax collector named Levi. This profession was despised in these parts. Levi was a Jewish man collecting taxes for the Roman Empire. Talk about a money-hungry traitor! All avoided him, but not Jesus.
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him.
29 Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:27-32.
Jesus invited Levi to follow Him. Can you imagine the shock? It was rare for Levi to get such an invitation, and the crowd probably was unsure if Jesus was aware of Levi’s LinkedIn profile. After Levi left his former employment, what was his first action as a disciple of Jesus? He threw a huge party (Luke 5:29)! But since he had lived years of his life unwanted by the religious community, he invited the only friends he had — tax collectors and sinners.
The religious elites were furious! Was Jesus lacking such awareness that He could not see the moral filth of those around Him at the table? Instead of calling those with impressive religious backgrounds, He invited a tax-collecting scoundrel to be His disciple. He was now willing to dine with those with questionable backgrounds and practices.
What was Jesus’ response? Healthy people don’t require a doctor, but sick people do. That’s who He came to help.
Righteous people don’t think they need to change. Sinners know repentance is necessary. That’s who He came to guide.
Churches are often criticized as full of hypocrites. If we advertise ourselves as those whose religious efforts and ethical practices are so stellar that we don’t need God, we have provided a false advertisement indeed. There is no perfect church because frail people are in every single one.
Don’t be amazed that Jesus would eat with lowlifes; be grateful. That means that there is room at the table for people like us. Sinners are welcomed at Jesus’ table and into God’s family. It doesn’t mean He provides a free pass to continue what took Him to the cross, but He doesn’t expect people to change before He loves them.
Thank Jesus for His grace to you, and keep your eyes open to other people He is inviting to the table.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
