Feasting With Levi Series

Some scholars think he may have set up his booth on the road at the edge of the crowds that were following Jesus, tp get more money, little knowing He is about to have his life transformed by an encounter with Jesus.

His parents prophetically saw him becoming a priest. Sin messed him and he was missing his destiny. Then God ambushes him and put him back on his destiny - He is going to be God's go-between, he's now following Jesus and will be a fisher of men!

God holds your destiny - you may have been missing it, but God can sort it out. It's never to late to get on the right path! God is good!

Great feast

I've often taught on hospitality being opening your home, come as you are, loving people who were strangers and foreigners into the family, so they get to be part of God's family. Hospitality is a huge deal in the NT times, and needs to be now! Open your home to people, love them in.

And I've often taught that the middle class idea of hospitality is the dinner party - impressive food, costs, want an invite back - but if we think hospitality is that we won't do it enough! Stand by that. But as i've dug into this passage I've learnt that there are still valid two types of meal we can use to bring people into God's family.

A "great feast" as in Levi's great feast was called a symposium in ancient times (I think now that means a particularly boring conference), but back then it was a middle class banquet! Fairly formal dinner party, with a planned guest list and special invites. Guest reclined on couches around a table. It would start with a banquest fr the men and then move onto the sumposium which means drinking party where everyone be drinking and the conversation was steered by the guest of honour around a topic. Now interestingly it was men only - the women slaves and/or children were brought in later during the drinking bit often as prostitutes. They could be pretty depraved - hence the Pharisees getting upset that Jesus was there.

Teh hospitality meal was the one where people - rich or poor would open their homes for people to be fed and often put up for the night. The friend asking for bread in Jesus parable was poor, but offering hospitality. Again slaves not invited to hospitality.

Jesus and then his followers radically turn all this upside down. Breaking convention - everyone men, women, slaves and even Samaritans are welcome. No debauchery!

The ten meals we will look at - 5 are symposiums and 5 hospitality meals and we will get to see just how radical Jesus and the Gospel is.

Back to the story.

Levi, Matthew has organised a great feast - a planned party - he wants his non believing friends to meet the guest of honour Jesus.

A bunch of tax collectors - first century tax collectors - imagine the conversation - best ways of extortion, whether thugsrus provide the best service, the skin trade, the best at loan sharking. And Jesus and the disciples. And the Holy Spirit.

No-one is too far away to be a recipient of the love of Christ. And here we have a story of Jesus hanging out with sinners to draw them to a changed life - to repentance. To that change of thought about how am I doing life and turning to do it God's way.