Leaving The Old Behind

Can you imagine living in an environment where you are told that you are cursed by God, unloved, unacceptable, and a social outcast? As a result you would probably feel marginalized and rejected and have no clue about how to come to God in your current state. Many established religions today put people under a measure of guilt and shame and in many cases easily so, because no human being is perfect and I believe each of us instinctively knows that we couldn’t stand before a holy, perfect, righteous God based on our own goodness. Our culture does the same thing by implying you're not rich enough, smart enough, savvy enough, fast enough, strong enough, good looking enough, etc. But this type of mentality becomes quite oppressive.

How will I know if I’m good enough or have done enough to be accepted by God? How can I know God loves me? This was the spiritual climate at the time of Jesus. Can you imagine the hope that Jesus Christ brought to a whole class of people that believed they were always on the outside? Right in front of everyone and especially the religious leaders, he cast out demons from possessed people, touched a man full of leprosy and healed him. Then He heals a paralyzed man, forgiving him of his sin, restoring him physically and lifting him up. Afterwards Jesus leaves Capernaum and heads for the the edge of town, near the lake to meet and eats with what the religious people would call the lowest of the low, a tax collector named Levi. Please turn with me to Luke 5:27 - 39.

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’?”

As we read this passage we see Jesus’:

Call to follow

Cure

Call to the new

Jesus’ Call to Follow

When Jesus went to the shore he ‘saw’ Levi a tax collector sitting with his tax collector friends by the customs house. It means that Jesus did not just notice Levi, He was observing him intently as a spectator. And when He saw Levi He called him to follow. What was the thing about tax collectors that offended religious and upright citizens in society? They were disreputable, greedy, charging people way more than they should to put money in their own pockets. They were traitors because they worked for the Roman government who was considered the enemy of the Jewish nation. No one had anything to do with tax collectors except other people in that profession because people despised and looked down on them. They were stigmatized by society, just like people turn their noses down on any dishonorable or shady type of profession today.

These people were not allowed in the synagogues or the temple as they were considered worse outcasts than lepers, they were considered untouchables. The Pharisees and religious people made sure they were never associated with these people and didn’t even come near these types. Jesus knew this and these tax collectors knew what people thought about them as well. I think that is true for anyone who is ostracized or stigmatized by society for whatever reason.

The Pharisees only saw people’s failures but Jesus saw Levi’s need and went after him as an outsider (verse 27) and called him to follow Him. Immediately, without hesitation, the lowest of the low responded to Jesus. He left behind his business and everything it represented and became a disciple, a continued as a lifelong learner and follower of Jesus. Levi responded to Christ’s call to follow Him, salvation had come to his house. He was no longer defined by his past, nor his sin, nor by what people said about him. Jesus called him, restored his life, and he became a new creation. Jesus gave Levi life and purpose and in response, Levi threw a lavish banquet at his house and invited all his friends, who happened to be tax collectors and sinners, the lowest of the low to meet with and eat with Jesus. Verse 30