Scripture: Mark 2:13-17; Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 10:14-15
Theme: Evangelism
Title: Come and Join Us!
This sermon deals with the call of Levi a most unusual man that was called to follow Jesus and how that call informs our outreach today.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Have you ever been to an event and suddenly you see someone that you would rather not be around. A person that you usually do your best to avoid.
Sometimes it happens at school events, at the park, at a restaurant or at some type of social event. We see someone or a group of people and we would just rather not have to spend some time with them.
We see the same thing happening in our Gospel passage this morning. It’s a passage that if we allow it can help us better understand who Jesus is and what He is calling us to do as a person and as a group of people.
It all revolves around a person named Levi. Let’s look at what is going on with this man this morning.
I. The Man Levi
Plenty of remarkable people have been named Levi throughout history. Perhaps the most notable one that all of us would recognize was a man named Levi (Loeb) Strauss. Levi Strauss was a Jewish immigrant who founded the Levi Strauss & Company in California that has been making denim blue jeans since 1853.
The name Levi is an old name. Its roots go all the way back to the time of Jacob and Leah.
If you remember the story, Jacob had two wives. Two wives that were sisters: Leah and Rachel. These two women spent most of their adult lives competing with one another for Jacob’s love and attention.
The Bible tells us that between the two, Rachel was the love of Jacob’s life while Leah was considered as an add on wife. Leah was a wife that Jacob had not sought to marry. A wife that he had been tricked into marrying.
It was Leah, however, that would bear Jacob the most children. In that day it was thought that the woman who could bear the most children would also be the woman that would be the most loved. In Leah’s case that was not what happened.
Levi was Leah’s third child. She named him Levi because the name means “joined” or “adhered”. Levi’s name was to remind Jacob that he needed to be loyal to Leah. He needed to understand that she was more than just a breeder mom. She was his first wife. She was the woman who was bringing his children into the world. She was to be honored above Rachel who at that time was childless.
In time, the tribe that was started through Levi became very important. You may remember that Aaron, Miriam, and Moses were from the tribe of Levi. You may also remember that the Levites became the tribe of priests for the Children of Israel.
The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY gave them that honor because above all the other tribes, the tribe of Levi became known for their intense love for God and for God’s teachings. Later, it was the Levites who took care of the Tabernacle and the Temple and taught the other tribes about the Lord God Almighty.
To bear the name Levi was to bear a proud name. A name that spoke about God, about faithfulness and service. A name that was given to a person whom the parents had high hopes would live up to that name. That they would live a life worthy of being called Levi – one that was loyal to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY and to His commandments.
But as we begin to read our story this morning, this man named Levi was not serving in the Temple or even in a synagogue. He was instead working for Herod Antipas as a tax collector/toll collector.
When Jesus was born the people of Israel was under the leadership of a king named Herod the Great. After his death, his kingdom was split up between his three sons – Herod Antipas, Herod Philip and Herod Archelaus.
Each one of them would charge people each time they would go from one of their kingdoms to the next. If you wanted to go from the north to the south, you would have to go through the land ruled by Antipas and Archelaus. You may even have to go through a bit of the land ruled by Philip. Each time you would touch one of their lands there was a toll that had to be paid.
Anyone traveling across the USA understands what it means to pay a toll. There are still approx. 5,000 miles of highway that require a toll. Most of that mileage is in the northeast but there are still quite a few toll roads in places like Alabama, Georgia, and Texas.
One of Levi’s jobs was to make sure that people traveling from one kingdom to the next paid their toll.
Most of the people at the time didn’t like toll collectors or tax collectors. It hadn’t been too long ago that under the one king – Herod the Great that you could go from Galilee to the Jordan River and then on to Jerusalem without having to reach into your pocket for a coin or two.
But now it seemed like everywhere you went there was a toll booth set up and someone with their hand out expecting you to give them some money so you could either travel or take your goods from the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River or to the city of Jerusalem.
That was Levi’s job. And if you didn’t want to pay all he had to do was to contact either the Romans who were close by or one of Herod’s men and suddenly you might find yourself either imprisoned, beaten or your goods confiscated for tax purposes.
So, you can imagine that Levi had few friends.
In some areas toll collecting became a racket. The toll booth collector or tax collector would conspire with either the Romans or Herod’s soldiers and they would overcharge people and pocket the surplus. Again, if you didn’t pay, they could either take your goods, charge you with a crime or beat you right there on the spot.
It’s no wonder that by the time of Jesus toll booth and tax collectors were seen as some of the worst people in their areas. They were considered by many to be the worst of sinners. People that richly deserved going to Hell.
All of that is a part of Levi’s background.
II. Jesus calls Him
The deeper you read into the Gospels the more you begin to realize that Jesus was one mysterious person.
+He starts off his career as a carpenter/stone mason.
+He then begins traveling and sharing the Good News of repentance and salvation.
+He calls a group of people together to teach them and for them to go out and share the Good News of repentance and salvation.
However, Jesus doesn’t start at either the Temple or the synagogues. He doesn’t go to the scribes or to the Pharisees who oversaw religious things.
He calls fishermen and now he stops at Levi’s toll booth and calls Levi.
Why?
What does this man have to offer Jesus?
What possible good will it do for Jesus to reach out to a man who is basically a pariah?
A man who is constantly being hated by all those that travel who never know if they have paid the right amount or are getting robbed every time they have to pay toll.
What in the world does the healer, the teacher of the Good News have to do with this type of person?
You have to step back a moment and reflect on who Jesus is and what His mission was.
The deeper you read into the Gospel story the more you begin to realize that
A. Jesus specializes in people who are seen as rejects.
While Jesus does not shy aware from the rich and famous like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, it seems like He had a special liking to those who are seen as rejects.
He reaches out to people like the Woman at the Well and Mary Magdalene.
The Woman at the Well either could not keep a husband or was simply rejected by man after man until she had to stay with a man who would not even give her the right of marriage.
Mary Magdalene who the Bible plainly tells us suffered from the wreckage of having been possessed by seven demons. A woman that suffered great physical, emotional and spiritual distress.
Jesus reached out to those whose sickness made it impossible for them to be a part of a community. This included those who were suffering from leprosy, blindness and other physical hardships. All these people were seen as people that God had either shunned or cursed and yet they are the very people that Jesus is seen talking to and touching.
Even a part of Jesus’ teaching was about a young man who wasted all his resources on prostitutes and foolish living only to have Jesus share how a loving father reclaimed and redeemed the young man.
It seems like no one was beyond Jesus’ reach.
B. Jesus does not worry about becoming infected
At that time, it was generally believed that the only way to love God and follow God was to stay as far away from sin and sinners as possible. To be near the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes was to endanger your soul.
The way we see Jesus act is the direct opposite.
He approaches it from the other side.
Those who are covered over in sin are more in danger of being infected by His Holiness than He is to their sinfulness.
Jesus doesn’t shy away from those who are sinful or who are seen as sinful. Instead, he reaches out to them and offers them the Good News – REPENT for the KINGDOM OF GOD HAS COME. Repent – turn your life around and follow me.
Jesus didn’t say – Levi, Simon and Mary and the rest of you – get your act together. Get all cleaned up and then come and find me and we will see if you get to be a part of my group.
No, Jesus just shows up or attends one of their parties and begins to invite people to turn their lives around and follow Him as He leads them to a life of abundant living; a life guided and directed by God’s Holy Spirit.
Years ago, a young pastor visiting Honolulu, Hawaii couldn’t get to sleep on night. Getting up he ventured out and began walking down the different streets.
On one street he started listening to a group of ladies talking. They weren’t just any ordinary group of ladies; they were a group of prostitutes. One lady was declaring that the next day would be her 39th birthday. The other ladies began asking what she wanted for her birthday. Did she want a party?
She replied that she had never had a birthday party and didn’t expect that she would ever have a birthday party.
The young pastor suddenly got an idea. After they were gone, he went up to the diner near where they were talking and asked if he could pay for a surprise birthday party for the woman the next day.
The owner agreed and the next day a birthday party in her honor was given. The cries of Happy Birthday from her friends and this one strange young man not only surprised her it shocked her.
She asked if she could take her cake home and of course they all agreed and then she left. She didn’t know what to do or how to act. No one had ever done something like that for her; especially a stranger that she had never met.
Before she left the young pastor asked if he could pray for her and she agreed.
The prayer startled the owner of the diner. Praying with and for a prostitute? Who was this young man? “You never told me you were a preacher.” What kind of church do you belong to.”
The young man responded that he belonged to the type of church that would take the time to throw a birthday party for a prostitute at 3:30 in the morning. (adapted from Tony Compolo – The King of God is a Party – pg 3-9).
It’s that same type of thinking that has propelled children’s ministries, youth ministries, recovery ministries, medical ministries and food ministries.
For if you have worked in any of those ministries you quickly begin to understand that all kinds of people walk through your doors. Good people and what we think of as bad people. People who suffer from a thousand and one addictions, issues and problems.
It is then we are faced with a question – do we open our doors to those who we might think will infect us – with their issues, their addictions and their sins – or do we open the doors so that they will be transformed by the light and the salt that we possess?
The Church has since its beginnings had to face that reality.
Who does it let in – who does it go after – who does it welcome.
More times that we think it has not always had an open door to those who it has called fallen, addicted and sin filled.
It has often tried to be a place where the world cannot get in and where we try to keep everyone safe and secure.
This story in Mark reminds us that like Jesus we are to see ourselves as more a threat to evil and sin than sin and evil is a threat to us.
We are to see ourselves with our salt and light being able to free people, save people and redeem people more than the world can enslave people, defeat people and harm people.
Jesus wasn’t worried about being around sinners. In fact, he loved to talk to them, work with them and even eat with them. He loved to be with them and help them discover a whole new life.
This week let’s take up the challenge to reach out to someone that really needs the Gospel of Jesus.
+You may not be comfortable talking to them and you may even feel that it is unsafe.
+But you can saturate them with your prayers.
+You can, when led by the Holy Spirit be open to a conversation.
+You can support a ministry that seeks to be salt and light to a world that desperately need God’s salvation.
Our world is full of people like the Woman at the Well, Mary Magdalene and Levi. All needing our love, our compassion and our Jesus.
This morning, do we go by the Levi’s that we encounter or do we desire to do our best to invite them to follow us as we follow Jesus?
Do we have room at our table for the Woman at the Well and for Mary Magdalene?
Are we more afraid that our holiness will be infected by their sin or understanding that through the power of the Holy Spirit we may be the very means by which they are redeemed and freed for a life of abundant living.
All things that challenge us this week to be Jesus to our world!
Closing prayer - Song
Holy Communion
