When Jesus Called Levi-Matthew, Luke 5
(This message is based on a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO, on February 9, 2025 but is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: The Lord Jesus Christ picked 12 men to be His followers. We know the occupations of four (James, John, Andrew, and Simon Peter) were fishermen, but except for one, we don’t know what the others did for a living. That other man was Matthew, or Levi, and he was probably one disciple different from the rest.
1 The meeting
Text: Luke 5:27-28, KJV: 27 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. 28 And he left all, rose up, and followed him.
Luke says that “after these things”, namely the healing of the paralytic and a leper before this, Jesus “went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi” who was sitting “at the receipt of custom.” First, most if not all people resent paying taxes of any kind (that includes me, to be honest!) Of course, taxes do have a useful purpose such as paying for fire fighters, police officers, other first responders and so on. No disagreement there. But when money taken from citizens (or, subjects, as the case may be) is wasted on frivolous, corrupt, or otherwise less than honorable expenses, then we might well question what the government does with OUR money.
The people, through most of history, didn’t really have much of a say when it came to being taxed. In so many words the message was, “Pay us what we demand or we’ll take it from you by force.” A college friend once remembered sadly how a relative lost every square inch of the land his relative owned during the Great Depression of the 1930’s because the relative couldn’t pay the taxes. The land was sold at a foreclosure sale. Years after the fact, my friend felt sorrow for his relative, and who wouldn’t feel some compassion at least for those who had it so rough then.
Now here comes Jesus, heading straight for Levi (also called Matthew in Matthew’s gospel) at the “receipt of custom” or tax booth. Something similar might be the various toll booths on roads called “turnpikes”, like the West Virginia turnpike or the Kansas Turnpike between Topeka and Lawrence (https://biblehub.com/greek/5058.htm). After Jesus saw Levi, Luke used a word that seemed to not be used very often but meant someone made a definite gaze or would observe intently (per https://biblehub.com/greek/2300.htm). We could say that Jesus saw the total package, or the whole of Levi, and not just what was on the outside.
Nobody can say for sure what Levi might have been thinking when he saw Jesus walking up to his tax booth! Word had probably reached most of Capernaum how Simon Peter and the others who helped him what that miraculous catch of fish, but left all of it (boats, nets, fish, all!) at the lakeside. These fishermen had nothing, Jesus had nothing, but they’re still coming towards Matthew’s tax booth.
But the fishermen and Jesus didn’t come to pay. They had something very different in mind.
Jesus, I think, looked Levi straight in the eye and uttered two of the most life-changing words ever spoken: “Follow Me”.
And that’s exactly what Levi did. Luke says Levi “left all, rose up, and followed Him” We need to remember that publicans, tax-collectors, were not only hated, they were mostly rich. For Levi to walk away from a lucrative, profitable business (!) such as this—I’ve always had a hard time trying to figure it out. Even so, Levi did, and when he answered with his feet, to quote a radio Bible teacher I heard many years ago, his life was changed.
Forever!
But Levi knew something that some of us forget. Even though he had decided to follow Jesus, Levi knew there were a lot of others, just like him, who had not and did not.
How could he, one man, reach them? He decided to, as we might say, throw a farewell party!
2 The feasting
Text: Luke 5:29, KJV: 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.
Anyone who’s thrown a party or organized a dinner for a large amount of guests knows there are a lot of things needed before this feast begins! From hints of other meals in the Gospels, it seems there was bread, maybe vegetables (a salad?), and finally the main meal which could be a roast, mutton, or any kind of meat from a clean animal. Of course there would be liquid refreshments and servants who would wash the feet of the arriving guests.
All in all, this was, as I suppose, all in accordance with the customs of the times. For Levi, I don’t think he spared any expense for this. After all, he was going to introduce his friends and associates to his new best friend, Jesus!
We do know from this verse that Levi had his own house, and that it had to be at least relatively large for the “great company of publicans and of others” who were there. As a reminder, the publicans were Jews who collected Roman taxes for profit. The others were “sinners” according to Matthew 9:9-13 and Mark 2:13-17, apparently including the non-practicing or non-religious Jews. Levi knew all about them, though, and wanted to introduce them to Jesus!
Naturally we don’t know what time of the day this took place or just when the guests arrived. One thing I personally would have liked to see was the moment when Levi explained why he had invited all of them to his house, and then introduced them to Jesus! Some of the guests may have heard of Jesus, others not much at all, but this was the opportunity of a lifetime: to meet and talk face to face with not only Levi’s new best Friend, but the very Messiah, the Son of God!
And somewhere I remember reading a strategy, for lack of a better term, to explain to one’s unsaved friends why this individual had changed. The idea was to do like Levi and have a “meet and greet” or even a “see you later” party because this way, I or you could gather our friends for a friendly get-together and then explain “I’ve been changed because I follow Jesus now”. Just like Levi’s friends and guests in this passage, we don’t hear of any who followed Jesus at that moment but at the very least, they met the Lord face to face. Had I been there, I don’t think there was any way I could forget that experience!
A happy time? For some, absolutely; but for others, not at all. The next passage explains this,
3 The questioning
Text: Luke 5:30-32, KJV: 30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? 31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. 32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
These verses tell me that the Lord’s followers had an encounter with the scribes and Pharisees. As a reminder, there were different groups of scribes; some were like the copyists, who made copies and records of various things. For example, Jeremiah didn’t call them “scribes” but “witnesses” when he bought a field from his cousin Hanamel and the witnesses made copies of the title deed after the money changed hands (Jeremiah 32). Other scribes were experts in the Law and if I understand correctly, they made copies of the scrolls used in synagogue worship. It didn’t matter which group was here, though, because they along with the Pharisees came for one purpose: to argue or find fault with whatever Jesus was doing.
Strange as it may seem, it was about the company Jesus was keeping! Imagine a finely dressed Pharisee, outwardly as righteous and religious as anyone could be, but much different on the inside, walking up to one of the disciples, and asking, “Why are _you_ (maybe looking down their noses) eating with publicans and sinners (because you and we are better than they are)?” Now, whether the disciples were in Levi’s house with Jesus, or if they were waiting outside, or if they had gone in and had gone back outside, they had absolutely nothing to do with what Jesus did. He was the Master, the Teacher, the Lord, and He did exactly what the Father told Him to do, nothing more and nothing less. Levi had given Jesus an opportunity to meet with publicans and sinners, and Jesus took advantage of it.
And these religious leaders didn’t like it. One wonders why, if they were so concerned about Jesus sharing God’s Presence and God’s Love with them, didn’t they try to show them some of God’s Love themselves? After all, one of the Two Great Commandments was to “love your neighbor as yourself”—and nothing was said about what kind of neighbor it was!
Wherever Jesus was at the time, He replied with two sentences: first, “they that are whole (healthy) don’t need a doctor but those that are sick do need one.” There could be several ways to interpret this, and I certainly don’t claim to be an expert or have the last word, but He could be saying, “The people you’re looking down on are sin-sick and they know it. I came to them so that I could minister to them.” My guess, and it’s only that, is that people didn’t visit or go the doctors unless it was something desperate.
Then Jesus followed that statement with another. He said, “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He’s almost quoting John the Baptist here, when John’s message was “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”, resulting in many coming to him in order to be baptized in the Jordan River. Sure enough, there were Pharisees and even Sadducees who made their way to John, only to hear him absolutely shred their self-righteousness (Matthew 3:7ff).
This is now the “okay, so what?” part of the message. Some things to keep in mind are the invitation to Levi/Matthew as recorded by Jesus. He asked Levi to “Follow Me”, to leave his work for the Romans, to stop collecting taxes, and join the other disciples. Levi didn’t seem to wait very long, as Luke said Levi “left all and followed [Jesus]”.
If the Lord asked any of us, “Follow Me”, would we do it?
Then, once we have decided to follow Jesus, how would we go about telling our friends and acquaintances? The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell us that Levi/Matthew gave a feast, a farewell party of a sort, and then left with Jesus and the other disciples.
That may not work for everyone but it’s a possible solution or opportunity, no? Regardless, when Levi/Matthew heard the call from Jesus to follow Him, Levi/Matthew answered promptly and permanently. We never read that Levi ever collected another coin in taxes. Why? He had a new job with a brand new Supervisor, and Levi wanted his friends to know about it.
Let’s hope our friends and acquaintances want to believe in Jesus, too!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
