The Radical Invitation Of Jesus, From Exclusion To Celebration Series

Introduction:

Is Jesus “woke”? In other words, is He someone who is sensitive to or aware of the injustices experienced by the marginalized? If Jesus were walking on earth today, gathering disciples, would He do so along DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) ethical standards? Would he try to choose people from different groups just to have them in His group?

Now, I don’t know that Jesus would use those terms at all. If his accusers were using today’s terminology, I wonder if they might label him as such.

What was His standard for calling the people He called? What should our standard be based on His example?

I hope to address some of that today as we consider “the radical invitation of Jesus, from exclusion to celebration.”

Background:

Over the last few weeks, we’ve witnessed Jesus ministry around the sea of Galilee as he called Simon to be his disciple, ministered to a leper and a paralytic and challenged the Pharisees and Scribes.

Today, we get to see an invitation that Jesus makes to an unlikely disciple, which produced conversations that challenged His critics and forces us to consider our perspective. Let’s look together at Luke 5:27-39.

Luke 5:27–39 ESV

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”

Today, as we consider this passage, we’ll look at four things that Jesus does:

Calling the unlikely

Celebrating community

Challenging His critics

Changing perspectives

Let’s begin by considering Jesus’…

Calling the Unlikely (27-28)

The passage begins with “After this” - following the things that Jesus did just prior - cleansing the leper, healing the paralytic, Luke tells us that he went out (from that house) and saw or noticed a tax collector. Now as much as we may not like paying taxes, tax collectors in their day were considered by some to be traitors because they - sided with Rome and collected extra money in order to become wealthy. Tax collectors were marginalized in that society - rejected by their people - the Jews, and were scorned by the Romans because they were Jewish. There was little consolation for them except in their wealth and in their network of associates.

I think it’s important for us to pause here for a moment to consider this group of people and people who are marginalized in our day. You see, there is no past that is beyond the transforming love and work of Jesus. Levi’s marginalization and even potentially his past greed was something that Jesus could overcome. For some of us, our pasts may be filled with shameful acts or decisions. We may feel like we have done too much wickedness or evil. Maybe we can say with the psalmist: Psalm 38:4 “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”

Friend, if you’re not yet a follower of Christ, recognize that no sin, no act, no so-called identity is beyond the saving and transformational love of Jesus. He won’t condone sin. He also doesn’t condemn you for it because He ultimately took your condemnation. Come to Him.

So Levi was marginalized by so many and yet Jesus called this unlikely person. He was not the ideal candidate, but he was called, nonetheless.