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, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
The Life of a Tax Collector
Tax collectors in the days of Jesus were not looked at in a very good light. Often viewed as criminals and traitors, these individuals would make their wages by charging more than the required taxation to the citizens. In essence: they were extortionists.
Ligonier Ministries, in one of its articles, gives us a picture of what tax collectors were like:
Tax collectors attained their posts by bidding against other applicants and competing for who could promise Rome the most revenue. The winning bidder would then take more from the people than he needed to fulfill his bid, keeping the difference. The add-on sum for his own pockets could be quite excessive. Because of their association with Gentile governance, Jews who served as tax collectors did not tend to be very observant of the Mosaic law. Ancient Jewish records outside the Bible report that tax collectors were kicked out of the synagogue, could not serve in the legal system as a judge or witness, and were seen as disgraces by their families.
By default, being friends with one would likely have a negative impact on you too. Just think about it, if you were seen hanging around a known extortionist, do you think people would like you?
Mark 2:13-17
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
But despite both of these things social & cultural stigmatism, Jesus still called Levi to follow Him, to be one of His disciples. Not only that, but Jesus loved him, served him, shared with him the gift of eternal life, and called him a friend.
John 15:9-15
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Levi’s Response
In response, Levi left everything to follow him. This may not sound like much at first glance but as our friend H.B. Charles Jr. pointed out in one of his sermons, this very well may have cost him his job by abandoning his post and made him a wanted man by the Roman officials everywhere he went.
Not only did he leave everything to follow Jesus, the first thing he did after following Him was to throw a party for his friends so that they could know this Jesus as well! We don’t know too much about his life after this, but we do know that he went on to be a leader in the early church and even wrote one of the four gospels!1
Jesus’ Unconditional Love
If Jesus treats Levi this way, someone who was hated and despised by others (and might have even despised himself), what’s to stop Him from loving you?
You’re not too filthy, too poor, or too broken, to be loved by Jesus. He can and is willing to bring life, hope, love, healing, and encouragement to your soul no matter what your circumstance is or where you come from. All you need to do is say yes to his invitation, and follow Him.
As Jon Bloom expresses in his dramatic article about the call of Levi:
Being a sinner was the only qualification Levi had for joining Jesus’ disciple band. Jesus had come to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Levi was sick with the disease of sin and Jesus, the Great Physician (Luke 5:31), healed him.
My encouragement to you today is to hear His call and follow Him. Leave your old life behind and see what will happen when Jesus, The Savior of the World, calls you friend…
For more from Tom, check out his first book Logic Sanctity Deity
Is it rational to believe in God? Do we even need a God? If so, who is that God and where does Jesus fit into the picture?
It’s no use in denying that we as people are broken and that’s a problem we can’t fix on our own. However, a man named Jesus said He was God, claimed he came here to make things right again between us and Him; thus, mending what was broken inside us.
