Luke 5:27-32 - The taxman

5:27,28

We now get the calling of Levi, another name for Matthew. Levi was a tax collector, and tax collectors were not highly thought of! None of us are particularly keen on the tax man, but in Levi’s days they were often corrupt, taking extra money from people. So it is perhaps significant that the calling of Levi comes immediately after the healing and forgiveness of the paralysed man. How could a tax collector come to God? Well Jesus does indeed have the authority to forgive sins, and that includes the sins of tax collectors.

See how Jesus gives a simple command, “Follow me”. There is no inquest into his sins and past, just a simple command. However, obeying the command involved a complete turnaround, and an abandoning of his past. Peter and his friends could go back to fishing, it is unlikely that there would be anyway back for Matthew. When Jesus calls our past does not matter, what does matter is whether or not we are willing to follow Jesus.

5:29,30

Tax collectors tended to be quite rich, largely because of their illegal activities, so Levi was probably quite rich. He held a great banquet and many other tax collectors came. Matthew was reaching out to his own community. In the kingdom there is both great diversity, people come from all sorts of backgrounds and stratas of society, but we are also ideally suited to reach those who live in a similar world to ourselves. Jesus went to the banquet, He is happy to reach out to anyone who turn and follow Him.

5:31,32

The Pharisees were not happy. They were blind to the reality of their own sin, and were consumed by their own sense of self-righteousness. They questioned the disciples about why Jesus was eating with “tax-collectors and sinners”. Why was Jesus eating with “reprobates”. They had approached the disciples, but it was Jesus who answered, and He gets to the heart of the matter. Jesus did not come to reward the righteous, He wouldn’t have had much to do if that was the case! He came to save the sinners, ie all of us. None of us are righteous, all of us need forgiveness and transformation. Jesus came to heal the sick, to call sinners to repentance.