all eyes on jesus | transforming identity

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 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. 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. 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?”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.” Mark 2: 13-17, NIV

Levi, also known as Matthew, was a tax collector, a profession associated in Jesus’ day with great corruption and the betrayal of the Jewish community. When Jesus approaches Levi at his tax booth and simply says, "Follow me", it marks the beginning of a life-altering journey for a man whose occupation had made him an outcast among his own people. Perhaps not surprisingly given the social stigma, Levi's response to Jesus' call is immediate. He willingly walks into a new identity as a disciple of Jesus.

What did Levi see in Jesus that compelled him to leave behind a lucrative yet despised profession and follow this itinerant teacher? I suspect Levi saw a compassionate man willing to associate with those marginalised by society but also an authoritative and merciful Saviour who extended grace to the undeserving and personified the Father’s unconditional love.

The subsequent scene unfolds in Levi's house, where he hosts a dinner for Jesus and other tax collectors and sinners. The religious leaders, scandalised by Jesus' association with such people, question Jesus’ choice of company. Jesus responds with a powerful statement: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

In his response, Jesus reveals the heart of his mission - to be a healer of brokenness, a redeemer of lost souls and to be the One who establishes all of us in new identity, not as faulty, fallen failures but as his favoured friends.

Let's pray
Thank you, Lord, for reaching out to Levi and for his willingness to respond wholeheartedly to your call. Help me to experience something new of your grace and love and respond wholeheartedly to you today. And give me opportunities to extend that grace and love to the other people I come into contact with. For your glory. Amen.