Episode #200: Lessons in Luke Ch. 5

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Everyone, thanks for tuning in. This is episode number 200. I want to thank you for taking the time to join me on this next episode of lessons in Luke as we make our way each day through the various chapters of Luke. Today we are in chapter five. And as we process our way through that, I just want to kind of share some devotional thoughts, things to consider, as we do that. So chapter five of Luke. And today I want to share a little starting in verse 27. We'll just read a little portion here and then unpack a few thoughts. So it says in Luke chapter five, verse 27, after this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector, by the name of Liva, sitting at his tax booth, follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect, complained to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So that ends in verse 32. I don't know if you have given it much consideration. But the significance of what happens in the moment, when Jesus calls leaf Ah, now, if you're new to, to Scripture to the Bible, you may not realize that Levi is actually Matthew, he was, Jesus kind of did that with some of his disciples, they had a previous name, and an he calls him kind of re identifies them. Sometimes, it could be the difference between kind of a, a Hebrew or Greek name. So but but Levi is Matthew, if you weren't familiar with with that, Matthew writes a gospel account in the book of Matthew. So this is the same one does a disciple of Jesus, one of the 12. And but I don't know if you have ever considered the significance of what we'll call him. Now, Matthew, did in the moment. Keep in mind, and maybe, maybe at this point, maybe Matthew had heard of, of some of what Jesus had done, maybe he didn't know him at all, maybe there had yet be to be any stories floating around, at least to where Matthew had heard, he was a tax collector, remember, so this was, this man was not popular by any means. Maybe only infamous, because tax collectors had a terrible reputation. The Jewish people despise them, they would have been considered, especially if they had Jewish roots, they would have been considered a traitor to their people. Because tax collectors collected the taxes imposed by this time it would have been imposed by Rome, but it would have been whichever presiding you know, bureaucracy or ruling body would have been imposing taxes on the local people. And so the tax collectors naturally then captured those taxes and many of them would have collected extra and kind of padded their own pockets. So this was kind of a very common practice and gave tax collectors such a bad reputation also made them very wealthy. So just but, but whether you know whether Matthew had any experience with Jesus or if he was completely new, just appreciate for the moment. If if some person is imagine they're just a person came up to you and said to you, follow me II. And once you get up and leave everything and follow them, I mean, there had to be no doubt there was something, something special in the moment a grace to, to make such a huge shift in your life. For them, no doubt had to be, you know, a presence about Jesus. But keeping in mind, these are everyday people, just regular, you know, some fishermen, some, you know, political people, these zealots a tax collector, I mean, these people had lives, and they were just regular people. And it just strikes me as powerful that in the moment, Matthew chooses to leave it all behind all of the power and influence all the financial component, you probably have a lot of questions at this point, as you're walking away from all of that, you're probably asking yourself, What in the world have I just done? How am I going to survive? How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to eat? Or take care of those that I'll love? It? There's a lot of unanswered questions. And there's many times when Jesus puts us in those moments where we don't have the answer. But we feel him leading us in a direction. And by faith, when he asks us, so it's important to wait for the ask. If we jump too early, we risk falling kind of flat on our face. And, and we have to re kind of rework, reestablish what we're supposed to do. So it's important, you have to wait on the ask. But when he asks you may we have the grace, like Matthew, to when he calls, not let anything, stand in the way of when he asks us to come his way to follow after Him. But notice here also that immediately, he leaves all he has, and he follows any follows Jesus, but not it doesn't just stop there, he actually holds a dinner, a large banquet for Jesus at his own house, and he has a large crowd that he invites with him, other fellow tax collectors, and, and others. You know, perhaps some of these were sinners is what some of the teachers and Pharisees, you know, called these people, so they may have been very had a reputation about them. But the, there's miscellaneous individuals of questionable background or character. There's this party throne, and what a, you know, what a impact Jesus has on Matthew, to go from not being a follower to leaving it all to follow, to then,

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you know, celebrating. You know, May, May each of us have such an encounter with Jesus that, that we can, you know, make all these significant transitions, you know, even just like Matthew, the thing, something we don't get to see in the text, you know, my imagination runs wild, but, you know, I like to kind of daydream, or was it like, between, when Matthew gets up to follow after Jesus, and this banquet, this dinner party that he throws? What happened in between? I can only imagine, you know, Matthew probably has, is, is engaging with Jesus, Jesus is probably interacting with him. And, you know, maybe he's learning a lot about Jesus, maybe Jesus kind of keeps him, you know, keeps his questions at bay so he can allow faith to kind of exercise itself into Matthew's life. There's lots of kind of Suppose that we could make about it. But it's fascinating to think on. But one final thing I want you to notice, as you process this portion, Jesus spends time with this tax collector, Matthew and other tax collectors and other potential questionable characters. And he does this willingly. And he does it at the expense of his reputation. In fact, the other religious leaders call call him out on it, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? It's important to notice, Jesus's response in this, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You know, I think it's, you know, I mean, you may say, Well, I was Jesus, you know, but I'm impressed with how Jesus embodied his life, so as to allow us to duplicate to try to live out that same type of embodiment that he practiced on earth. You know, many times we ourselves we we want to pursue the people who are the desirables, the ones that may help us in our life may elevate us in status, who can have significant importance in our various capacities? Well, you know, we go after the desirables we want to be friends with, you know, the cool people, or the ones that are not obnoxious, or the ones that seem to have it all together. But it's not exactly how Jesus did it. And, and so, I would challenge each one each one of us, myself included, is to be eager to look for those who are being overlooked. Can't imagine how much loneliness people are feeling yourself, you may yourself be feeling loneliness, and wishing that someone would notice you because you feel overlooked. So if that's if that's indeed how you feel, and all of us experience it, at some point in time, I would challenge you to make an opportunity to, to look for the one who's being overlooked, and pull them in to your circle to spend time with him to try to not just for the sake of trying to get them converted, but to, to make an impression on them to show them that they are seen and in, in demonstrating the light of of Jesus through yourself to them, you know, let them see Jesus through you, not in a preachy way, but in a kind of love exercised way. So that's I guess how we will close this out just as kind of a challenge to to like Jesus, try to try to find those that maybe are not as desirable and making it make an impact in their life in some way. It may be small or may be great, but it will no doubt have lasting consequences in in ways that you can't imagine. And that you may only find out come eternity. So I would challenge you with that and we appreciate you for taking the time with me on this one. And I look forward to seeing you on the next one. God bless you.