Saturday after Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2024

Luke 5, 27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Israel, a territory occupied by the Roman Empire, was heavily weighed down by its master’s taxes.  Rome levied a regular tax on each household as well as the usage taxes for certain crossroads and bridges.  These taxes could reduce a person’s income by over twenty-five percent.  The Roman system of collection also made corruption easy and common.  Roman officials hired Jews as local collectors, and these Jews were looked upon by their brethren as particularly contemptible traitors and collaborators with the enemy.  They worked for pagans and often treated their fellow Jews as the pagans did.  The very sight of a tax collector (or “publican”) was a sharp reminder to the Jews that they were not a free people.  They remembered the plea of Ezra to Almighty God when the Jews were ruled over by the Persians a few hundred years before: “Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves.  And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress” (Nehemiah 9, 36-37).

“Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.”  For Jesus, to “see” a man meant most of all to know his heart: “You know me right well; my frame was not hidden from you when I was being formed in a hidden place” (Psalm 139, 14, 15).  Unlike the others in the marketplace, Jesus did not look upon Levi with scorn.  He loved him and he meant to die for him too.  And foreseeing all the good that this publican would in his service he called to him, “Follow me.”  Jesus used the same words with Levi as he had used to call Peter, Andrew, James, and John to his side.  The Lord set forth no preconditions for his following.  He simply said to him, Follow me.”  Levi did not hesitate but got up and left and never went back.  It may be that Levi had gone to hear John the Baptist preach and that this prepared him for Jesus.  Luke tells us that, “Tax collectors also came to be baptized” (Luke 3, 12) and that they asked John how they should act within their profession, to which John answered, “Collect no more than is appointed you” (Luke 3, 13-14).  

“Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.”  This occurred in the town of Capernaum.  The tax collector would have lived in one of the larger houses in the town and he would have had many servants.  Supposing this feast was held at the time of the main meal of the day, at midday, the Lord’s call would have come in the morning.  The preparations would have been hurried.  The situation brings to mind that of the visit to Abraham of the three angels who came to him as human visitors.  Speaking to his wife Sarah, he said, “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” And then, “Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it.  Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them” (Genesis 18, 6-8).  Levi throws the feast for the same purpose as Abraham did, hospitality.  Abraham did not recognize the men as angels but Levi does recognize Jesus as his Savior and has this opportunity to welcome him into his house.  And salvation came into his house as surely as it did into the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19, 9).

“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  The Pharisees do not seek the repentance of tax collectors and sinners.  This is not the goal of their sect, but rather for its initiates to follow a system of rules and laws that will help them attain salvation.  One of these rules tells them not to mix with people whom they deem not followers of their code, lest they be contaminated by them.  They believe Jesus and his Apostles are or aspire to be members of their movement and so they ask this question, quite aghast.

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”  Jesus announces that his is a completely different way than theirs.  The Pharisees seek to preserve themselves from impurity and so be saved.  The Lord wants to convert the hearts of those who live in sin so that they might be saved: “I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”  Jesus uses the term “righteous” to mean “those who consider themselves righteous”.  The very insular world of the Pharisees has no place for the words of the Prophets whom they profess to admire: “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Hosea 6, 8).  We should note that the Lord does not minimize the sins these tax collectors and sinners have committed, and that he does not abandon them but sees his duty, as Physician, to tend to them and to offer remedies.

Each day we may invite the Lord into the hospitality of our hearts.  Let us also ask him to take us into his home in heaven one day.