.png)
Today we are finishing up our dinners with Jesus and the truth is that we could look at several other meals that Jesus had with people because Jesus loved to eat. As you read through Luke’s gospel it seems like Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. That kind of reminds me of the Grange Fair. During the week of the Fair people seem to be either going to their favorite food stand, at their favorite food stand, or coming from their favorite food stand. What this tells me is that if Jesus was here, He would be at the Grange Fair. Maybe I need to rethink my views of the Fair.
The other reason Jesus would probably be at the Fair is because that is where all the people are and Jesus, more than eating, loved to eat with people - all kinds of people. In fact, Jesus got criticized all through His ministry for eating with the wrong people and today’s story is about one such meal.
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.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 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.” Luke 5:27-32
While we might not like tax collectors today, in Jesus’ day, tax collectors were truly despised. The Jewish people particularly hated them because they were seen as traitors because they worked with the Roman government. When Rome conquered Israel, different areas of the land were sectioned off and the rights to collect taxes in those areas were sold to tax collectors. Those men would then turn around and collect all the taxes they could and anything they brought in over what they had to pay to Rome, they got to keep. The Jewish people hated that some of their own people were helping support the Romans. Tax collectors were to be avoided. Many people saw them as being beyond redemption, beyond God’s grace and love, and beyond salvation.
Levi was a tax collector. He was despised by his people. His only friends were tax collectors and other people in the community who were seen as being too sinful to receive God’s grace. And yet the irony is that his name was Levi. Levi was one of the 12 sons of Jacob and it was his family that was given the responsibility to care for the Temple in Israel. Levites were the ones called to be priests. Levites were the intermediaries between God and the people. Levites were an honored people and yet every time this Levi heard his name, it was probably in a curse, or with hatred because of what he did. Think of the gap between what his names said of him and his position in society. Every time he heard his name, Levi might have thought about how far he had fallen.
And yet… Jesus called him to be a disciple. Levi was not too far gone, not so unredeemable, that he could not become a follower of Jesus. Jesus called Levi to follow Him. He was being called to be the disciple of a rabbi. Who knows, maybe Levi had studied to be a rabbi. Most young Jewish boys did. He most likely started off learning the Torah and at some point was deemed not good enough, so he ended up collecting taxes, but now Jesus was saying, follow me.
Think of all the things Jesus could have said to Levi? You should be ashamed of yourself for working with Rome and betraying your people. You should repent Levi and come back to the Lord. There is no hope for you Levi. There is no mercy for you Levi. Change your ways and then maybe, MAYBE, God will forgive you.
Jesus could have said words that kept Levi at arm’s length, but He didn't. Jesus drew him in. Jesus said, I want you to be part of what I am doing. Jesus said, you belong to me - so follow me.
Where the world had used a sharpie to cross out Levi’s name and place in the community, Jesus was using a highlighter to let Levi know that he was special. He was important. He was someone to be remembered. Let me stop right here and make sure you know that while the world may want to use a sharpie to cross you out, God uses a highlighter to let you know that you are important and loved. There may be times when we want to use a sharpie and cross ourselves out because we know our sin, our failures, our addictions, and our unfaithful actions, but God removes the sharpie and uses a highlighter to remind us that through His grace and love, we are forgiven. You are special to God and as you place your faith and trust in Jesus, God highlights your name.
God highlights Levi here. God calls Levi to follow Him and he does, which means that we know his name and his story and not the names of the Pharisees. The rest of Levi’s story is that he got up and left everything to follow Jesus. Leaving everything meant that Levi left his job and any future he had as a tax collector. If you walked away from a tax booth - you were walking away from your job. You were burning your bridges with Rome and closing the door on that part of your life and all the income that came with it. Levi left it all behind and then he spent some of what he had left to throw a banquet for Jesus and guess what - Jesus went.
Jesus went to Levi’s house. Jesus went to the home of a tax collector where the only other people invited were tax collectors, outcasts, and sinners. And it was a great party because it said there was a large crowd and it was probably a noisy crowd. This party was the talk of the town. It was the place to be if you were living on the edge, but not the place to be if you were a religious leader.
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?”
The religious leaders were critical of Jesus because the people at this party did not behave the right way. They were sinners. They did things so far outside the law that there was no redemption for them. They didn’t behave the right way and they didn’t believe the right things because if they did, they would have changed their behavior. The crowd at this party didn’t behave the right way and they didn’t believe the right things which means that they didn’t belong to God. They were not children of God.
It says that those who complained about what Jesus was doing were those who belonged to the sect of the religious leaders. Those that belonged to them, those that were true children of God were those who behaved the right way and believed the right things - that’s how you got to belong. This was the system of religion in Jesus’ day. You had to behave the right way and believe the right thing and you then could belong. But Jesus turns this all around. Jesus said to Levi, you belong to me. Follow me, and then I will change your beliefs and in time your behavior, but first and foremost you need to know that you belong to me.
By eating with Levi, and by eating and drinking with sinners, Jesus turned the religious system around. You belong to me and if you follow me and live with me, in time you will see all that you need to believe and then behavior will change, life will change. But to start, just know that you belong to me. No matter what you have done, where you are, how you are living or what you are doing - you belong to me. Romans 5:8, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ died for us because we are God’s children who need salvation. Christ died for us because we are God’s sheep who have gone astray and need to be brought home. Christ died for us because we belong to God and need to be brought home. We were still sinners when Christ died, which means that our beliefs and behaviors did not line up with God’s will, but that didn’t matter. Belonging mattered so Jesus gave Himself so that we could belong and then through the gift of the Holy Spirit God helped us believe what we need to believe and behave the way we need to behave. But belonging came first and belonging comes through Jesus.
Levi didn’t do anything to earn God’s love or favor. He didn't do anything before Jesus called him to belong to His family Levi simply belonged because Jesus highlighted his life and said, you belong to me. Jesus said to those who criticized Him, I didn’t come to call the righteous, those who behave and believe all the right things, I came to call the sinners. Jesus came to say to all of us that feel isolated, alone and cast out that we belong to Him. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, and we can’t repay Him, but we belong to Him.
In this dinner with Jesus, we see 3 powerful truths about the heart of God. First, the heart of God always Leads with Belonging. Jesus doesn’t ask Levi to behave differently or believe differently. He just says, follow me. Just as you are, be my disciple. You belong to me. In the call to be a disciple, growth, change, and transformation are implied, but all of that comes after Levi knows that he belongs. Jesus leads with belonging.
God always leads with belonging. Last week we looked at the woman caught in adultery who was brought to Jesus. What Jesus said to her first was, you belong to me. I do not condemn you. Now, because you are mine, go and sin no more. Because you are mine, let my love help you believe all God has to say and then allow that to change your life. God always leads with belonging, and then moves to transformation. Just as you are today, you belong to God and when God wants you to grow and change - God will lead you.
The second reflection of God’s heart that we see here is that God always Leans toward Sinners. Jesus said that He did not come to call the righteous but sinners. Jesus told a parable about the heart of God which said that if one sheep went astray, the shepherd would leave the 99 others to go after that one. God will literally move heaven and earth to go after the one who has gone astray. Jesus said that there is great rejoicing when one sinner returns and there is rejoicing in heaven because God always leans toward the sinner.
Jesus went out of His way to spend time with sinners. He said, I have come to call the sinners not the righteous because the healthy don’t need a doctor, the sick do. God is always leaning toward us and reaching out toward us. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Jesus is speaking to us, to sinners. He doesn’t tell us to clean ourselves up and then open the door, we can answer just the way we are, and He will come to us and join us at the table. God leans towards sinners and thank God because we are those sinners.
The third thing we see in Jesus is that God’s heart Loves those Unlike Him. Let’s be honest, most of us are most comfortable with people who are like us, but Jesus always moved to those who were not like Him. He called tax collectors. He ate with sinners. He allowed sinful women to wash His feet and anoint Him with oil. He spent time with fishermen and people who were not worthy enough to be priests, Pharisees, and religious leaders. Jesus' heartbeat like the heart of God and He gravitated toward those unlike Him.
In our world, we seem to only want to hang with people exactly like us. A recent study showed that college students would not be comfortable rooming in a dorm with someone who voted differently than they did. The world is polarizing and unfortunately the church is too, but Jesus reached out beyond expected boundaries and barriers because the heart of God reaches out to all people. Loving those unlike us means being with them. It means belonging to one another first and allowing God’s love to move us forward.
The heart of God Leads with Belonging, it Leans toward Sinners and it Loves those Unlike Us. And our hearts need to beat the same way. So here is how we can start. Like Jesus, let’s shake up the system. Let’s lead with belonging. Let’s make sure we focus on belonging first and then allow God to lead us all into strong beliefs and faithful living. Let’s communicate that because of Jesus - we all belong. We are all sinners, but because of the love of Jesus, we all belong to God.
In October we are going to hold a Belong workshop which we hope will help you know that you do belong here at Faith Church. We will share more of what goes on here, allow you to meet some of the pastors and staff, and help you get connected so the sense of belonging can grow. I’ll make sure we have some food available because Jesus not only loved to meet people where they were, but He loved to eat with them. If you are interested in belonging here, or knowing more about what it means to belong to God, I hope you will join us on October 2.
At Levi’s home, and at Levi’s table, Jesus really does set the example for us. We need to welcome people into our hearts and lives and let them know that they belong to God. Who do we know that thinks that because of who they are, where they have been, what they have done, and where they are today that they just don’t measure up or matter to God. As we think of them, let’s make sure we are not taking a sharpie to cross them out, let’s take a highlighter and show them that they matter to God and that they belong to Jesus. Let’s lead with belonging and allow God to work out the rest.
Next Steps
Dinners With Jesus - A Dinner with Levi
Read Luke 5:27-32
● Who was Levi?
● What does his name say about him?
● What does his job say about him?
● What does Jesus say about him?
The religious leaders had a clear system they followed:
● Behave the Right Way & Believe the Right Things and THEN you Belong to Us.
Jesus’ system turned this upside down:
● You Belong to Me! Now I will help you Believe the Right Things & Behave the Right Ways.
How do we see this new system in the story of Levi?
How do we still live in the old system?
How do we still exclude people because of their behavior?
● What behavior do we think excludes people from belonging to Jesus?
How do we need to change our own behavior and beliefs?
How can we Lead with Belonging?
Name a “Levi” in your life who needs to know they belong to Jesus? How can you let them know that they belong to God?
● Invite them to dinner and let them know they are part of God’s family just the way they are.
