Sent to invite tax-collectors to church.

 

Out of all the people Jesus could have chosen to call to be part of his faith community, he chose Levi, also known as Matthew, a tax collector.

They were the most hated men in all Israel. They were men who had a license to steal from their own people, because they could keep any money that was raised over the amount the Roman government required as taxes.

 

Mark 2: 14 – 17 “As Jesus 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. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

Here was a man who was hurting inside, who knew the loneliness of living without God and who needed Jesus. And Jesus called him to have dinner with him, to follow him. Jesus chose him to be his disciple.

 

Then Jesus went home with him to a supper where many of Levi’s tax-collector friends had been invited and ate with them. Jesus was meeting a real human need the only way it could be met. He was the Doctor of sinners and they needed him because they were lost.

The Pharisees who thought they needed no physician did not follow Jesus. They did not consider themselves sick and in need of the Healer of People, Jesus, the Great Physician.

 

It is true that we are called to be separated from the ways of the sin-sick world, to offer an alternative – a life for Jesus.

Christians cannot look away when they know someone who needs salvation.

Jesus saves everyone who calls on his name because they know they are soul-sick, lost and separated from God!

 

When last did you invite a “tax collector” to come to Church with you, or share in your Bible study group, or enjoy a ladies or men’s get-together, or share the next generation‘s social event?

 

Christ’s mission has a Church to be his voice. A voice that says to “tax-collectors”, to “follow him” (Jesus) and a voice that calls them to share a meal with our Saviour and be healed.

 

Are you willing to be the voice of Christ that thirsty sinners can be saved?