Leaning into Luke

 

After this, 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

Jesus had just healed someone, he headed out of the house where he was at and there is a tax collector.

That ominous sound you hear is because tax collectors were looked down upon and pushed to the fringe of polite society.  The soundtrack that should accompany the words, “Levi sitting at his tax booth,” would be like the theme song to Jaws or what played every time Darth Vader walked into a scene in Star Wars.

Tax collectors were not the heroes or sheroes in Jesus’ day.  The reason was that they worked for Rome.  The money you gave to the tax collector financed the Caesar who thought he was a god.  You felt the weight of the boot of Rome on your neck.  Some scholars suggest that the tax rate in Jesus’ day (between Rome, Herod, and temple taxes) could have been as high as 90 percent.  Ouch.  Suddenly, us saying that we have the worst taxes ever doesn’t hold as much truth.

Jesus goes and calls Levi to follow.  Think of a person you see as a villain, the least likely candidate for Person of the Year…Jesus calls him/her?  Before Jesus preached, “Love your enemy,” he practiced it right here and right now in the passage.  Levi throws a party and all his tax collector friends with their calculators, glasses, and number jokes (like why is six afraid of seven? Because seven, eight, nine – read as seven ate nine.)  When the Pharisees question the company Jesus is keeping, Jesus says that someone whose halo is shining doesn’t need polish.  Someone who thinks s/he has it all figured out, is not going to listen. 

One of my favorite quotes right now is that the more you know, the more questions you have. The more you learn, the more you realize how much you fail to grasp.  Amen to that!  I don’t see clearly.  I make a ton of mistakes and miscues and miss moments of the movement of God’s grace.  Levi and I might have more in common than I care to admit or accept. 

Where in the above description did you find yourself with a new insight or idea?  Where did you find yourself shaking your head in disbelief?  Was there anything above that frustrated you?

Let the questions above sing to you, soak into you, and let your life respond and react to these questions today.  Lean into Luke and sense the way Luke’s wisdom is seeking to be lived out in you.

And may God’s grace, peace, and love be with you now more than ever.  Amen.