Calling Levi

In chapter 9 of Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew recounts his own call from Jesus to become a disciple. Matthew was the name Jesus gave him. Until he became one of Jesus’s disciples, he was called Levi. And he was at his place of work in the tax office. The Jewish people did not like those among their number who became tax collectors. They viewed these people as sinners and collaborators with the Romans against their own people. Tax collectors had the force of the Roman soldiers behind them to force the people to pay the taxes, but not only that, they were considered to be extortioners because they were allowed to keep any money they over-collected. Consequently, most if not all tax collectors over-charged on purpose to line their own pockets.

The call from Jesus gave Levi Matthew the opportunity to literally turn his life around. When he was a tax collector he was busy taking but Jesus was calling him to a work that was essentially giving.

Jesus said to him “Follow Me” and he did. He left his desk, taking nothing but his pen. Jesus called him and the only thing he took from his trade was the pen this trade had taught him to use; a skill he then used to compose his Gospel of Jesus’s teachings.

There is archaeological evidence that fish taken from the Sea of Galilee were taxed. So Jesus took as His disciple the taxman that may have taken money from Peter, James, and John and the other fishermen among the disciples. Certainly, initially, it would have been difficult for them to accept each other. Yet, in one way, Levi made more of a sacrifice than some of the other disciples. Peter, James, and John could easily go back to their fishing business, but it would be practically impossible for Levi to go back to tax collecting.

Jesus sat at the table in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him. This context suggests that this was a gathering of Matthew’s friends and former business associates. Possibly, Jesus took advantage of Matthew’s decision to also reach those whom he knew.

And so the disciples were asked, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The answer to this question was simple, because Jesus is the friend of sinners. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

We are fortunate that God calls sinners and not just saintly people. Jesus came to benefit those who understood their inherent need for Him. Yet the proud who see no need for Jesus do not benefit.

Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”. In Hosea’s day, God’s people were still good at bringing sacrifice, but they had abandoned mercy because they gave up the knowledge of God and truth. God would rather have right hearts, full of truth and mercy than sacrifice.

These words are more striking when we remember that they were addressed to the teachers of men. This rebuke showed that they did not know God, and Jesus bade them go and learn the meaning of their own Scriptures. These “teachers of men” thought they knew everything already, and the rebuke made them angry.

This event illustrates Jesus’s mission to seek and save the lost, calling them to repentance and a new life.

Discipleship Is Costly

Luke 14:25-33

Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem because the time of His death is approaching. He was accompanied by His disciples, whom He was teaching and preparing, but time was short. Hence, Jesus’s radical call. It was absolutely necessary for them to leave everything behind and be prepared for their own death if they are serious about following Him and about going with Him to Jerusalem.

There were also large crowds accompanying Jesus as He journeyed towards Jerusalem.

Jesus was also teaching these crowds.

Those who were already following Jesus needed to be taught the nature of true discipleship. They needed to be fully aware of what following Him costs.

Following Jesus demands full and total devotion to God.

Jesus was so fully devoted to His mission that it meant abandoning and being rejected by His home town and His family. For those who must leave their family behind to be able to fully follow Jesus it could be perceived as hating one’s family in the eyes of some.

Jesus tells us that to be His disciple means carrying our cross and following Him.

He is giving His disciples advance warning.

The road they were following Jesus down is expected to end in death, and they must prepare themselves.

Full devotion is described by and measured by what future is being committed to.

As usual, Jesus gave examples in order to help His disciples and the crowd understand the importance of fully evaluating the cost of following Him.

It was not a decision to be made lightly. Each person in the crowd and each disciple needed to consider whether they could follow Him to the very end, leaving everything else behind.

“None of you can be my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Jesus is entirely serious in saying that those following Him to Jerusalem must not be encumbered in any way.

But, if we look at other contexts and situations, does Jesus require every one, every disciple, every where and in every time to abandon family and possessions and run headlong towards death for Him?

If we look at the rest of the New Testament we can discern that the answer to this question is no.

The rest of the New Testament portrays faithful disciples maintaining family relationships and retaining possessions.

There are the apostles who travelled with their wives as they travelled far and wide on missionary work. The members of the church who had homes and possessions, with which they supported the church and the work of Peter, Paul and the other apostles.

It is important, however, to reiterate that these converts held their possessions loosely and were willing to give them up for the good of others and to support the Gospel mission.

It is also important to realise and accept that the requirements Jesus placed upon those wanting to follow Him on the road to Jerusalem will be required to be fulfilled should the circumstances dictate.

All followers of Jesus must remind themselves constantly that following Him faithfully could require the full sacrifice of family, possessions and even life itself. Those Christians who do not encounter or experience that extreme sacrifice must ensure that their family, possessions and life do not become so dear to us that they draw us away from full devotion.

Discipleship IS costly.

It demands continuous giving – giving time, giving energy, giving attention, taking initiative, making sacrifices, facing opposition, losing privacy, embracing obscurity, even shedding tears.

The making of disciples is not just sharing the Gospel, but sharing our own selves, gladly, for the souls of others. It means giving, giving, giving, giving and even more giving.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. So it also is with the hearts of disciples. It makes me happier for you to have my time, energy, attention. initiative, than it does for me to keep them to myself.

The crowd who were with Jesus on the road were interested enough to be following Him. However, they hadn’t fully grasped the implications and cost of discipleship. The same is true for many today. Throughout the world, both in churches and out, are crowds of people interested in Jesus but who do not really grasp the full implications, cost and commitment of discipleship for themselves.

And it is to such as these that Jesus is speaking to here. Those people who are willing to follow Jesus and learn from Him but only as long as the cost to them is not too high. Casual followers, followers who are here today but gone tomorrow.

Jesus points out that this is a total misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian and He strongly addresses this misunderstanding.

We are to put Jesus first, to put our love for God above everything else in our lives.

The Christian life demands strength to love.

The Christian life demands that we carry a cross.

The Christian life demands that we give up everything for God.

There is only one person who has ever managed to do this perfectly and, of course, that is Jesus Christ Himself. He is our model – our example. We are to imitate Him, or in the words of Thomas A Kempis we are to develop “The Imitation of Christ”.

Growth in discipleship is ultimately growth in becoming more Christlike in our thoughts and actions.

And that involves sacrifice and hard work.

Are we ready to count the cost and become the disciples Jesus wants us to be.

It’s a choice we must make.

Not only that but we must keep making that choice

every

single

day!

Remembrance

This morning we have two key elements. We have the good news which is the gospel and we have Remembrance.

Our gospel¹ this morning recounts an event which took place at the Sea of Galilee. Now, in Jesus’s time this was the centre of a prosperous fishing industry. The importance of knowing this will become clear shortly.

And the event Mark is recounting is the pivotal moment of Jesus calling His first disciples. Relevant both then and now is that the call to follow Jesus was a call to BE with Jesus as well as to learn and be Jesus’s representatives, carrying out the ministry He gives. The disciples were with Jesus and learning directly from Jesus.

So Jesus calls to those He had chosen, and immediately they left their nets, their boats, their fishing businesses, their families, everything. No hanging back, no hesitation, no requests for extra time to finish what they were doing or to pack their equipment. Immediately! Leaving everything! To follow and be with Jesus!

These were just ordinary men, the same as you and me. They heard the call, calling to something deep inside them, and they knew they must heed it. They followed Jesus. They made mistakes just like all of us and they learnt from these, repented and were forgiven. They went on to do great work spreading the good news of Jesus all around the world and this was not without suffering and death but Jesus was with them and had prepared them for this work. They did not follow blindly but with eyes which had been opened.

God calls every single one of us and our whole lives must come under His rule. Our money, our relationships, our work, our time, our everything should be under the rule of Jesus – not because we accept Him as king but because He IS king. And what we are called to do is to repent and believe. To turn away from sin and accept the forgiveness freely offered to us by Jesus.

Believing that Jesus is king who brought God’s kingdom to us and embracing it in faith, turning from sin and embracing forgiveness is the very starting point of discipleship. We are unable to move forward without repenting and submitting to the rule of Jesus.

Belief is not merely accepting something as true. Belief involves a response from our whole being in complete obedience.

Just like in Jesus’s day when the people trusted in all sorts of things: their ancestry, land, temple, and laws are just a few examples of many, people today trust in many differing things. Jesus was calling them and calls us to trust the good news that God was and is doing something new through Jesus. To be part of His kingdom requires letting go of all these earthly ties that distract us and putting our whole trust in Jesus. Repent and believe because God has come and you can belong to His kingdom and have your sin taken away.

But that doesn’t mean we have to forget.

Remembrance Sunday is an opportunity to remember and honour those who have lost their lives in conflict and those who were left physically and emotionally scarred.

It is an opportunity to all join in the silence together and allow our remembrances to help us face more honestly what it means to be human and to deepen our commitment to peace.

In all of this we seek God’s everlasting and all encompassing love.

War brings much death and trauma. There are those who cannot speak of the horrors they experienced. The silence we hold today also honours them.

As we struggle to find words to speak into the silence and horror of loss and trauma, we make Christ known. In the depths, we discover, He gives us words to speak of healing, forgiveness, and the knowledge that in Christ death is not the end and that love not violence is the final word.

God takes from us all our raging and bitterness, if we just let Him, and in the resurrection He shows us the way to peace.

The hard won, costly peace of the sacrifice of His son, who faced war yet did not respond with retribution and retaliation but with mercy, forgiveness and love.

We hold silence and remember, not so we can forget for the rest of the year, but so we can be reminded of a call to speak and recommit to live as peacemakers, as people who through the love and passion of the self-offering and sacrifice of Christ, God has come near.

And we live into the hope of a world where war will be no more.

We will remember them.

(Mark 1:14-20) ↩︎