Good morning. It is my practice on Thursdays to turn our attention to various Biblical characters that we might gain some insight from their particular journey of faith. Today, I would like to have us consider Matthew – Levi. Yes, this individual is described in scripture with both of those names. He is the writer of the gospel of Matthew, and when he refers to himself, he uses the name the traditional Jewish name “Matthew”. In Mark and Luke’s gospels we read of him as “Levi”. Don’t be too concerned about this however, because it was a common practice in the first century to be referred to by two names. In this case, Matthew seems likely to have been his traditional Hebrew name while Levi was more likely used of him after he had come to Christ. I will use the name Levi for clarity.
When Jesus comes upon Levi, he was sitting in his tax booth. Imagine a man sitting behind a table with an awning of sorts erected over him to provide shade. Behind him there are one or two big, burly types. They are there to enforce the tax collectors will. When Jesus sees him, Levi is near Capernaum, but this is a rather special kind of tax collector. Levi’s tax collection booth is set up on the outskirts of the city, on the path that leads to the body of water known as the Sea of Galilee. There is only one purpose for a tax booth in that location, he is there to collect a tax on the fish that have been caught by the local fishermen. This practice is well documented. We know that Herod had commanded that he should have a tax profit from the labors of the fishermen plying their trade in the Sea of Galilee, and collecting this tax was Levi’s purpose. Imagine how unpopular such a person would be in a fishing community like Capernaum! It wasn’t enough that the Romans and the Jewish temple already taxed every citizen heavily for whatever income they might earn, this was an additional tax laid on the shoulders of the hardworking fishermen. People like James, John, Peter, and Andrew, who had just recently left their nets to follow Jesus.
That’s right, when Jesus calls Levi to follow Him, this tax collector may have been enduring the hateful stares of these other apostles of Christ! How hard it must have been for those fishermen to lay their prejudices aside and accept Levi into their midst. In the first few verses of the 5th chapter of Luke’s gospel we read of Jesus’ calling of those fishermen. This is when Jesus saw them cleaning their nets after a long and fruitless night of labor and told them to go back on the lake and to cast their nets into the deep water, something that would be considered a stupid idea if you were a fisherman using a net to catch your fish. They obey and they catch a huge haul of fish, but they leave it behind to follow Jesus.
In verses 27-32 we read of the calling of Levi: 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 other sinners 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.”
The fishermen had left their nets, as well as the backbreaking labors that would have been required for their job. Levi leaves his tax collecting business, which was far more profitable. In fact, Levi would have been one of the wealthiest people in the community, and the most hated, because all of his earnings would have been considered unfair and a hardship upon others who worked hard for their living.
After Levi accepts the call of Jesus, he throws a party. It is a party that includes his friends, who are also tax collectors and renowned sinners. I find it interesting that while the Pharisees and legal experts were quick to criticize Jesus for having dinner with such people, it would seem that they too were present.
The powerful truth of Jesus is shared in His answer to their criticism: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
When Jesus speaks of the “sick” needing His spiritual healing, I wonder if He may have looked right at Levi and smiled. Levi was certainly a lost soul who had been saved.
Levi was with the Lord throughout His ministry, right to the cross and beyond. He was there when Jesus appeared to His own after the resurrection. He was there when the early church was first being established.
As a tax collector, Levi was well educated. He would have been fluent in Greek and Latin as well as Hebrew and Aramaic. He would have been required to write in all of those languages, and to be able to “balance the books” for his tax records. This made him uniquely suited to write the first gospel. Interestingly, His gospel is the one that is written from the traditional Jewish perspective.
For me, the most amazing thing about the story of Levi is how faith in Jesus was so powerful that the hatred, prejudice, and distrust that would have been automatic for any good Jew regarding a tax collector, let alone the fishermen/apostles regarding THIS kind of tax collector, was all set aside. All of that which was considered worthy of hatred was lost and forgotten once they all knew Jesus. In Jesus, they were all one.
I do believe there is a lesson for us in that truth.
Vern