He Saw A Tax Collector

Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Luke 5:27-28

EARLIER THAT DAY, most of the people in town had crowded into a house to hear Jesus speak and to see a man who had been paralyzed jump up, pick up his mat, and go home praising God. But not Levi, the local tax collector. Money was his god. Now Jesus was passing by with a large crowd following him, and still Levi sat. But then Jesus saw Levi. Jesus saw his greed and corruption. He saw his loneliness and need. Jesus moved toward the man who was not moving toward him. When Jesus looked at Levi, this person who was hated for his robbery, Jesus saw who Levi would become. Jesus could see he would become Matthew, which means “gift of God” —Gospel writer, gift to the church.

In this unpredictable call to Levi and his unexpected, instantaneous, all-out response, we see that Christ’s call to followership is completely sovereign and irresistible. To the leper Jesus says, “Be healed!” and he is healed. To the paralyzed man he says, “Stand up,” and he stands up and walks. And to Levi Jesus says, “Follow me,” and he immediately follows. But the authority of Jesus does not discount Levi’s genuine response. When Levi “got up, left everything, and followed him,” we see his genuine human response of faith. His response of faith was lived out by following Jesus.

As parents, when we see our children sitting instead of following after the Lord, we can’t see them as Jesus sees them. We can’t see all that he has planned for them and all of the ways he intends to transform them. But we can pray for Jesus to see our children and to call our children to himself. And we can trust that his call is irresistible.

Lord, sometimes when I look at ________, all I can see is who he is now, the choices he’s making, and his need for significant change. I just know that you are sovereign and that if you see him and call him to follow you, your call cannot be resisted. So come. Call ________ to yourself as your disciple. How I long for it to be said about ________ that he “got up, left everything, and followed” you.