13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he 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. 15 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. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
In college, not every class was offered to every person. In some cases, a student needed to take a prerequisite course in something before taking another. A Biology student, as I was, needed to take the introductory courses in General Biology and General Chemistry before a student could take more advanced courses like Anatomy and Physiology. Those courses were just not offered and available to everyone, one had to quality for them or meet certain conditions before offered to a student. Until they were met, a student just could not take them.
But, while courses at the university might only be offered to some that were prepared or qualified, Jesus’ offer of the Forgiveness of Sins was offered to all people, including even people like Levi. As a tax-collector, Levi was considered by most people not only to be immoral and unethical, by working for the Romans and against the Jewish people; Levi was also considered unreligious, by not following God’s Law and therefore against God. His crimes were just reprehensible, and his actions were despicable in the eyes of the people. But Jesus’ offer of forgiveness was not kept from Levi but offered deliberately to him. Who more so than Levi needed his sins forgiven? And Jesus’ love and offer of forgiveness was still open and available to him.
In our day and age, the tax-collectors and prostitutes bore the same stigma as perhaps today’s addicts and sexual predators do. Not only are they considered to be those that broke the law and therefore felons, but they are traitors to our modern sensibilities and sinners against the Law of God and the law of Nature. But, just as Jesus offered forgiveness to Levi, so too does Jesus offer forgiveness to everyone, including today’s Levi’s. No sin can disqualify Jesus’ forgiveness, no amount of depravity can negate the power to make clean, and no wickedness can thwart the love of God which can make all things new. Jesus’ forgiveness is still offered to all, and no ill deeds or inordinate desires can cancel that offer.
It was this offered and accepted forgiveness from Jesus that made Levi and all the other tax-collectors and sinners right and true. So right and true that after Jesus was done with them, they were worthy of eating with Jesus at his table. After Jesus’ work of forgiving, the newly forgiven and re-created saints were worthy of companionship with Jesus and his disciples. They ate and drank and celebrated the joy of God’s Kingdom which made them whole and right. This companionship with Jesus is the cause of the Pharisee’s offense. It was the law that brings companionship with God, not the forgiveness of sins by Jesus. Therefore, it should be the Pharisees that interact with God and here the despicable now interact with God. And that offends. The saints are the same as the sinners.
It also offends us. It offends us when the rapists, the thieves, the addicts, and the pedophiles bear the same place as those of us who never committed those heinous acts. True God’s forgiveness does fall on us, for which we are grateful, but God’s forgiveness also falls on our Levi’s. Like the Pharisees that upsets us, because it means that in our world, we are same as them. The sinners are the same as the saints and the saints are the same as the sinners; both are loved, both are offered forgiveness, both are pardoned by God. God, it seems plays no favorites and gives no special treatment. All are equally loved, equally forgiven, and equally blessed. And no one is better than anyone else.
But not everyone can handle that. Today’s sinners are quick to accept that forgiveness, knowing and acknowledging of their need, while today’s Pharisees are slow to accept that forgiveness, because pride prevents them from seeing their need for help. Jesus’ words still ring true, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Those who see themselves as sin-sick run towards Jesus for forgiveness and become healthy, those who see themselves as healthy will condemn Jesus for forgiving unworthy people and become sin-sick. The Levi’s are brought into the Kingdom of God through the work of Jesus and the Pharisees remove themselves from the Kingdom of God because pride prevents them from seeing themselves as needing help.
Which are you? Jesus can forgive anyone, even the Levi’s of today. But today’s Levi’s accept their need and accept the forgiveness of Jesus and enjoy the companionship of God. The sin-sick are made well. But today’s Pharisees see themselves as healthy and reject the forgiveness of Jesus. The healthy are made sin-sick. Never forget my friends, the non-religious accepted Jesus’ forgiveness and the religious could not handle or accept it. Let us not make the same mistake. Let us see ourselves as the sin-sick ones needing forgiveness, even if we are today’s Levi. Let us never see ourselves as the healthy ones and the Levi’s as the sick ones. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Jesus’ forgiveness is offered to all; will you register for it?
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