Monday, August 27, 2018

Luke 5:27-32

After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

Know what I know

I want you. It is exactly this simple. I … want … you.

This is what Jesus means when he says, “Follow me.”

Don’t tell me your life is a mess. Lose the self-denigrating evaluations about why you are not good enough, ‘religious’ enough or talented enough. Forget the nonsense that there is little you know how to do or can do.

Jesus doesn’t want to hear any of it. He wants you, just like he wanted Levi, this tax collecting shyster who, like others of his time and trade, collaborated with a foreign power and charged more than he should, keeping the extra for himself.

All this would seem to exclude him from the company of a rabbi who called people to open their eyes to see and their hearts to feel the presence of God breaking into their lives.

It surprised Levi, who was likely shocked out of his shorts by Jesus’ invitation to come with him. It certainly alarmed those who believed a real spiritual teacher would have nothing to do with such an unsavory character.

Didn’t matter. Jesus still invited him along for the ride just as he invites you.

Listen to his voice: I want you. I want you to walk alongside me, to learn from me, to live the way I live, to love the things I love, to share the bread I eat and to know what I know in my heart. I want you to see and share the joy of doing what I do.

For when we do, when we follow him, when we bless as he blesses, when we share as he shares, joy soon follows, the joy of knowing the Love he is.

Pr. David L. Miller