Amy C Walters

Jesus Calls Levi | Luke 5:27-39

The Pharisees and teachers were not fans of who Jesus chose to hang out with: “sinners.” But Jesus uses a word picture to reveal both his audience and his message. Not the self-righteous but sinners. And not to make them feel ok but to call them to repentance.

In the previous post, we talked about how tax collectors were thought of as traitors and cheaters. And now Jesus has called a tax collector, Levi, to be his disciple and has gone to a party at Levi’s house where there are other “tax collectors and sinners.” 

Not everybody is happy about this. We’re told that “the Pharisees and teachers of the law who belonged to the same sect complained to Jesus’ disciples, ‘why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” 

Let’s notice a few things about this. First of all, we have Pharisees and teachers of the law who belong to the same sect. These are people who all agree with one another. They all subscribe to the same ideas and teachings and beliefs. 

Secondly, they disapprove of Jesus’ choice of friends. Luke tells us that they “complained to Jesus’ disciples.” But is Luke right in calling this a complaint? Weren’t they just posing a question? 

The Pharisees pose this question not to Jesus, but to his disciples. But Jesus is in charge of his disciples. He is the one the party is for. The question should be posed to him. 

So why do the Pharisees question the disciples instead? There are a couple of possible reasons.

Maybe they don’t want a confrontation. To be honest, I tend to be passive aggressive at times because I don’t like confrontation. I don’t want to take the issue to the person directly because I don’t want to create a stir.

But another possible reason for this passive aggressiveness is that they don’t want their beliefs and ideas challenged. They don’t actually want to hear Jesus’ response, especially if it might change their minds. 

They may want to separate Jesus’ disciples from Jesus. They may want to create division and that’s why they go to the disciples. 

So Luke is right in calling this a complaint instead of a genuine question. They’re not sincerely curious. They just want to complain about it. 

What does this complaint tell us about what the Pharisees and teachers of the law think and believe in value? It shows us that they think religious leaders and teachers should just hang out with other religious people. They shouldn’t associate themselves with those who are on the fringes of society, those who would be considered “sinners.” They think that you should be with the people that you agree with. Just like it’s the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belong to the same sect.

Even though the Pharisees address this question to the disciples, Jesus jumps in to answer it. He comes to the defense of the disciples and he addresses the question directly. 

This is something else that intrigues me about Jesus–he doesn’t leave these underlying beliefs and ideas unchallenged. He doesn’t leave their thoughts or the things that they say amongst themselves secret. He brings it out into the open. 

Jesus answers the Pharisees and teachers with a word picture. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” 

There’s a lot packed into these two sentences. First of all, the two sentences are parallel. Healthy and sick people parallel righteous and sinful people. Jesus’ audience, who he has come for, are the sick–the sinful.

Jesus pictures himself as a doctor, one with a unique ability to find deadly problems and heal them. 

And the method for healing? Calling sinners to repentance. 

This word picture shows us that sinful people need a change. They need their sickness of sin dealt with.

And Jesus is the one who’s able to heal it. He has the answer for their sin problem. 

Now, when Jesus says, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” is he saying there are righteous people who don’t need him? If so, that would be in contradiction to other scriptures that say, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

What Jesus is addressing here is not true righteousness, but self-righteousness. Do you see yourselves, Pharisees, as sinners who need a Savior or as righteous people who have it all figured out, you don’t need anyone else? Are you righteous in your own eyes? Or do you recognize that you are a sinner and that you cannot solve your sin problem on your own?

No one can solve their sin problem by following all the rules perfectly. Everyone needs a Savior. So Jesus is not saying here that there are some who are righteous before God. Jesus is saying that he has come to deal with those who recognize that sin problem and will come humbly to him to have it dealt with. 

Where are you in this? Are you one of Levi’s tax collector friends who realizes, “Yeah, everything’s not right, I’m not okay. And maybe I’m gonna check this Jesus out and see what this is all about.” 

Are you Levi who says, “I’m a sinner, but Jesus called me to follow him, and I’m leaving everything to do that.” And you are so grateful for this change that Jesus has created in your life, that you are bringing your friends to find out more. 

Or are you a Pharisee who’s content in your own righteousness, or who at least thinks that you’re good enough to do it on your own? And so you’re standing on the fringes not approaching Jesus.

I hope that we are all like Levi and those tax collectors saying, “Yes, I’m sick and I need a doctor. I am a sinner and I need a Savior.” Because there’s something else that we need to note about what Jesus says. 

He says that “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He’s calling sinners for a purpose, not just to say you’re okay where you are. It’s to say you need a change. You need to repent of this sin. 

This is not a popular message today. Today, there’s a lot of saying it’s okay to not be okay. There’s a lot of recognition that maybe things aren’t okay, but there can be anger when we suggest that it needs to be fixed and that the only true fix for our sin problem is Jesus. 

Now this story is not saying that we don’t need doctors or that the real solution to every single problem is just to trust Jesus more. That’s not what this is saying. This is in the context of Jesus hanging out with sinful people. Our deepest issue in our life is our sin issue, and repentance from that sin and trust in Jesus is the answer.

Jesus goes into this group of sinners but does not leave them where they are. He accepts them how they are, but he takes them where they could never go on their own. He meets them as a sinner, but then through repentance, they receive Jesus’ righteousness. What an incredible trade-off! 

Notice, too, that Jesus is not standing there at a distance shouting at people to repent. He’s having dinner with them. He’s at a party with them. He is up close and personal with them in that potential awkwardness and messiness of relationship. He is building trust and relationship with them in order to call them to repentance.

Our key truth for today is that Jesus calls sinners to repent. And he demonstrates what that looks like.