GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 5:27-28
The Calling of Levi (Matthew)
(Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17)
We could categorize the next two stories that Luke presents as examples of Jesus’ attitude toward fellowship. The Pharisees were a relatively new group that had emerged about 150 years before during the days of the Maccabean revolt against Rome. They got their start by showing their purity, abstaining from anything Roman (or Gentile), but over the years they had evolved (genuine evolution is rarely for the better) into a self-made sect of super-Jews who wanted to be seen as specially set apart from everyone—even from ordinary Jews who were faithful to the law of Moses.
Jesus didn’t hold himself apart. He dove in right where people were to call them to repentance and faith in him. The prime example of this is the Lord’s call of a sinful tax collector into his circle of disciples.
27 After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” 28 Levi left everything, got up, and followed him.
Tax collection is something almost all governments face as necessary. In ancient times, people were outraged at the amounts required of them, which pale in comparison to what most people pay today. For those who don’t try to dodge paying taxes, but who understand that taxes are how governments get the money they need to function, tax time is an inconvenience (especially for those who struggle with math) but it can be faced cheerfully when we realize that we’re keeping the Fourth Commandment. This is true even if the government uses the money for evil purposes. The burden in that case is not on the ordinary person for paying his taxes (as Jesus did, Luke 20:22-26), but on the government for its own wickedness (as Rome was).
The Romans used a system of taxation that was efficient and which depended somewhat on the greed of sinful men to be successful. A chief tax collector bid for and bought his position and in turn sold the opportunity to be tax collectors to as many underlings as necessary to do the work. Levi was one such tax collector. Levi would have paid a fee and perhaps a percentage to his superior, and he would have sent a certain amount to Rome through that superior. Anything beyond that was used to pay his own salary. If he were a greedy man, he could overcharge whatever he wanted as long as he could collect it. A citizen who might actually owe, say, a dollar, could be coerced into paying five or ten dollars, or even twenty. For this reason, tax collectors were hated—not because the people hated the idea of paying taxes (although there will always be those who think that police and fire departments and public works and armies should be provided for free). Rather, it was because the tax collectors fleeced the people.
It’s easy to see why we fall into sins on all sides of the Fourth Commandment when it comes to our government. Those who govern are constantly under the threat of accusations about mismanagement, and too often forget about the example they should set. Those of us who are governed are never content and fail to trust our government as a representative of God. It would not matter if everyone in our government were an atheist—the government itself would still be there at God’s command, and working for our good (Romans 13).
Luther warned:
“He who is obedient, willing, ready to serve, and cheerfully gives honor where it is due, knows that he pleases God and receives joy and happiness for his reward. On the other hand, If he will not do so in love, but despises and rebelliously resists authority, let him know that he shall have no favor or blessing from God. Where he counts on gaining a gulden [an amount of money] by his unfaithfulness, he will lose ten elsewhere. Or he will fall victim to the hangman, or perish through war, pestilence, or famine, or his children will turn out badly; servants, neighbors, or strangers and tyrants will inflict injury, injustice, and violence upon him. What we seek and deserve, then, is paid back to us in retaliation.” (Large Catechism, Fourth Commandment. Tappert edition, page 236 par. 151)
So if Jesus could turn to a white collar thief and a schnook like Levi, a man so openly sinful that he was hated by everyone from every walk of life, then I can look at my own life and thank God that I have a Savior who forgave me, too. Whether I’ve had my nose in the air like a stuck-up Pharisee, or whether I’ve had my hand in the till like a thieving tax collector, I’ve been called by Christ to repent of my sin, to turn away from it, and to turn to him instead. And his offer of forgiveness wipes out all of the guilt in my life, even the guilt I’ve forgotten belonged to me. It’s all gone, remembered or not, forgiven by other people or not. You might have a price to pay to the government for your wrongdoing. Or if you’ve been a crooked member of the government, you might have a price to pay to the nation. But repent, and know that your debt before God is paid in full, and paid forever. Now live to give God glory, and show your love with your life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota