Let's Have Dinner

Introduction

Most of us have a favorite meal. What adds to that meal is who you eat it with. For some of us, the family meals at holidays are less about the food than it is about those who join together to share it. There is something about sharing a meal together with people that you love that makes the meal special. We are going to share a meal together after our assembly. I look forward to it each month. While I don’t get a chance to talk with everyone, it is really special to see everyone together and to hear the voices and laughter.

There have been people from history that I would have liked to share a meal with. Historical figures who intrigue me and I would like to have had a chance to sit and listen to them for a time. But the meals I have shared with many of you and with those who have already died, more than suffice for meals with the historical figures. I have eaten with godly people in this world and that is better than eating with famous ones.

What would it have been like to eat a meal with Jesus? I have imagined at times what kind of guest he would have been. Would he have told jokes? Would he have been too busy talking to eat? Would he have been too busy listening to eat? How do you imagine it? Today we find Jesus eating a meal and he is criticized for the company he keeps in eating this meal. And we will discover that the heart of God is on display as Jesus seeks those who are lost.

Follow Me

Jesus is beside the Sea of Galilee. He spends his time traveling among the villages and towns preaching and healing. He is a man who rarely has time to himself. Such is the case on this day. As he goes out to the Sea and the crowds flock to him. He teaches. He walks. He sees Levi at his collection booth. Levi’s booth would have been set up on a well traveled road. Anyone who traveled this road had to pay a tax. It was an ancient toll booth. Jesus sees him and simply says, “Follow me.”

As he did with Simon, Andrew, James, and John, so Jesus does here. He speaks and something happens. Levi gives up his job and walks with Jesus. Unlike the first disciples this is even more monumental. The first four could and eventually did for a time return to their profession. But not Levi. Walking away from his toll booth meant there was no returning. Tax officials were hardly choice candidates for discipleship. Just think how we feel about the IRS now and you get only a taste of the kind of ostracism Levi must have experienced in his life. Tax collectors were never considered righteous. They were known as thieves and traitors as they worked for the government and abused their own flesh and blood for money.

Levi leaves his toll booth and begins following Jesus. Verse 15 helps us to recognize that while Levi is singled out there are a number of others who come to follow Jesus as well. Quickly the scene changes to Levi’s house in which Jesus and other tax collectors and sinners are eating dinner together. Do not read into this that this is some party in which drunkenness is going on. Rather at this dinner Jesus is the center of attention. Jesus doesn’t just call Levi and others to be disciples, he befriends them as well. He didn’t call them to a party. He called them to repentance and transformation. This appeal is appalling to the religious leaders. These are not the kind of people that good folks associate with. Jesus responds to that criticism by reminding them that doctors take care of sick people. He has come to be a spiritual physician to the spiritually ill.

Identity

Who do you identify with in this story? Levi—the one called to follow; the one willing to repent; the one willing to turn away from his past; the one who wants to be near Jesus no matter the cost. Jesus—the one who associates with those that no one else will associate with; the one who calls people to a higher standard even while spending time with them; the one who is friend with all. The religious leaders—the ones who have labels and tags for certain groups; the ones who criticize those who may try to include those not like us. Who do you identify with in this story?

We tend to eliminate ourselves as “Levi” because we are not thieves and unrighteous people and that may be the crux of the problem. If we eliminate our association with Levi then that only leaves Jesus and the religious leaders and not too many of us will say that we are like Jesus. You see, if we don’t identify with Levi then maybe we have forgotten or somehow gotten confused about who we are to identify with. If we aren’t careful we may begin to believe that only certain folks deserve to know Jesus. If we aren’t careful it may be that in our uncomfortableness of rubbing elbows with those who don’t exactly fit in with us that we think sinners have to do something first in order to become worthy recipients of God’s grace. What Levi demonstrates for us is that Jesus calls all in their sin to come to him. If you can get out of your sin first, then of what value is Jesus?

Jesus wasn’t afraid of being contaminated by sinners. He believed that he came to contaminate the sinner with God’s love. Jesus didn’t believe that he had to protect God’s holiness but that God’s holiness had to be brought to the people who needed it the most. There is no room to snub or reject someone because they are sinners. Rather that is all the more reason to bring Jesus to them. Notice that it is to bring Jesus to the sinners not get the sinners to Jesus. Make no mistake, Jesus is giving a new and different perspective in this story. Religious leaders would not have spent time with sinners until they changed. Jesus goes to the sinner and makes it clear that we cannot win people if we are not willing to be with people.

It is time that we quit singing “Amazing Grace” and believe that it applies only to wretches like me and to no one else. Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary defined an evangelist as a “bearer of good tidings, particularly such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors.” Jesus is breaking down the barriers which separate sinners and those who see themselves as righteous. By the end of the gospel of Mark it is quite plain that there are no righteous to call. All fall short of God’s glory and are in need of the physician. This is not an indictment but rather a challenge to think differently about those who are around us. The difference between us and those who do not Jesus may only be that we haven’t introduced Jesus to them.

We must think about Jesus differently. Carlos Christo said, “While we look for him among priests, he is among sinners. While we look for him among the free, he is a prisoner. While we look for him in glory, he is bleeding on the cross.” Jesus didn’t come to turn the religious establishment upside down. He came to demonstrate in very real ways that life is found not in religious customs and ritual, but in him. And when we introduce Jesus to our friends, then they too can have a life altering relationship with him. So who do you identify with in this story? There may be a Levi here today who is ready to follow Jesus. There may be a Pharisee here today who thinks that customs and rituals are their badge of honor. May we all be Jesus to our friends.

Follow Jesus

If you’d like to respond to this message or learn more about following Jesus, please reach out.