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He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Levi made a complete break with his past and his old life. He was like a man who set his hand to a plow and didn't look back at what was left behind. And this was true despite the fact that he maintained possession of some of his property, as evidenced by the great banquet he held for Jesus. But the possessions that were still his he no longer regarded as his own. Even those things which he still possessed he had in some sense left behind. He was like Paul, "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead", (see Philippians 3:13) and like him could say, "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss" (see Philippians 3:7). He had the poverty of spirit that Jesus called blessed even as he still put to good use the things of this world. And what better use of worldly resources than to provide a great banquet for Jesus, giving him the opportunity to influence other tax collectors who might be open to his message?
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees assumed that if Jesus was truly concerned with holiness he would have been more selective about the company he kept. In their minds proximity to a holy man would first need to be earned by arduously seeking holiness oneself. But this idea of first becoming holy and then coming to Jesus was illusory. The issue wasn't a matter of priority and could not be addressed by a self-improvement project. It was an illness that required the healing that only a physician could provide. One would not normally feel the need to first overcome the fever in order to spend time with the doctor. Indeed to attempt to do so would be foolish.
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
Jesus came to call sinners, that is, all of humanity. But in order to hear this call one would need at least the willingness and humility to recognize the disease of sin within oneself. Without recognizing the bad news of the disease it was impossible to fully appreciate the good news of the divine physician and his cure. And to cure this disease was in fact his intention. He didn't desire to leave us in sin, perhaps by giving it some other label, or calling it harmless, but desired to give us the medicine of repentance. But this was a goal toward which he could only lead those who would see themselves as sinners in need of salvation. Such self-knowledge does not naturally come to anyone. It is something that God will reveal to us a little at a time, so as to not overwhelm us. We can be Pharisees who shut our ears and refuse to hear it. Or we can be like Levi and allow Jesus to turn our whole world upside down.
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
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