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The Call of Levi and the Discourse Concerning Christ's Ministry. Luk_5:27-39
The call and the feast of Levi:
v. 27. And after these things He went forth and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom; and He said unto Him, Follow Me.
v. 28. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.
v. 29. And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house; and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.
v. 30. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
v. 31. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
v. 32. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
After the healing of the paralytic Jesus left the house and went out to the seashore. On His way, which probably led along the great caravan road toward Damascus, He passed by the booth of a publican, a tax-collector or customs-inspector, by the name of Levi. Not by accident, but by design and with full intention, did the eyes of Jesus rest upon the man busy with his reports and the other business of his calling. See Mat_9:9. Levi had very probably heard of Jesus, since the city was full of the talk concerning Him, had even attended some of His discourses in the neighborhood of Capernaum. Jesus spoke only a short sentence in the form of a command: Follow Me! This word decided the fate of Levi. He left everything behind, he turned his back upon his entire former life with all its associations, and followed Jesus. In the thankfulness of his heart Levi now made a feast for the Lord. It was a great feast, and he had it prepared in his own house. The guests, outside of Jesus and His disciples, were Levi's former companions, a multitude of publicans and others, the majority such as were regarded with anything but favor by the proud and self-righteous Pharisees; they were mostly such as had been put out of the synagogue, with whom the average strict Jew would have no dealings. But here they were at the feast, reclining on the sofas about the tables. And many of them may have even then known and loved the Savior of sinners, being thankful to Levi for giving them the chance to see and hear more of the Lord. The fact that Jesus accepted an invitation into such a mixed assembly again offended the scribes and Pharisees of the Jews. The contrast between the teachings and methods of Jesus and those of the Jewish Church leaders was becoming more and more evident. The latter expressed their disapproval of the whole affair in no uncertain terms by remarking to the disciples of Jesus, probably with the intention of alienating them from the Master: For what reason do you eat with the publicans and sinners? The point of the question was directed against Jesus, for His disciples would hardly have gone to the feast without Him. They want Him to feel that they resented His disregard of their customs. But Jesus answered for His disciples, by stating in the form of a proverb that the healthy people had no need of a physician, but those that are in a bad way, that are sick. And He explains the proverb for their benefit: Not am I come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. Mark: Jesus calls Himself a physician of the soul; He represents sin as a disease of the soul; He states that He is come to cure men of this disease; He implies that those that did not feel their sickness, but believed themselves to be well and healthy, had no need of His services on account of that foolish opinion. Those that cared nothing for a Savior of sinners, He calls righteous or healthy; not as though they were exceptions in a world of lost and condemned sinners, for whose salvation He had come into the world, but because they felt no need of His services, because they did not know that they were wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, Rev_3:17; Joh_9:41. Only he that acknowledges and knows his sinfulness, that realizes, as Luther says, that he belongs into hell with skin and hair, with body and soul, only he has part in this Savior. If we accept this fact with meek hearts and rely upon it as sacred truth that God is merciful to us for Christ's sake, then we can be delivered from the terrible disease of sin.