As most gospel stories, the passages that I encountered
today were familiar to me. I’ve grown up hearing them taught in Sunday school. I’ve
grown up reading them. But this morning some new things that I'd never realized before hit me as I read this
passage.
There are three characters that I want to introduce you too:
Simon Peter: A fisherman also known as "a very poor man."
Levi: A tax collector also known as "a known thief."
Pharisees: The righteous of righteous according to the Jews.
In the beginning of Luke 5 we find Jesus going into Simon
Peter’s boat to get away from the crowds and have some fresh air to stand up
and teach to them. Since the chapter before when he started healing people, his
fame began to spread and people started coming from all over to hear him and
get healed. After Jesus finishes teaching the crowds from the boat, he leans
over to Peter and tells him to cast his nets into the water. Imagine what is
going on in Peter’s mind when Jesus tells him this. Oh wait, Peter shares what
he is thinking, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word
I will let down the nets.”
Jesus is just starting his ministry, but news about him has
already spread all across town. Everyone knows what he has been up too. Peter
knows Jesus has been on a healing spree. Everyone knows that there is something
unique and extraordinary about this man. So Peter listens to the carpenter and
lowers his nets. And as he does so, the nets get so full they start breaking,
they bring another boat over and fill both boats so full of fish that they both
begin sinking. Do you know what Peter’s response to Jesus is after this happens?
“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Why does he
respond this way to fish filling two boats? Because at this moment, Peter knows
who this man is standing in his boat.
But Jesus doesn’t depart. He turns and says to Peter, “Do
not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
You see what happens here, Peter finds himself in the
presence of Jesus, the Holy Son of God and says what every sane human being
should say if they encounter such Holiness and perfection, “I am a sinner!” But
Jesus doesn’t dwell on this statement, for He’s quite aware of Peter’s
sinfulness. Instead He tells him not to be afraid and tells Him he will be used
in the Kingdom of God!
This is what is amazing: God loves to use sinful men like
Peter and like you for the advancement of His kingdom.
But it doesn’t end here in verse 11 it says, “And when they
had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.”
You see it’s impossible to actually encounter the Holy Son
of God and not have your life completely turned upside down. Simon Peter
realizes he is a sinner when he finds himself in the presence of God, but then
three verses later he’s giving up his occupation and all he has known in life
to follow Jesus.
A few verses later in verse 27 we come to our second
character, Levi. Jesus says two simple yet life-changing words to the tax collector,
“follow me!”
Do you know what Levi’s response was? Verse 28 says, “And
leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”
Levi, a tax collector who is known as a thief and a sinner
in that day and time, leaves all that he does in a split second to follow
Jesus. Why? Cause he encountered Jesus, the Holy Son of God. And when he
encounters this, he sees a hope he can’t get from stealing from people. He sees
something that is worth giving up all that he has known or done.
But the story doesn’t end there with Levi. He didn’t just
leave everything, he went home with Jesus and “made a great feast in his house,
and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table
with them.”
Levi can’t keep Jesus to himself. He wants others to encounter
the Jesus that just set him free from his stealing. You see, when you really
encounter Jesus and the hope you can get from him, you want everyone around you
to experience that hope too.
This is the part of the story that our third and final character
joins us. Do you know what the Pharisees say to Jesus in verse 30? They ask
Jesus, “‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
If you read my last blog post, you know I’ve been wrestling
with the way American Christians and Churches are living and acting today. This
is why! It seems that it’s such a rarity to be eating and drinking with tax
collectors and sinners. It seems as if churches and Christians often think like
the Pharisees, “Really? You’re hanging out with them?” It’s so easy for a church to become so
inward focused and so focused on their problems that they forget their biggest
problem is already taken care of.
They forget what it was like to encounter Jesus for the
first time. They think about themselves and their problems and not about the
dying world around them.
You see Jesus loves to use weak human beings to do His work.
He wants to use you.
Whenever I make my way through any of the gospels in the
bible. It’s really uncomfortable. I’m constantly running into these Pharisees
that are trying to destroy Jesus, because they think they “know” what is right!
But it’s also uncomfortable because I keep running into
Jesus, the Son of God teaching some of the hardest truths known to mankind.
Look at what Jesus says in the next chapter in 5:22,
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you
and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!”
You see, we have a hope that can only be experienced in
Jesus. But this hope doesn't promise a comfortable life. Jesus says you will be
blessed when those around you revile, exclude, spurn and hate you! See Jesus
experienced all of this as he walked on this earth and as he hung upon that
cross to die for your sins. We are called to imitate Jesus and we know we are imitating Him when we are spit upon for our faith.
This
is what I often struggle with about the American "Christian" and
"Church" culture. We've seemed to lose sight of what really being a
disciple entails. It's not promising a comfortable life, it's not
promising a perfect life of happiness. It's promising you the hope of
eternal life with your Savior, but before that its commanding you to
forsake all you have and know for the sake of God's Kingdom. It's
commanding you to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations!"
(Matthew 28)
Peter
and Levi realized that hope came with a price. You gain
forgiveness from your sins and you gain eternal life. But, you also gain
a
life of hatred. Advancing the kingdom can often be hard work, the very
people you want to know Jesus will often end up hating you and wanting
you dead. Being a disciple is hard work. It's not an easy life of
comfort.
Levi is believed to have lost his life as a martyr.
Peter lost his life on a cross for proclaiming the Kingdom of God boldly.
Are you really willing to be hated? Are you willing to lose your life for the sake of the
advancement of the God's kingdom? If not, being a disciple of Jesus probably isn't for you.
(I would love to hear your thoughts. Don't hesitate to comment below.)
(I would love to hear your thoughts. Don't hesitate to comment below.)
