November 20, 2022
Gospel – February 29, 2020 – Luke 5:27-32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
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.”
Today, Leap Day, it seems Jesus is reinforcing that no one is too far gone.
Levi has become a tool for the Romans – collecting taxes from his own people. Jesus sees him there in the shadow of the symbol of the people’s oppression – the custom house.
Does Jesus ridicule or become angry? No, he calls him back from that life to follow him – not the World.
Are we Levi? Have we been Levi? Answering to the World – worried about ourselves and not concerned about the damage we are doing to others, even our own?
Have we heard him call us? Back from a life that, while easy, takes us into places we shouldn’t go? That block us from the good inside us?
If you are an apostle – if your life is an apostle’s life – Jesus doesn’t need to call you. No, you’re already there beside him.
If you’re caught in a life away from him – away from the good he brings – he’s going to call you.
Will you walk away and leave it all to follow him?
At least that’s what I heard Him say…
What I Heard Him Say 