Spending time with outcasts

“Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.” (Mark 2:13-14 NIV)

Although we don’t readily recall a disciple of Jesus named Levi, in both Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, he is known by his more familiar name: Matthew. We don’t know why Mark chose to call him by another name, although it seems to have been common for Jews, at least in this area, to be known by two names.

Levi was beside the lake, which would be what we know as the Sea of Galilee, collecting taxes at his booth. He seems to be near Capernaum, where taxes would have been collected on goods and people being ferried across the lake, or on goods entering the region.

Being a tax collector brought its own stigma, especially among the Jews. Tax collectors were hated because they were viewed as co-operating with the Romans and were considered to be traitors. In collecting taxes they would estimate the value of a merchant’s goods and collect the required tax for the Roman occupying government. The tariff rates were quite vague which allowed tax collectors to levy higher fees so they could keep more profit.

We don’t know anything about Matthew’s tax collecting practices but we can know that he would have been hated by his fellow Jews – in fact, Gentiles didn’t think any better of tax collectors.

Yet when Jesus came along he called this outcast of Jewish society to follow him, to be one of his students, his disciples. Levi immediately got up, left the tax office, and followed Jesus. It is possible that he already had some knowledge of Jesus, as Jesus had taught many times along the shore of the lake. Perhaps he had heard Jesus and the message resonated with him.

Think about what he gave up to become a student of Jesus. Those who had been fishermen could always return to their trade; Levi, having turned his back on his Roman employers, would not have the option of returning. He truly was changing his life. He seems to have found what he had been looking for and needed in his life.

How do you show gratitude to someone for accepting you? Levi organised a time Jesus could meet more people like himself.

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (Mark 2:15-17)

What a scene this would have been in first-century Jewish society! An increasingly popular young Jewish teacher and his students spending time with those looked on as the worst in their society. They didn’t just spend time with them, they ate with them. To a Jew concerned about his standing amongst his peers, that was unthinkable.

In fact some objected to what he was doing and couldn’t understand why he would “eat with tax collectors and sinners” (the sinners most likely were prostitutes). But these were the very people who needed him and his message the most – and they were the ones who would more quickly receive it.

What about us? Are we willing to spend time with the outcasts of our society in an effort to tell them about Jesus? How would those we respect look on us if we did?

We need to learn to be more like Jesus in every aspect of our lives.

Photo of Sea of Galilee near Capernaum by Jon Galloway.

Readings for next week: Mark 2-4