5. The Calling of Levi
Luke 5:27-32: 27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Tax collectors collaborate with the occupation forces of Rome; their contact with pagans made them impure in the eyes of respectable Jews. The term “sinners” refers here to Jews who do not live in conformity to the dictates of the Mosaic law, outcasts who are pushed to the margins of a theocratic society governed by religion. For the Pharisees, almost all the common people, without rabbinical training, are transgressors of the Law and therefore impure. John 7.48-49: 48 “Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees put his trust in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Pharisee custom forbade a practicing Jew to enter the house of a sinner or to eat with him, for fear of being ritually contaminated. He could never be certain that these people observed the traditional rules of legal purity. Plus, it would also imply that he approved their behavior. The name “Pharisee” came from a word derived from the root parash, which expresses the idea of separation, of breaking off from the impure. That is why they are scandalized to see Jesus mixing with people that they themselves avoided.
In his answer, Jesus compares his actions to those of a doctor. The doctor goes to the sick because they need him and because he can help them. If Jesus keeps company with sinners, it is not because he approves of their sin but because he can save them from being lost. His mission is to call them to conversion.
This answer conceals a rebuke that Jesus makes explicit in Matthew 9.13: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” Jesus means that his actions are governed by the will of God and that his listeners also should know and do this will in their own lives, since it was already clear in the Old Testament. The will of God is expressed in the word “mercy”. Worship, ritual and sacrifices come after. Those who reverse this order misunderstand the will of God and pervert his ways. They are blind guides (Matthew 23.23-24).
The Pharisees, who know the Old Testament, should know this as well as Jesus himself. The Lord, the good shepherd of Israel, considers all of the people as his own flock and does not want one single one of them to be pushed aside and lost. The contempt and scorn that the Pharisees display openly toward “sinners” prove that they are bad shepherds for Israel.
The calling of Levi into the group of disciples is thus a sign of God’s mercy. At the time he is going to establish his reign, God wants to gather all of Israel into the fold through the ministry of Jesus.
The behavior of Jesus toward sinners takes on its true meaning only if it is recognized as one of the messianic signs that characterize his ministry. The welcome he extends to them bears witness not just to the concern that God has for sinners in a general way; it bears witness more particularly to this specific time of salvation history which precedes the coming of the kingdom and the judgment of Israel. His mercy is a prophetic sign, a forerunner, an expression of the good news: repent, the reign of the God is at hand. Before the definitive coming of this kingdom, God makes one last effort to bring the sinners among his people to repentance. If God is so concerned about seeking and saving that which was lost, it is because the time is fulfilled. The behavior that Jesus is criticized for is thus inherent in his mission as a messenger of the kingdom in Israel.
Jesus must not only proclaim verbally the imminent coming of this kingdom, he is to manifest its imminence by the signs he performs: exorcisms, healings, miracles. These signs show that God has already begun the intervention which will lead to the establishment of the Messiah’s reign. In them, he has already started to reveal the blessings God wishes to shower on his people, especially those who are most in need.
Jesus’ concern for and eating with sinners have the same meaning. That is why they are to be understood as signs: they attest in symbol that the reign of God is near, that already its effects are making themselves felt in advance. Effects of grace, because God wants to establish his reign not to condemn sinners but to save them.
Prayer
Our Lord, we were all sinners, that is why you looked upon us with the eyes of mercy. Yes, it was for all of us that you sent your Son. If you want sinners, here we are. You call us to conversion, we embrace it with all our heart. Hold up our courage, break our bonds, so that we can follow you with the same joy and promptness as Levi, the tax-collector. Destroy our rebellious and ever recurring desires, so that we can persevere in your grace like your chosen apostle. Amen.