Dinner with Levi
What would cause you to give up everything and start fresh?
After healing the paralyzed man, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” - Luke 5:27–32
I know folks who have done this, dropped everything and made a radical change in their lives.
Something acts as a catalyst, an agent of the change, the spark that gets them to make the leap. Sometimes it is a scare, like a heart attack or an accident, or loss of some kind.
But it may also be something positive, a sign that life could be better, or at least different.
For Levi, it may have been the latter.
He saw what Jesus had done for the paralyzed man and something grabbed his heart, mind and soul. I could be different, he may have thought.
But the reaction of the Pharisees and their scribes shows us one of the major obstacles to personal growth and change. To them, Levi was and will always be a tax collector.
When we make a radical change from within, no one may notice. To them, we may still be who we were before. Once a sinner, always a sinner.
But the important thing is Levi knew, and that was cause for celebration. He gave a banquet at his home.
When we take that leap and choose to change, Jesus knows. God knows. And even if everyone else is oblivious, we have cause to celebrate.
Blessed are those who can see the change in others and celebrate with them.
That is our Lenten challenge. Yes, we could choose a better life for ourselves, but how great would it be to acknowledge the change in others?
More to come...