Sunday Worship Service February 18, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Leviticus 19:2
Hymn JBC # 120 Praise to the Lord Almighty
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Testimony
Scripture Luke 5:27~32
Prayer
Sermon “Call sinners to repentance”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 321 Years I spent in vanity and pride
Doxology JBC # 673
Postlude


Today’s passage starts with, “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.”
At the beginning of Luke 5, we read that Simon (Peter), who was fishing as his job, and James and John, Simon's friends (or co-workers), were called by Jesus, and they "left everything and followed Jesus" (Luke 5:11).
In today’s passage too, we see another person (a tax collector named Levi) whom Jesus tells to “follow me.” Levi left everything and followed Jesus as same as Simon and others.
Let’s listen to the message of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, from today’s passage.

Jesus saw Levi the tax collector sitting in the tax booth. How did Jesus view (see) this man at this time?
The same event as today’s passage is also recorded in Matthew 9. In Matthew the tax collector is referred to by the name Matthew, the very same name of the person who wrote the gospel of Matthew.
Whether or his name was actually Levi, Matthew, or even if there are two names recorded but he was actually the same person is unclear.
This is because not enough information is given in the Bible for us to know for sure.
However, we do know about how people who were called tax collectors at the time were.
The glossary of the Japanese translation of bible that we use at our church (The New Interconfessional translation) describes the following about tax collectors.

Tax collectors: A position entrusted by Roman government or feudal lords (for example Herod Antipas in Galilee) to collect taxes.
Not only did these people work for their foreign, Gentile rulers, but these tax collectors would also often demand more than the designated tax amount for their own personal gain. As such, the tax collectors were hated by the Jews and they were regarded as "sinners" as well."

With this information in mind, we can imagine that Levi, or Matthew, was likely this type of person. Tax collectors were viewed by the Jews as traitors who served their foreign rulers.
We can also imagine that Levi may have lined his own pockets by taking more than the designated tax amounts from his fellow Jews.
However, was Levi really that type of tax collector? Since we have information that states that tax collectors of the time were this type of person, it’s natural to think that he was that way as well.
However, we do not actually have any proper information about what type of person Levi was. It may be that while many other tax collectors were profiting from unjust gains, Levi may have been collecting only the designated amount.

What I am trying to tell you is that we often only have a very superficial (one-sided) view of a person when we think about and evaluate what kind of person he or she is.
We often have the tendency to judge people easily based off of what people generally think, or do to things we may have heard, or even due to one or two events or mere impressions.
However, people are complicated. One person has various different sides to them. I think we understand how jumping to overly quick conclusions about what type of person someone is can be connected to divisions among us.
We, with our limited abilities (and our prejudices), are often unable to see people as they are and judge them correctly or accept them.

However, God is not like this. In today’s passage, our God’s son Jesus Christ “sees” Levi sitting in the tax booth. It means that God Jesus Christ had a good look at this Levi and knew all about what type of person he was.

　God knows everything about us. Unlike us, He knows even the inner workings of our hearts.
In 1 Samuel Cht.16 in the Old Testament, King Saul disobeys God, and was removed as king. The prophet Samuel then searches for the next king.
The Lord God leads Samuel to invite a person named Jesse and to choose the next king from his sons.
Samuel first tries to judge Jesse’s sons by their physical appearance, thinking the strong looking ones would make a good king.

However, the Lord told Samuel the following:
　“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Jesus looked at Levi with this same godly perspective. Even now, Jesus looks at us not in the way that people look at things, but in God’s way of looking at things.
Therefore, we can rest at ease. No matter what our situations, no matter what people may think of us (even if we are misunderstood or overestimated), God understands us accurately.
From Jesus’ perspective, what must Levi have looked like? What type of tax collector was Levi actually? Like I mentioned before, we have no way of knowing for sure. He may very well have been an honest and diligent tax collector.

However, the opposite could also be true. He could have been a much worse and more corrupt tax collector than all of the others.
What did Jesus say to Levi? Jesus calls to Levi and says “Follow me.”
Jesus calls to Levi and says “Follow me. Follow me and become my disciple.”
This was not because Levi was a good person (or a diligent tax collector). Nor was it because Levi was a bad person (a corrupt tax collector).
Regardless of what type of person Levi was, Jesus told him to “Follow me.” Regardless of how Levi was, he was the object of God’s love whom Jesus must call to follow him.

In other words, regardless of who we are, we are all invited (called) to follow Jesus Christ. All of us are called to accept God’s love and live obeying God.
In this way we are all as Levi or Matthew. Jesus still now and always calls all of us to follow Him.
If we heard Jesus calling us, then we should obey and follow Him.
Levi left everything to follow Jesus when he was called.
He was so joyful. He was so joyful that he invited Jesus to his home and held a great banquet, inviting other tax collectors and many other people.
Things that bring us happiness and joy ought to be shared. We want to share our happiness and joy. This feeling is also a gift given to us by God.

But, there were also those who did not take joy in this situation. While the tax collectors were celebrating with Jesus and His disciples at the banquet, there were others who were displeased and complained about it.
They were the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They were rigid in their interpretation of scripture and strict in living righteously according to the law (however, as I mentioned earlier, we need to be careful of making overgeneralizations even here too).
Here we see the Pharisees and teachers of the law making an effort to live righteously. In order to do so, they decided it was wrong to mingle with tax collectors and other sinners.

They said the following to Jesus’ disciples:
　　“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

This is how Jesus responds to them (5:31-32)
“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.”
How did the Pharisees and teachers of the law receive Jesus’ words?
They may have not understood what He meant. We (Christians) may also not understand the full weight of Jesus’ words.
Even though we have lived selfish lives of sin separate from God, He forgives us and shares a meal with us (sharing a meal showed a desire for companionship and living life together). Jesus Christ is with us.
People who live righteously before God do not need Jesus Christ’s salvation. However, does such a person even exist?
The understanding that not a single person is righteous before God is the basis of the Christian faith from the Bible.
We must listen to Jesus calling us to follow Him and obey.
When we live obeying that Christ’s calling, we receive true joy and peace in living together with God.

　After meeting the resurrected Christ after he was crucified and rose again, Paul was changed into an evangelist of Christ’s gospel and said the following:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1:15)
“sinners-of whom I am the worst” ~ I believe it is fair to say that this confession is one of the great attainments of our faith as Christians.
“sinners-of whom I am the worst” ~ These are not words born of a comparison between oneself and others, but words that a believer can only confess in that way when we look single-mindedly to Christ and truly understand His love and forgiveness.
Let us daily follow Jesus' call to "follow me”. Let us rejoice from our heart in the grace of Jesus who eats with us and lives with us.