Luke 5

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0:00 In college, Megan and I went to this Anglican church that was very high church. It was on the hill. It was like, they used the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. They had a name for every Sunday just about, you know? And all the way leading up to Easter every Sunday had like a name in Lent and you're 60 days out and it's sexa-guessima and 70s out, it's septa-guessima.

0:32 They had all these fancy words for all the Sundays leading up to the celebration of resurrection. And then the Sunday after Easter, I was like, pass around. What's the name for the Sunday after Easter? He said it's called Low Sunday. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. Like, a lot of the names he had been to Oxford for his PhD and a lot of his English. I was like, Low Sunday, what does that mean? He's like, it's Low Sunday. It means it's the lowest attendance Sunday in the year. We call it Low Sunday.

1:03 I was like, oh, okay. So, it's good to see you all here. I'm glad you're here. Thank you for coming. And we're starting the next little series I was trying to think about what we would look at for the season of Easter at least. This will take us past the season of Easter. And a friend of mine handed me a book on food in the Gospel of Luke. And we like to eat together here. And so I thought this is really appropriate for us to look at food.

1:34 And in the first, right in the beginning, the author says, especially in Luke's Gospel, Jesus is either at a meal, coming from a meal or going to a meal. Almost every time you look at him in the Gospel of Luke. And so we're going to walk through the times that food pops into the story of Jesus for the next several weeks. And so I think Mike put the text on the lyrics page of the website if you're there. But it's in Luke chapter five, if you want to go there with me.

2:07 Luke chapter five, starting at verse 27. And it's a story that I told the kids about. Kendall found a study that follows the same text so our kids will be looking at the same story we're looking at, which is kind of fun. But in Luke chapter five, starting at verse 27 there. I'll read it for us.

2:37 It says, after this, he, Jesus, after this, he went out. And saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them.

3:08 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. As the text will look out for this morning, let's pray just a minute here. Hey Lord, thank you for giving us this story and preserving the time you spent with Matthew, with Levi there.

3:41 Would you inspire us with your message this morning? Would you convict us and forgive us and renew us as only you can? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Of course, it's like conspicuous when Jesus calls Levi there at the beginning. It says that he had done some teaching. And actually the teaching that he just did was, remember, if you look right before that, he had cleansed the leper and then he heals this paralytic.

4:16 They bring him a guy who's paralyzed in front of a whole crowd of people. They bring this paralyzed person to Jesus. And Jesus, you know, he's been healing people all around. And they bring him this paralyzed person and they don't tell him what he needs. They just bring this paralyzed person to him and Jesus looks at the paralyzed guy and he's like, Hey man, your sins are forgiven. And probably it wasn't the first thing on his mind on account of the fact that he's paralyzed and he can't walk, right?

4:46 He'd probably prefer to have to be able to walk, but people are so appalled that Jesus would presume to announce the forgiveness of sins. You know, in order to get the forgiveness of sins in first century Israel, it's kind of a big deal. You've got to bring the right sacrifice, right? If it's a small sin or you're poor, you might bring a bird. If it's a little bit bigger or you've got more money, you might bring a lamb or a sheep. If it's a big deal, you might get a heifer. Like this gets this thing wrapped up, right? And you would go to the temple, you'd have to do it at the temple, you couldn't do it someplace else, right?

5:16 You'd have to do it at the temple and you'd bring it in just the right way and you'd bring it to just the right people and it would be sacrificed in just the right way. And then they would come and go, everything went smoothly, you should be fine. And then you'd go back home, right? And this guy is like brought into Jesus in a mat and Jesus looks at him and says, today I forgive you your sins and everybody around is like, what on earth? Who does this guy think he is? That he could just forgive sins when he feels like it, right? And they go, Jesus, what do you think you're doing?

5:47 And he's like, look, I can forgive whoever sins I want, but just so you know, I have the power to do this thing that the Son of Man has the power to do this thing, and take up your mat and walk. And the paralyzed man who can't walk grabs his mat and walks out, right? Since we're given paralysis gone, living a new life. Luke tells us that story and then he goes to the Levi story. He's like having done that, he moves on. And he sees a tax collector and I was doing a little bit of research on tax collectors just for fun.

6:17 And in my mind, the vision of the tax collector is always the wolf from Robin Hood, Disney's Robin Hood movie. Anybody watch out when they were kids? Okay, a couple of us. It's all animals, you know, it's a Disney animated movie and Robin Hood's a fox, and he's out fox and everybody. And then the evil sheriff of Nottingham is the tax collector for the town, and he's a big wolf. And he goes around and he knows everybody and he gets all the money from them, you know?

6:49 And in my head, that's the tax collectors. They go around town and they get every money they can from people, and they give to Rome what they can pass off, what they sold the region for, and they keep the rest for themselves. What I found out is they're more like toll booth collectors, actually. They've got a location where they stay, and when you pass by, they get there, and you might get a better location if you've proven that you can make more money than you get a better location. And so Jesus is walking by Levi at his booth.

7:23 At his booth. He's got his money there, and he calls Levi, hey man, come and follow me. And Levi goes. And there's a lot of like speculation if you just read it and go, how does he, what's Jesus got that's better than what he's already got? He's at the booth, he's making money. Why is Levi following him? And you could read a lot of different ideas. I think the thing I like the best is that Jesus has been around Capernaum

7:54 and Galilee already teaching. Like remember, he starts when he goes to be baptized by John the Baptist, goes out in the desert, then comes back, goes straight to the home synagogue and says the spirit of God is an army, has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, right? And he starts his ministry, and the way Luke's telling it here, he's like healed the paralyzed man already, right? He's done some stuff in town so that Levi, to whom everyone pays taxes,

8:25 and he gets into conversation with everyone, has heard about the dude Jesus already. And they've had itinerant rabbis through, but this one is different. This one like, is just forgiving sins and healing paralyzed men, right? And they know in the culture what it is to be a disciple of a rabbi, you follow him around. And the trick, the thing about being a disciple to a rabbi is that disciples take over for the rabbi. So most rabbis were disciples for somebody else. And their goal is to be just like their rabbi.

8:57 And so they would teach. So when you hear Jesus, when sometimes you get a story about Jesus' teaching, and they're like, they're amazed at his teaching or he taught as one with authority, it's because when he's interpreting the Old Testament, it's a new interpretation, one they've never heard before. That doesn't happen very often, because most rabbis who are teaching learned their teaching from somebody else. And so there's like, you know, four original teachings or interpretations of a text that are passed down to all these rabbis, right? And you become just like the rabbi before you.

9:28 So when Levi hears that Jesus walks up to him and is like, this guy's been teaching with his own interpretation, plus he's able to forgive sins, plus he can heal the paralyzed guy and he wants me to follow him, suggesting that I might be able to be a dude like him. Let's go see what that's about. I know a good deal when I see one. I'm a tax collector, I took a good deal, right? So Levi's pumped that he could follow Jesus. This is why he calls all his buddies together.

10:02 The thing about food, he throws a great banquet. Last night I was like, yesterday I was like, what do we have today? I didn't have much today. It's kind of a nice day. And so I'm like, I'm going to do some yard work and then I'm going to grill some good food, right? And drink some good beer outside, right? And so that's what we did. I could. I just went to the store.

10:32 I figured out what I wanted. I got all, I got the vegetables, I got the meat, I got the, I got the cheese, I got the oil, you know what I mean? I got the herbs already plucked off the plant for me like, and we made this great meal. That's because we wanted to. Of course, in first century, that's not how it works, right? You know, if you want to eat some meat, you got to kill something.

11:02 You got to weigh out. Is it worth killing it? Should I kill it now? Who am I killing it for? Who's going to eat it with me? You don't eat a great meal all the time. And most folks don't have the, even if they eat a bunch of food, it's not usually very good. We're going to talk about it over the next several weeks, but like the bread's terrible, the wine is watered down. Like, so when Levi's throwing a great banquet, part of me is like he left all of his, it says he left everything behind on his table.

11:33 He's about to go follow this itinerant rabbi. He's probably got a pretty sweet set up where he's at. And so he's like, let's clean this place out, man. Let's use up what I got. Let's just have a good party. And like I told the kids, Levi's a tax collector, most decent people won't associate with him. And if they invited him to his house, if he invited them to his house, they wouldn't come. But Jesus will. And Jesus comes, right? And so then the church folk are standing outside the house

12:06 because it's a small town. Levi, the main tax collector's throwing a party. Everybody knows. And so the main church people are standing around going, oh my gosh, this rabbi who just said he could forgive sins is in there with these sinners. What a dummy, right? He doesn't even know who he's hanging out with. Why would you hang out with these people? And they call him out. Oh, Jesus, what are you doing? You're hanging out with tax collectors and sinners

12:38 who are supposed to be a rabbi. You just forgave that guy his sins and now you're hanging out with sinners. You know, there's all kinds of reasons why they wouldn't hang out with sinners, not just they don't like them, but also like it makes their life harder. So if you hang out with these folk and potentially eat food that you're not supposed to eat or touch, even like I've learned, there is a certain type of uncleanness that people that work in temples could get if they touched someone who was unclean. And so you didn't even want to bump up against him, you know?

13:12 And so you go into this house and you eat with these people and eating is like the ultimate sign of inclusion and hospitality. You might bump up against them. You are like contaminating yourself. So Jesus is still on the scene. He hasn't landed all of his disciples yet. He picks this one tax collector who then throws the party and brings all his tax collectors and the people who don't keep the laws and they all come in with him. And they're like, what are you doing?

13:50 And Jesus gives them this famous line, right? The ESV has kind of a funny reading of it. Jesus answered, they said, hey, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Look, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

14:23 It's interesting that Jesus, you know, the reason they're so frustrated with Jesus eating the meal with the tax collectors and the sinners is not necessarily because they're disinterested in the tax collector changing and coming to the right way of living or the sinner stopping the sinful behavior and coming right. They would love to tell the Pharisees would love to very carefully tell the tax collector all the way that he's wrong and very carefully tell the sinner all the ways that they are wrong.

14:56 Once they have recognized all the ways that they are wrong, changed their behavior, the Pharisees would love for that to happen. Let's get you all to stop all the bad behavior. Let's get you to keep the Sabbath. You know, the Pharisees had this idea that if some of them, that if Israel, everyone in Israel, kept the Sabbath perfectly, just once, then the Messiah would come back and Israel would be set to write again. They were interested in getting everyone to follow the rules. And once you were following the rules, then we can eat with you.

15:29 Fantastic. Get it right and then come be one of us. Get it right and then we'll include you. Understand it and apply it. Then we can be together. And Jesus flips the whole thing. Let's be together, he said. This is why I've come to be with you all.

16:01 Levi doesn't, at least not that we know, it would be weird. And the text doesn't mention it. Doesn't require them to renounce all of their things before they come to his party. It's not even as though Jesus, everyone at Levi's party has decided, like Levi, we too will leave all of our things and follow Jesus. And it's more likely than that is that Levi's had a great banquet before.

16:35 And Levi's got the money and the resources, and people don't always get great food. And if Levi's having a party, some folk are going to be there. Because they like what's going on, they like the party. They like the food, they like the wine. They don't get that very often. And if Levi's dishing it out, they're there to take it, and Jesus is right there with them. This is the first little thing. Jesus counts these as his people without any affirmation of the rightness of his teaching,

17:19 without any action to amend their behavior. Jesus sits down at a meal and has full fraternity with these sinners and tax collectors without asking anything of them. Last week, one of the main questions for me at Resurrection was, if Jesus is the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords, who's he king for? And the punchline is everyone. And this is affirmed by the story of Matthew and Levi here.

17:50 Who can eat with him? Anybody. Okay, then the next thing. He says, I have come not for the well, but for the sick. I have come to call sinners to repentance, not righteousness, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And part of me is like, I need to review my notion of repentance because it doesn't seem like the thing you normally throw a party around.

18:26 You know what I mean? It seems like a weird place to call people to repentance is a party. So I got two little verses here that I had to look for. If you are in a phone, they're easier to find than if you're in a paper copy. Ezekiel 18 verse 30. Because Jesus just throws out this word, repentance, like he and the Pharisees already know what he's talking about.

18:58 Like they have a working understanding of what it means to repent. What repentance is. Ezekiel 18 verse 30 is where one of the places where it's described. And God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel to Israel and they're complaining about a lack of justice. And he says, God says to Israel through Ezekiel, therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel.

19:31 Everyone according to his ways declares the Lord God, repent. And turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed and make yourselves a new heart. The NIV says, get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel?

20:01 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord. So turn and live. So definitely part of the understanding of the Pharisees and of Jesus, of this idea of repentance, from the prophets of old, is that God says you have sin and iniquity, which is producing death in you.

20:32 And I have no interest in anyone dying. So turn away from your iniquity and towards me and get a new heart and a new spirit. Turn away from your actions that are leading to death and turn towards the Lord God and get life. So when Jesus says, I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance, if you have no iniquity or sin, if you have not done anything wrong, if in all of your thought, word, and deed, in all of your actions,

21:08 you have aligned with the will of God and walked towards God rather than away from him, then you have no need of repentance. Then you are righteous. And Jesus says, I don't need to spend any time with the righteous. They're already connected to God. I'll spend time with the sinners. I'll spend time with the sinners. One more story here in Place of Repentance in Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15.

21:44 This again is God speaking to Israel through Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling and you said, no, we will flee upon horses. Therefore you shall flee away.

22:16 And we will ride upon swift steeds. Therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one. And the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left, like the flagstaff on the top of the mountain, like the signal on the hill. In this story, God is wishing that Israel would stop running after their own solutions and turn to him as the solution in order that then he could protect them and bring them life.

22:51 He says, in repentance and rest is your salvation. Stop trying so hard to solve the problem on your own. God says to Israel through Isaiah. Stop trying so hard to solve the problem on your own. Turn to the Lord God in when you don't know what to do, when you can't figure it out, when the problem is beyond you. Stop, turn and rest and let God solve it. But God says to Isaiah, but Israel, you won't repent and rest.

23:21 You get on your horse and you run and you're going to go, I'm going to go against Babylon on my own. I can solve it. I can figure it out. I don't need the God. And God through Isaiah says, would you repent and rest? In repent and rest is your salvation. And Jesus sitting amongst the tax collectors and the sinners, eating food together, drinking wine, the respectable church people go, what are you doing, hanging out with those ones?

23:54 We know the rules and have kept them. We have earned our righteousness with our good choices. And Jesus says, then I've got nothing for you. I came to announce repentance. And the ones who repent are the ones who are unrighteous, who recognize their need. That's the background for Jesus and the Pharisees in the story of Luke when he says, I've come to call not the righteous, but the unrighteous to repentance.

24:39 I still think it's kind of a funny place for Jesus to call people to repentance. And so I remember one of my favorite little verses. I even look up where it is because I know it's true. You can look it up later, Beverly. Because Lord, it is your kindness that leads us to repentance.

25:10 Oh Lord. This is why Levi can't help but throw a party. He'd heard of the rabbi who announces forgiveness and heals paralysis and was sure he had disqualified himself. That's where the good Israelites, I'm one of the bad.

25:41 That's for the ones who make all the right choices. I've made too many wrong ones. And before Levi can even go to Jesus and say, I know I'm not good enough for you, but I'd like to follow you anyway. Before Levi can even go to Jesus and say, I've made a lot of bad choices. I promise I'll make enough good ones going forward to outweigh the bad ones I've made going backwards.

26:14 Can I follow you even though I've been a mess? Before Levi can imagine a solution and present it to Jesus, Jesus comes to Levi who's made only bad, not only, but more bad choices than good. And says, hey man, you want to come follow me? And the kindness of Jesus spins up Levi's repentance with confidence and hope. And he leaves everything behind and invites all the rest of his friends who have stacked up bad choices.

26:46 And Jesus comes to them as well, open arms, and with kindness says, if you'd like to come and follow me, repent and rest. The call goes to you. Maybe you can relate to the idea of trying to solve problems on your own. Maybe it's a new thought for you though that you might need to repent.

27:28 This notion of repentance suggests or is built on the idea that there is one in charge of the way we ought to live, the way we were made to live, and that one is not us. And in spite of this reality that there is one in charge who is not us, we keep living as though we were in charge. Here's the best way to live. No thank you for me. This is the best way to live.

27:59 Here's the best way to relate to others. No thank you for me. This is the best way to relate to others. Here's the best way to operate in the world. No for me, the best way to operate in the world is over here. We keep making in large and small choices. We keep believing. And the trouble for us is that once we make the choice or refuse to make the choice, once we do the thing or refuse to do the thing, we can't go back and undo or do what should not have been done or what should have been done.

28:30 Once we make the mistake, it's never repaired. We don't have the capacity to repair it. Of course, Jesus can turn the marks of the cross into the marks of his victory. He can repair and restore every evil. Jesus can announce forgiveness of sins and heal paralysis.

29:01 This is why he says, come to me. You have problems bigger than you can solve. God says, you don't have to know how I'm going to do it. Just come and let me and then rest. This is the last place we'll go here. I was looking at Romans 8. This little verse, Romans 8. Verse 31.

29:33 Paul is writing to Rome. He says, what shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect if it is God who justifies? Who is it who condemns?

30:05 Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that. The one who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? He said, hey, God is for you. Who could be against you? What evil could you stack up that cannot be solved or redeemed or restored or resolved by the God?

30:44 And Paul says, punchline, nothing could separate you from the love of God who is in Christ Jesus. That's up all you want. And then repent and rest. Receive the salvation of God. I haven't thrown like a party like Levi in some time.

31:16 Though maybe it's coming. I can make good food whenever I want. I don't live in the first century. And it's the kindness that leads us to repentance. I hope you can be led to repentance this morning. Reminded that nothing is requisite for your forgiveness. God offers it freely. How then do you respond? Let's pray. Hey Lord, thank you for this room for whom it represents and for what you've done for us.

31:46 Now this morning, would you challenge us to receive forgiveness gratefully and live in light of your love for us fully? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. It might be fruitful as we sing for you to consider are there specific places where you want to turn and rest or you want to turn back to God, repent and rest and receive salvation. It might be a fruitful thing for you this morning as we sing together.