“Then He (Jesus) went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him.
“Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
As we look at this story, we see three groups of people that we still see today. The multitudes are ordinary people with no real, strong sense of direction and easily swayed by public opinion. The scribes and Pharisees are easy to recognize. They are the leaders who covet power and wealth and influence the multitudes to fulfill their agendas. The tax collectors and sinners are those just out to have a good time.
Jesus interacts with all three groups of people because His heart is for the world. But out of these groups, His focus in this story is on the people group with whom we as a church spend the least amount of time, what we consider to be the outcasts of society. Out of the multitude that came to Him to be taught, Jesus “saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office.” Levi was not seeking Jesus. He was caught up in making money and pleasure and had no time to run after this prophet from Nazareth. But Jesus saw beyond the multitude and saw something in Levi, called him out and stepped into Levi’s life of sin and corruption.
It is so easy to get caught up with the people who surround our lives and are attracted to us that we fail to see the Levis whom God brings into our path. They are not pursuing us or interested in what we have to say. We walk past them every day. They are doing their business and caught up in the pleasures of life. But like Levi, they are the key to a lost world for whom Jesus died. And like Levi, they need someone to see them, stop and speak into their lives.
I believe in these last days that God is going to raise up a Levi generation to call people from the highways and byways of life. This generation of soul winners will not come from the leadership or rank and file of the church. They will be men and women who have been snatched from the jaws of hell by the grace and call of God and who have a passion to seek and to save those who are lost.
Lord help us today as we walk through life to see the Levis who come across our path and who are your instruments to touch this last days’ generation with your grace.
Andy Clark
www.equipping-the-nations.org
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