Calling Sinners to Repentance

Our Lord’s ministry in Galilee included calling the twelve disciples to accompany Him during His earthly ministry. Luke 5:1–11 describes the call of three disciples, Simon Peter and the brothers James and John, sons of Zebedee and business partners with Peter. Today’s passage records the calling of another disciple, Levi.

Levi, we read in Luke 5:27, was working as a tax collector when Jesus called him to be His disciple. This Levi is perhaps better known to us as Matthew (see Matt. 9:9), the author of the gospel of Matthew. First-century Jews commonly had two names, often one Jewish name and one Greek name. In this case, however, “Matthew” and “Levi” are both Jewish names, with “Levi” indicating his tribe of origin. “Matthew” means “gift of God.” In Luke 5:27, the Greek word translated as “saw” indicates that Jesus paid special attention to Levi and chose him with intent. It was not just any tax collector whom Jesus wanted to be a part of the Twelve, but He selected Levi intentionally. This choosing was effectual, for Levi immediately left everything to follow Jesus (Luke 5:28).

Later, Levi invited tax collectors and others to join him at a great feast to celebrate his new life in Christ (Luke 5:29). First-century tax collectors in Galilee were representatives of the Roman Empire, and their presence symbolized Rome’s political control of the Jews. Thus, Jewish tax collectors were particularly despised by other Jews because the tax collectors were seen as traitors who grievously sinned by working for the occupying power. It is not surprising, then, that the Pharisees and scribes were scandalized by Jesus’ eating with Levi and his guests (Luke 5:30). Jesus replied by pointing out that His fellowshiping with repentant sinners made perfect sense, for just as only sick people need a doctor, only sinners need His ministry of pardon (Luke 5:31–32). He did not mean that only tax collectors and other notorious sinners needed forgiveness while Pharisees and scribes did not. Instead, Christ’s response revealed the scope of His ministry in extending God’s pardon to even the worst sinners, and it implied that the Pharisees and scribes had a faulty understanding of their own spiritual condition. Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary: “No one . . . needed repentance more than the scribes and the Pharisees. Nobody needs a physician more than somebody who is fatally ill but doesn’t know it. So it was with the Pharisees, and so it was with the scribes, and so it is with all of us who think that we don’t need the ministrations of the Son of God to cover our sins, to forgive us, and to redeem us.”