Scripture Daily

Context No. 3720 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 5:27-32: in context

27After these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!” 28He left everything, and rose up and followed him. 29Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. 30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, one of the despised collaborators of his day, with two simple words: follow me. And Levi leaves everything, rises, and follows, then throws a great feast for Jesus, filling his house with other tax collectors and sinners.

When the Pharisees grumble that Jesus eats with such people, he gives his whole mission in a sentence: 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. Jesus is the physician who comes for the sick, the Savior who comes for sinners. He is not repelled by the tax collectors and sinners; he seeks them out, eats with them, and calls them. This is the astonishing grace of the gospel: Jesus comes precisely for those who know they need him, the sick and the sinful, not for those who imagine themselves already righteous and well. To come to Jesus, we need only admit we are sick and in need of the physician.

Do I recognize myself as one of the sick and sinful whom Jesus came to call, coming to him as the physician I need rather than imagining I am well and righteous on my own?

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