Self-Righteous People and Jesus...

This week we are looking at an encounter that Jesus had with a man named Levi, who was a Jewish tax collector that worked for the Roman Government. Yesterday we looked on as Jesus responded to seeing Levi sitting at the tax collector booth, by approaching him and saying “Follow Me”. Now when a rabbi or teacher asked someone to follow him, this was a call to follow the rabbi as his disciple.

Jesus called this tax collector, who was so despised that he had a separate category for himself, to follow Him. Levi responded to Jesus invitation to follow Him by leaving everything behind and began to follow Jesus. To be asked to follow a rabbi was a great honor. But Jesus was no ordinary rabbi; Jesus was performing miraculous signs that people had never seen. Jesus, at this point in His life, was viewed as a rock star or celebrity in the region.

Plus Jesus wanted him to follow Him: Jesus wanted to hang out with a tax collector and sinner like him. This invitation would have been unheard of by any other Rabbi to call such a man to follow him as a student. What would have been viewed as being strange or odd would be why Jesus would want such a person like Levi around Him as His disciple. What would have been strange or odd would be that Jesus would want to hang out with a traitor like Levi.

Levi, after being invited to follow Jesus as His disciple, responded to that invitation by inviting all of his tax collector and sinner friends over to his house for a dinner party to meet and hang out with Jesus. Levi responded to Jesus invitation by providing an invitation for his tax collector and sinner friends to meet and hang out with Jesus. And what is so interesting is that his tax collector and sinner friends accepted the invitation.

You see, there was something about Jesus that made people who were far from God comfortable enough to hang out with Son of God. While Jesus never lived a life that was marked by selfishness and sin, people who were far from God felt comfortable enough to engage and interact with the Son of God.

Today, we will see that as Levi’s house filled with those who were far from God, others were attracted to what was happening. We see this in Luke 5:30:

 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"

Luke tells us that while the tax collectors and sinners were drawn to and felt comfortable hanging out with Jesus, there were others who were not quite as comfortable. Another group of people, called the Pharisees, who were the self righteous religious leaders of the day, responded to Jesus invitation by gathering together and grumbling at Jesus disciples outside the home of Levi.

Now this word grumbling, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to express oneself in low tones of condemnation. In other words, these self righteous religious leaders responded to what they were seeing by grumbling and murmuring under their breath in disapproval. These self righteous religious leaders responded to what they were seeing by disengaging.

And so often that is what self righteous religious people do, isn’t it? As self righteous religious people so often do, the Pharisees viewed these tax collectors and sinners who were far from God as “unclean”. And just like self righteous religious people, the Pharisees would not enter into the house and engage those who were far from God; instead, they called Jesus disciples out of the house to ask why Jesus would consider associating with such people. “Why is your teacher hanging out with tax collectors and sinners? Doesn’t he know who they are? Doesn’t he know that Levi lives there? Doesn’t he know who he is?”

You see, what I find so fascinating is that while those who were far from God felt comfortable hanging out with the Son of God, those who thought that they were close to God often felt totally uncomfortable hanging out with the Son of God. You see Jesus made insiders feel like outsiders while making outsiders feel like insiders when it came to how He related and engaged them. Jesus, however, overheard the conversation between His disciples and the Pharisees and responded with a timeless reality about what happens when we encounter Jesus.

We will discover that timeless truth on Friday...