AFTER Jesus healed the palsied man, He went out by the seaside, and taught the people who gathered to Him there. “And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said to him, Follow Me, And he arose and followed Him,” (Mark 2:1414And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. (Mark 2:14)).
We learn from Matt. 9:99And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. (Matthew 9:9), that Levi was also named Matthew. He became one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, and was the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew. At the time Jesus called Levi, he was a publican. The Jews were under the Roman yoke, and were paying tribute to Caesar, and the publicans were those who collected the taxes from the Jews for the Roman government, and because of this they were despised by the Jews, and counted among the bad people.
The Jews, like many people now, did not realize that all men were sinners, and needed a Saviour; and so they condemned Jesus because He called Levi to be a disciple. But Jesus had not come to save people who thought themselves good. He came to save sinners, and so He called this despised publican. Levi was drawn to Jesus, and at once he arose and followed Him. Then we find that he made a great feast in his house (see Luke 5:2929And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. (Luke 5:29)), and “many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples.”
Why did Levi make this great feast? Ah! he was a sinner and he had found the sinner’s Friend. He had found Jesus the Saviour, and he wanted others to become acquainted with Him, and hear Him speak the words of life. So he made a feast, and gathered in a great multitude of publicans and sinners.
But the scribes and Pharisees did not consider themselves sinners, and so they blamed Jesus because He ate and drank with such people. “How is it,” they said, “that He, eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners.” “When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Yes, Jesus is the Friend of sinners. He came to save people who own themselves sinners. He did not come to save righteous people, for there were none. The scribes and Pharisees thought themselves righteous, and so they condemned Jesus, instead of coming to Him as sinners like the rest. They rejected the only Saviour, and perished in their sins.
And is it not just the same now? A great many people think they are all right, and do not need Jesus. A day will come when they will see that they had deceived themselves, and believed a lie, to their eternal ruin. God’s word says that “all have sinned,” and that “there is none righteous, no not one.” So if we claim to be righteous, we make God a liar. Is it not better, dear children, to believe what God says, and to take Jesus as our Saviour? He came to call sinners, and He is their Friend. He has laid down His life for them, that He might save them. And He does save every poor, needy sinner that comes to Him. Have you come to Him?
ML 10/21/1900