[Picture courtesy of The Chosen - permission granted.]
He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. [Mark 2: 13-14 ESV]
I loved watching the first series of The Chosen. One of the memorable characters was Levi, the tax collector who became a follower of Jesus. He was a 'shifty,' unhappy character who was clearly unpopular with his own people and was at the mercy of the unscrupulous Romans who were benefitting from his greed. Tax collectors were considered traitors. They were Jews who were in a sense self-employed but they were working for the Romans who were the occupying the country. The taxes were used primarily to pay for the expense of maintaining a large military presence in Palestine. Levi would have been working directly with the Roman governor who would stipulate the amount of tax required for that area of Galilee. There was no fair system of taxation and Levi would seek to obtain as much from his own people as he could so that he could pay the tax bill to the Romans and have plenty left for himself. There needed to be some incentive for enduring ongoing hatred and resentment from his own people. If people refused to pay or were unable to pay, Levi would have then identify them to the Romans as disloyal and the Roman army would put pressure on them to pay up.
Why did Jesus decide to choose Levi? Mark is very careful to describe the context in which Jesus called Levi as a disciple. It is beside the sea of Galilee and the presence of Jesus is attracting a large crowd. He could have chosen any number of respectable Jews who were not traitors or greedy or unscrupulous. Why not choose any one else but the most hated of the Jews? This is called sovereign grace. God has the right to choose and he is not influenced by our status or our reputation. It may sound strange to us but God often chooses the most unlikely people. He does not look for the good living people or the popular people or the 'nice' people. He chooses people who are despised by the world. It is almost as if he sees all the pebbles on the beach and there are some smooth, colourful pebbles and some very rough stones with lots of rough edges and not particularly attractive. But Jesus then turns these rough stones into beautiful jewels. [I have taken this illustration from John Mattison who has read Day Share blogs since they started].
So Jesus chose a despised tax collector and changed him into a disciple. He chose a woman like Mary Magdalene. He chose rough fishermen. He chose Peter who was impetuous and impulsive and would end up denying him in the courtyard of the high priest's palace. You might think this is not fair. Why does God not look around for the good people. But there are a few points to make. Firstly, it is God's choice and not ours and He thinks differently from us. Secondly, it is not about us at all. If he was to choose those who considered themselves good, then it would not be grace which is his undeserved favour. The good would think they deserved God's favour. Thirdly, this demonstrates the greatness of God - he can do amazing things with poor material. He can transform the worst of sinners into saints. In fact, if we think we are good - this is a barrier to God's working in our lives. The next blog will look at this in more detail.
Picture courtesy of The Chosen - permission granted.
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