DAY #97: Luke 5:27-6:11

In Mark and Luke, Matthew is called Levi. Most people in this day had two or three names: a Jewish name, a Roman name, and possibly a Greek name. Levi was his Jewish name, Matthew his Roman name. Levi was a Jew who worked for the Romans as the area’s tax collector. He collected taxes from the citizens as well as from merchants passing through town. Capernaum was a customs post on the caravan route between Damascus to the northeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Most Jews hated tax collectors because of their reputation for cheating, their support of Rome, and their constant contact with “unclean” Gentiles. Tax collectors took a commission on the taxes they collected, so most of them overcharged the people and kept the profits.


Everyone in Capernaum knew Matthew, and anyone passing through the city who had to pay taxes could find him easily, for he sat at the tax-collection booth, an elevated platform or bench. One day Jesus walked right up to Matthew’s booth and said, “Come, be my disciple!” Matthew lost no time in responding. This was not a request, but a command; not an invitation, but a call to discipleship.

Levi responded as Jesus would want all his followers to do—he got up, left everything, and followed him. Levi left a lucrative tax-collecting business to follow the Lord. That Levi left everything was no small matter. Matthew was probably very wealthy, so when he walked away from his booth, he left behind a lifetime of potentially great wealth. Several of the other disciples could always return to fishing, but Matthew could never turn back.

Levi called his friends together to meet Jesus too. He held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor so that his fellow tax collectors and other guests could meet Jesus. This was a crowd that Jesus could not reach in the synagogues, for they had been excommunicated (their profession was seen as traitorous). Jesus loved them and had a message for them too—the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

The Pharisees regarded these people as wicked and opposed to the will of God because they did not observe the rituals for purity which enabled them to eat with others. Thus, to eat and drink with such people was particularly heinous. The Pharisees would have nothing to do with such people. But not so with Jesus. Spending time with the "worst elements of society" was a badge of honor for Jesus.

Jesus had a simple mission in life - “I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough.” Jesus, the Great Physician, healed people of physical illnesses, but he knew that all people are spiritually sick and in need of salvation. He was not lowering the standards; he was reaching out to seeking souls in order to bring them the salvation for which they sought.

Jesus did not come to patch up the old religious system of Judaism with its rules and traditions. His purpose was to fulfill the law and start something new, though it had been prophesied for centuries. The “new” cannot fit with the “old” patterns of thought. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came to earth to offer people forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. The gospel did not fit into the old rigid legalistic system of religion. The gospel offered grace; Judaism offered law and rule keeping.


On another Sabbath day, Jesus was in the synagogue - teaching. At this particular time, a man with a deformed right hand came into the synagogue. There seems to be no question that Jesus could heal the man. The Pharisees were concerned only to see whether Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath. What difference should that make? Luke explains that they were eager to find some legal charge to bring against him.

The man’s condition was not life threatening. Jesus could have avoided conflict by waiting until the next day to heal the man. But Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, had the authority to overrule the Pharisees’ traditions and regulations. If he had waited another day, he would have been submitting to the Pharisees and showing that their made-up rules were indeed equal to God’s law. But God’s law for the Sabbath was never meant to keep people in bondage. When Jesus saw a need, he filled it, regardless of the day or time.


SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)



Would to God that I would respond to God's call on my life consistently. Would to God that the people of COV would respond to the call of God and the promptings of the Lord.

"As has just been said: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.'" Hebrews 3:15 (NIV) How does God speak to us?

God speaks to us through the Bible. This is the number one way that God speaks to us – through His word. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 “Everything in the Scriptures is God’s word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live.” Why did God give us the Bible? To teach us, to help us, to correct us, and to show us how to live. God never shuts His mouth until you shut this book.

Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.” The Bible says that it is a flashlight for life. It’s a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. If I'm not in the word, I walking around in the dark. No direction, no guidance. Not a pretty picture.