Friend of Sinners

6 · The pastor establishes the pattern of Jesus' ministry: He was constantly surrounded by crowds and all sorts of people flocked to Him, setting up the expectation that Jesus' presence was attractive and inclusive

Most every time we encounter Jesus in the Gospels, there are all sorts of people around him. Once he began his public ministry, there were always crowds of people flocking to him and gathering around him. He calls out to people, and people were coming to him, people were coming to Jesus. As word spreads about him throughout the region, there are crowds, there are lots of crowds who are interested in Jesus. They want to see what Jesus is going to do next. They want to hear what he's going to say next.

7 · The pastor situates the narrative chronologically within Jesus' ministry: Levi will be the fifth disciple called, establishing the significance of Jesus' choice of this particular man

And at this point in time, when we encounter this particular passage in Luke, there are only 4 men who Jesus has called to be His disciples. And He's about to call His 5th, Levi.

8 · The pastor provides historical-cultural background on the Roman tax system, explaining the three types of taxes and focusing on the customs tax that Levi collected—the most hated of the three

Levi, we are told, is a tax collector. Now, tax collectors were not the most popular guys in town back then, just as they are today. Not much has changed in a couple thousand years. There were 3 kinds of taxes, though, that the Jews had. Imposed upon them under the Roman Empire. There was a land tax of roughly 10% of their harvest. The second tax was a poll tax that was collected once a year, and it was roughly equivalent to about a day's wage. And then there was a third tax. It was a customs tax that was levied on goods and merchandise. So there would be collection points set up along trade routes or at entries and exits into the towns and villages. It was kind of like a toll. So if you're familiar with driving on I-70 going west towards Topeka, that's a toll road. Or if you take I-35 south down towards Wichita, that's a toll road. And if you've driven those, you every so often, every certain number of miles, you have to stop, come up to a toll booth, and give someone some money so that you can keep on progressing on the road. And that's what this tax was, this customs tax was. There would be booths along the roads where you'd have to stop and pay a tax. It wasn't exorbitant. It was typically in the 2% to 5% range. And Levi was one of these customs tax collectors who would work at these toll booths. And this is the tax that the people hated the most.

9 · The pastor explains the Roman tax-farming system in detail, showing how the upfront payment structure created strong financial incentives for tax collectors to over-collect and defraud, contextualizing Levi's profession within a corrupt system

Not only did these tax collectors take your money, they weren't necessarily nice about doing it. Or in the process of taxing you. So here's how it typically worked back then. At the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire was no longer in the business of actually collecting their own taxes. They didn't want the hassle of doing this, so they would contract it out. So the way that it worked is that an individual— it would have to be a wealthy individual or perhaps a group of individuals— would bid on collecting a tax. This customs tax, this tax in an area. And the highest bidder would win the right to collect the tax. What was different about this tax is though that when you bid on it, you had to pay Rome upfront. So it's likely that Levi was a part of an investment firm, for lack of a better word, who would bid on the right to collect taxes. So this group that Levi was a part of that was a part of might say bid $1 million to collect taxes in the area around Capernaum. And if that was the highest bid, Rome would give them the contract and then they would pay Rome upfront the $1 million. The chief tax collector of this group, of this investment firm, would now not only want to collect enough money, enough taxes to recoup their $1 million, but a little bit extra to make some profits. So maybe they would set a goal of collecting $2 million. And obviously they would have some employees who would then collect the taxes. So if there were 10 individuals working in this investment firm, each one would be given a goal of collecting around $200,000. And it's very likely that each one of these individuals not only wanted to collect their salary but might want to pad it a bit, so they could set an individual goal of $250,000. And they would go out and and spend the year trying to collect the money from individuals as they went by.

10 · The pastor catalogues the abuses enabled by the tax system—extortion, fraud, arbitrary valuations, false accusations—and illustrates the corruption with a vivid hypothetical scenario of a fisherman being cheated

So these tax collectors, by whatever means they wanted— could be extortion, could be by cheating, could be by fraud— pretty much collect the tax however they wanted to. And understandably then, there were many reasons that these tax collectors were hated in the community. They were despised as well, since they were seen as being partners with the Roman Empire. So the tax collectors were viewed as sellouts. They were almost always thieves and swindlers. They could confiscate your goods if you didn't declare them properly. They could make false accusations against you and threaten you. They had the power to determine how much your goods were worth. So if you went by a booth, if you were a fisherman and you walked by with your basket of fish, They looked down in there and said, "Looks like about $1,000 worth of fish to me." You say, "But there's only 3 fish." He said, "Yep, about $1,000 worth of fish. That'll be $50, please."

11 · The pastor completes the exposition of the tax system by emphasizing the information asymmetry and power imbalance that left victims with no recourse, making the system an engine of injustice and the tax collectors universally despised

To make things worse, the average person probably didn't know what the tax regulations were. The tax collectors were seen as the experts. One week they could charge you 3%, the next week 5%, and so on. So it was a classic situation an ideal setup for injustice in all of its glory, and there was very little that you could do about it. The tax collector had all the know-how, they had all the power, and that made for a system of corruption. If you felt you'd been cheated, the appeal process was long and difficult, and you faced long odds about ever prevailing. So this all created a great incentive for these tax collectors to be cheats, to be frauds, to steal, to be swindlers. And there was likely nothing that could be done to stop them. So it's no wonder then that the tax collectors were viewed so negatively and so despised back then.

12 · The pastor moves from historical exposition to theological assertion, claiming that Jesus' call of Levi is remarkable precisely because of everything just established about tax collectors—they were hated, reviled, and despised

So given the reputation of tax collectors, the contempt in which they were held, and the fact that almost all of them were cheats, the last 2 words of verse 27 are quite remarkable. Jesus sees Levi sitting there in his tax booth and he says, "Follow me." Jesus goes up to a tax collector, a person who is hated and reviled and despised, and says, "Follow me."

13 · The pastor highlights Levi's immediate, costly, and unquestioning obedience—he abandons his entire livelihood and security to follow Jesus without hesitation or negotiation

And just like that, we're told that Levi rose, he left everything, and followed Jesus. He leaves his job, he doesn't give 2 weeks' notice, he leaves his source of income, his security, he does it all to follow Jesus, no questions asked. Just an immediate response.

14 · The pastor poses a rhetorical question to highlight the two-sided miracle of the passage: both Jesus' willingness to call a tax collector and Levi's willingness to follow are remarkable

It's a bit difficult to figure out what is more amazing in this part of the story. Is it more amazing that Levi followed Jesus or that Jesus called him in the first place?

15 · The pastor uses a humorous modern analogy (April 15th, email reminders) to underscore what Levi did *not* do—make excuses, delay, or negotiate

Levi doesn't make any excuses to Jesus after he calls him. He doesn't say, "Oh, Jesus, it's really busy right now. April 15th is just around the corner. The crunch is on. I just don't have the time for it." "Could you come back in a couple of months, a few months maybe? Or better yet, just send me an email reminder and I'll get back to you when I have a few minutes." He doesn't do that. He gets up, he responds immediately to the call, leaves everything and goes.

16 · The pastor reflects on what Levi likely did and did not understand when he responded to Jesus—he did not have full theological clarity but had seen enough to take the step of faith

It's doubtful at this point in time that Levi understood that Jesus would die for his sins in just a few years. It's doubtful that Levi fully grasped that Jesus was the Son of God. He'd probably seen or heard about Jesus before, and he'd seen or heard enough to follow. He could recognize the power that Jesus had and his authority. Something in him resonated with the teaching that he'd heard about Jesus. He must have believed just enough to take that first step.

17 · The pastor resolves the earlier question by asserting that while Levi's response was amazing, Jesus' initiative in calling a tax collector is even more remarkable

But it's really amazing what Levi did. So while it is amazing what Levi did, I think it's more amazing that Jesus actually called him.

18 · The pastor offers a modern cultural analogy: Jesus calling Levi is like Jesus calling a notorious abortion doctor to follow Him

This is like Jesus walking by George Tiller. If you're familiar with him, he was a— he's a well-known abortion doctor. He's not alive anymore, but he performed most of the abortions in Kansas, became very wealthy off that. It's like Jesus walking up to George Tiller's abortion clinic and saying, "Follow me." And George quits the abortion business and leaves, walks away from it all to follow Jesus.

19 · The pastor introduces the next narrative development: Levi throws a large feast for Jesus attended by many tax collectors and sinners, and the pastor notes this development will provoke different responses depending on the listener's heart

The story gets even better or worse depending on your frame of mind this morning or where your heart's at. Look at verse 29. "And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them."

20 · The pastor imagines the discomfort of the early disciples attending Levi's feast, voicing their hypothetical objections to make the scandal of Jesus' behavior vivid and relatable

So here's Jesus with His disciples. He's got Peter, Andrew, James, and John. You might think that they're just kind of going a little bit freaking out at this. "This is not what we exactly bargained for, Jesus. I'm okay with the Jesus who is doing all these miracles and healings, that's really cool. I love your teaching on the Kingdom and on repentance, that's great. But now we're going to go to Levi's house? I'm not sure about that. We're going to go to some places I didn't think we'd have to go with you, Jesus." What do you mean that we're going to go to Levi's house for dinner? And this is not just going to be a quiet dinner with his family. This is going to be a dinner party with tax collectors and sinners, the most despised people in the community. There's going to be drinking there. What about the music? Those guys tell some pretty unsavory jokes. Don't you know what kind of women hang out? At the tax collector's homes?

21 · The pastor turns the imagined discomfort of the disciples directly onto the congregation, asking whether they would have felt the same unease and objection

How many of us would be tempted to think that same thing if we had been there with Jesus?

22 · The pastor translates the ancient tax collector's feast into a modern equivalent, populating the room with contemporary types of sinners the congregation might encounter—drug addicts, sexually immoral people, religious nominalists, and nice but lost neighbors

So here they are at Levi's house having dinner with the tax collectors and the sinners. Let's use our imagination for a minute and kind of gaze around the room. So as we look around, we might see a young man who's a drug addict. There might be a woman who sleeps around. Maybe there's a gay couple over on the left side. There would be a few who are into the New Age movement or the Middle Eastern mysticism. There's a married couple sitting in the back who are constantly fighting with each other. There's a middle-aged woman who buys all of those trashy magazines that we see at the grocery stores, and she spends her days just gossiping about all of the neighbors. In the back row, Maybe there's a nominal Catholic couple and the wife is fighting cancer, and while they do pray, many of their prayers are misdirected towards Mary and to other saints rather than to Christ. There's another couple next to them. He was raised as a Baptist and his wife a Catholic. He walked away from his faith in order for a relationship with his, with his wife. He believes his kids are are Christian simply because they go to a Catholic school, they were baptized as infants, and passed the catechism test. And finally, your eyes stop on a couple that you know very well, people you enjoy being with. They are nice, they're polite, they're generous, they're caring. They're well-off, upper-middle class. They're thoughtful and intentional in their parenting, but they don't recognize their need for a Savior despite all the times that you shared the gospel with them. And all the time that you prayed for them.

23 · The pastor returns to the text to show the Pharisees' response—they are scandalized and grumbling about Jesus eating with sinners

So is it any wonder with a group like this that the Pharisees and the scribes are grumbling to Jesus' disciples? They are absolutely scandalized at seeing Jesus reclining at the table with a group and a crowd like this. All of the spiritual riffraff have all come together and Jesus is there reclining with them and the Pharisees and the scribes are scandalized by this.

24 · The pastor warns against dismissing the Pharisees as simply obstinate and turns the question on the congregation: how would we have responded if we had been present?

Some of us may be familiar with this story. We could be tempted to think it's just those crazy Pharisees. They don't really like anything that Jesus does. But what if we were there watching this event unfold? How would we have responded? What would we have thought about what Jesus is doing?

25 · The pastor constructs a detailed hypothetical scenario where Jesus is present at a wild, inappropriate party in the neighborhood, building tension toward the confrontation with the listener's assumptions about where Jesus belongs

Perhaps some of you have some neighbors who like to throw parties that are a little bit wild and crazy. Time to time, or when mom and dad are out of town, the teenagers have all their friends over and are having a big party in the house when mom and dad are gone. I think we all know a family or two who party like that, either currently or in the past. At Christmastime, there's lots of parties going on. There's people gathering together, drinking, lots of flirting, there's smoking, there's loud music, the whole bit. Everyone knows what's going on at those parties. Around 2 in the morning, the party spills outside and someone lights off a bunch of fireworks. You get up from bed, you are boiling mad about being woken up from a deep sleep. You look out the window, you glance around, looking to try to identify some of the faces that are out there. And your eyes finally see someone that you recognize. You lean forward and you're squinting and you realize It's Jesus.

26 · The pastor surfaces the immediate judgmental response that would arise if we saw Jesus at such a party, voicing the scandal and confusion we would feel

What's the immediate thought that would come to our minds? What in the world? Jesus, what are you doing out there? What are you doing at that party? You shouldn't be there. Don't you know what kind of people those are? Don't you know who lives there?

27 · The pastor imagines the listener trying to redirect Jesus away from the wild party to a safe, sanitized Christian gathering, exposing the impulse to control Jesus' associations and keep Him away from sinners

So maybe the next day you see Jesus and you ask him to your Christmas party. You'll tell him there's going to be some nice Christmas carols, there's going to be Christian music playing, The children will all be there. Everyone that's coming will be Christian. They'll be worshiping you. Everyone there is respectable and godly. So it'll be a nice, safe, calm environment. Come to my party, Jesus. Don't go back to that one.

28 · The pastor makes a critical theological distinction: Jesus' presence with sinners did not constitute participation in or approval of their sin, but it did mean genuine fellowship with them

Notice though that Jesus is not engaged in sin at Levi's house. He's not there condoning their sin. But He's definitely there eating with them. Known sinners. He's reclining at the table with known sinners and tax collectors.

29 · The pastor applies the hypothetical directly and personally, asking first what the listener would think of Jesus and then what they would think of the pastor or another church member at such a gathering

Is there any part of us that says, "Jesus, come on, you've got to get out of there. That's not the place for you. If you don't leave, I'm going to have to tell the pastors what you've been doing." What would you think? What would we be tempted to think if we had been there with Jesus that night and observed what he was doing? But what if it was me that you saw there that night? What if it was someone else in the congregation that was there that night?

30 · The pastor shares a personal story about a homeless, addicted couple he ministers to, giving concrete details of their lifestyle and his practical service to them

There's a homeless couple that I've been friends with for several years now. They are meth addicts, she's probably an alcoholic. They live in hotels when they have the money. If not, they sleep in a storage unit where they store some of their possessions, the few they have, or they sleep in a park in the spring and summertime when the weather's nicer. The man has been in jail twice in the past few years. They smoke nonstop and they look the part of being addicts, drug addicts and homeless people. You can tell just by looking at them that that's their culture and their environment that they are in. I share the gospel with them, I pray with them, I offer them whatever help I'm capable of doing, give them counsel and advice on how to get out of their current lifestyle. One of the ways that I help them from time to time is that they need to go to— I drive them to the store, I take them to the pharmacies, I take them to doctor's appointments, I take them out for a meal occasionally, some other places that they need to go to.

31 · The pastor confesses his own sinful struggle with shame when seen with the homeless couple, admitting he looks around restaurants to avoid being recognized—exposing his own Pharisaical heart

And when they're with me, sadly, I find myself too often ashamed that at times that I struggle with being in their presence. People stare and I wonder what they're thinking. I look around when we walk into a restaurant to make sure that I don't recognize anybody else there.

32 · The pastor names the theological contradiction in his own heart: he avoids being seen with the very kinds of people Jesus came to save

But these are the very kind of sinners that Jesus came to seek and to save, and I didn't— I don't want to be seen with them.

33 · The pastor establishes Jesus' consistent message of repentance and argues that the tax collectors and sinners at Levi's feast would have known Jesus did not approve of their sin—His presence was evangelistic, not affirmational

But what was Jesus' attitude towards the tax collectors and sinners? He wasn't afraid to be seen with them. He was there with them not to condone their behavior, but to call them to repentance. His whole preaching ministry, remember, was summarized in Mark 1:15. It says, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." That was Jesus' bread and butter message. Repent, believe in the gospel. It's safe to assume that people who knew of Jesus knew that was his message. After all, this is what he'd been teaching and preaching in the chapters leading up to this meeting with Levi. If you go back and look at the early chapters of Luke, that's what's going on. He's teaching that, he's preaching that message. The people at Levi's home that night had probably heard of Jesus. Maybe they'd even encountered him and had heard him speak personally. Jesus was not conveying, again, he was not conveying that evening that he accepted their behavior. And that they would never have to change anything. His message was always and clearly a message of repentance.

34 · The pastor turns from Jesus' ministry to the local church, asking what kinds of people the congregation actually wants to be part of Providence, distinguishing between formal membership requirements and the informal welcome extended to visitors and seekers

I don't think any of us here this morning that say we want to narrow down the gospel call, but what sorts of people do we want to be a part of Providence Community Church? We understand that to be baptized, to become a member, there's a need for repentance, there's a need for discipleship, there's a need to change. That's all involved, that's all important. But what sort of people do we want to become here and identify with us?

35 · The pastor challenges the congregation's stated commitment to ministry to the poor by asking whether they would sustain engagement if many poor people actually attended consistently, or whether fatigue would set in

It's easy to talk about ministering to the poor. It's a very popular thing to do and it's a very good thing to do. But what if there were lots and lots of poor people who came to Providence and attended our services here on Sunday morning? How many of us would actually engage these folks and truly minister and care for them? Week after week, year after year? Or would we grow weary after just a few months and wish that they weren't here, or maybe consider leaving to go to a church where people are better off, they don't have those kind of folks in it, or everybody's not quite so needy?

36 · The pastor presses on the congregation's claim to welcome diversity and everyone to Christ, asking whether they truly mean everyone or only people who resemble the existing cultural demographic

We hear a lot about diversity these days. Diversity is good. Do we really want to welcome people into our midst who eat different foods, communicate in different ways, might like different songs. We talk about wanting everyone to come to Christ, anyone and everyone, and I believe that we are all sincere when we say that. But deep down, do we really mean everyone? Or do we mean the educated, the clean-cut, the culturally conservative families with well-paying jobs, the Caucasian middle-class family with 4 kids who homeschools, drives a minivan, kids who are well-behaved, dress nice, and say all the right things?

37 · The pastor calls for self-examination about whom the congregation naturally gravitates toward and whom they avoid, using patterns of interaction on Sunday mornings as the diagnostic test

Who is it that we really, really want to be a part of Providence Community Church? Watch sometime when visitors come in to Providence. Who are the ones who gather, who attract large crowds before and after the service? Who are the ones who leave with no one approaching them at all? Think for a moment of who— I'm speaking to myself— I think for a moment, who do I approach Who am I comfortable approaching and who do I want to avoid on Sunday mornings?

38 · The pastor provides two concrete examples of visitors to Providence who were ignored by nearly everyone—a homeless man and a young black man—both of whom represent the kinds of people the sermon is pressing the congregation to welcome

My friend Aaron, that homeless man that I spoke about just a few minutes ago, he's visited several times in the past. He worshiped with us, he always sat in the back, he heard the word of God preached, and only one of his visits did anyone, and it was just one person at that time, ever take a stop and introduce themselves to him. There was a young black man who came and visited on a Sunday last summer. I think it was last summer. And I saw only one person go up to him and approach him and introduce themselves to him. And I want to thank those individuals who took the— made the effort to go to these two men and greet them. Thank you for welcoming them to Providence.

39 · The pastor turns the congregation's attention to the implicit message their behavior sends about who is welcome and who is not, including himself in the indictment

So what are we communicating through our actions? What am I communicating through my actions? And who we are welcoming to Providence? And who do we wish had or hadn't shown up this morning?

40 · The pastor challenges the congregation's stated commitment to discipleship by asking who is willing to disciple the needy, the awkward, and the socially draining—people whose discipleship would be costly and inconvenient

We say that we want to make disciples, but who of us is willing to step forward and disciple the single mom who is living in a shelter, struggling to find and keep a job, to find a place that she and her daughter can live so they don't have to move from shelter to shelter to shelter? Who will welcome that awkward couple into their care group, the one that doesn't quite understand all the social dynamics of being a part of a Christian community, who isn't mature as Christians as we perceive ourselves to be. You go out of your way to approach that person in the lobby who you know that if you ask them, "How are you doing this morning?" you're going to be there for a while.