“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32 Luke records the story of Levi, who became one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. His is a remarkable story. We are told that Jesus “went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth” (5:27). The fact that Levi was a tax collector tells us two things about him. The first is that he was brilliant. He was likely an educated man who spoke three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. He would have been a skilled accountant who kept meticulous records. Second, Levi was part of a system riddled with corruption. Tax collectors were local people who worked for the Roman regime. They were hated because they collaborated with the oppression of Roman rule and because they were notorious for extortion. Why would anyone collaborate with the oppressor? Well, there was a great deal of money to be made. Tax collectors could add a surcharge that they kept for themselves. Levi had chosen a path for making a lot of money and enjoying a comfortable life. He had no conscience about adding to the burden on his neighbour to make life better for himself. We are told that Jesus “saw” this man “sitting at the tax booth” (5:27). Jesus saw him in action. What the tax collectors did was a breach of the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal”; the ninth commandment, “You shall not give false witness”; and the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet what belongs to your neighbour” (Ex. 20:15–17). Levi was actively engaged in breaking the commandments of God, as much as a man robbing a bank, lying in court, or taking another person’s life. But Jesus said to this man, “Follow me.” How would you have reacted to this man taking advantage of poor and vulnerable people?
