Hi everyone. Welcome again to our podcast,
thanks for tuning in. I hope you're really enjoying
this way of looking at the Bible and looking at the lectionary, I
think it's always so important to start with the literal sense
of the text. And that's what we do in this
podcast. So let's jump into today's
reading which is Luke. 25 verses 27 to 32.
Jesus noticed a tax collector Levi by name, sitting by the
customs house and said to him, follow me and leaving everything
he got up and followed him. In his honor, Levi held a great
reception in his house and with them at table was the large
Gathering of tax collectors and sinners.
The Pharisees and the scribes complained to his disciples and
said, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus said to them in reply. It is not those who are, well,
who need the doctor, but the sick, I have not come to call
The Virtuous. But Sinners to repentance So
let's start by asking, what's the context?
What has just been happening in Luke?
So, at this point, Jesus is walking around the Villages of
the Sea of Galilee preaching. He's becoming more and more
popular and we introduced or Jesus notices someone sitting by
the Sea who is a tax collector. So, what a tax collectors, these
were Jews who essentially worked for the Romans.
They were hired by the Romans to collect taxes from the Jews.
And the Jews didn't like, Tax Collectors for three reasons.
So, they worked for the Romans that automatically makes them an
enemy of the Jews. They take people's money, and no
one likes that. And thirdly, they had a habit of
corrupting. The taxes is in.
There were take more than they were supposed to and keep some
of the money for themself. So the tax collectors were not
liked In Israel. And to be honest to be a tax
collector, you usually have to be fairly sneaky, perhaps
Wicked, kind of person to enter into that kind of into that kind
of field of work and that's probably what Levi is Levi's.
Probably a bit of a nasty person, although we don't know
that speculation. So the Jews assume Tax
Collectors to be Sinners automatically, just because they
work for the Romans that puts them in base, make some Sinners
automatically. So Jesus notices a tax collector
whose name is Levi. In other gospels, he's called
Matthew. So this is the author of The
Gospel of Matthew. So Luke here is introducing us
to the character of Matthew. And Matthew doesn't say anything
here, but as you'll soon, see he does do something quite profound
and he's sitting by the customs house or another translation of
that is a tax office. So he is Levi, sitting in a tax
office and this particular one is located strategically.
E on a major trade route on on the border with Philips
territory. So that in Harrods territory and
there on the border of Philips territory, the ran through
Capernaum. So, Capernaum.
Jesus, sort of base of operations is actually right on
the highway of a really important trade route.
And a lot of people would pass through there.
They'll be a lot of taxing going on because they're moving from
one territory to another, and these little boxes, these toll
boxes or tax officers were where they collected the taxes.
And they probably also collected taxes associated with fishing
because capernum is a fishing Village.
Now it's estimated that the combined tax on the Jews.
At this particular time in history was something.
If you factor in the fact that they had a temple tax imposed by
the Pharisees, they had Harrods taxes for living in Harrods area
and then the Roman taxes to support the Roman army.
If you add that all together Scholars, reckon that the Jews
at this time, had to give up a third of the person's income,
which I guess is not that unlike our culture today, really.
So they're in a similar position.
In, in terms of taxes. So Jesus sees leave either in
the tax office, and he simply says to him, follow me, that's
all he says, and Levi gets up straight away and follows him.
And he leaves the text says, he leaves everything behind so,
it's not clear, whether Levi knew who Jesus was It has he
heard of Jesus, maybe, but something about Jesus made him
leave his livelihood and follow him immediately, he drops
everything leaves his old life behind and follows Jesus
straight away. That's quite admirable for
someone who makes a living deceiving people, and taking
people's money. So it's quite an amazing
conversion story. If you really think about it,
it's very similar to reaction to the fishermen.
Remember Jesus, when he calls the fisherman, says follow me
and they dropped their Nets and they follow him straight away.
So Matthew or Levi's reaction here is quite similar to
something. Jesus as later in Luke, which is
every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple. So Levi is kind of a model of
what Jesus expects his disciples to be.
Verse 29, the scene changes, Levi made him a great feast in
his house. So Levi, invites, Jesus back to
his house and with them at table was a large Gathering of tax
collectors, and others. So there's heaps of people here
at this Feast. There's probably lots of people
that worked on preparing. This big Feast Jesus is there
with all of his disciples and levite is just so happy that
Jesus has called him. So he puts on a feast, So,
what's going on here? Why are there tax collectors and
others at the table? Well, many of Jesus close
followers are here at the table. And by this time, some of Jesus
followers included tax collectors and sinners.
Now, that's not his Apostles, the word here is disciples or
followers, who are those kind of in the Outer Circle of Jesus
ministry. So they follow him around full
time but they're not one of the 12 apostles by this time.
Some of these disciples were tax collectors, and Sinners and
obviously, the Pharisees don't like that.
So the Pharisees and the scribes now, who are they?
The Pharisees are considered to be the leaders of the common
Jewish people. The popular interpreters of the
law and they did actually have Jewish Authority, whatever.
The Pharisees said is what the Jews were expected to do.
So the Pharisees at all sorts of rules about, who counted as holy
and who counted as a sinner. And the Very experts among the
Pharisees were called scribes. So the scribes were experts in
the Old Testament writings, so the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured against his disciples. And then they asked Jesus a
question. They not happy about the
disciples they say to Jesus. Why do you eat now?
What is eating mean in that culture?
Eating with someone means you're welcoming them into their house
and basically means you're accepting them.
So in the Pharisees asked Jesus here, why do you eat with them,
what they really mean is, why do you accept these people?
Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and Sinners?
And it's a fair question because their line of thinking is
probably something like this. If you are indeed sent by God,
why, why do you associate with Sinners?
That does not seem to make sense.
God is, Holy, Sinners are not. Holy if you're sent from God,
why would you associate with the sinners?
So the fact that Jesus accepts Sinners, obviously there's a lot
of theological implications here.
The fact that he's calling sinners in and that Sinners are
accepting the call indicates his power to call people to
repentance And this is his response to the Pharisees.
It is not those who are well, that need the doctor, but the
sick. Now, if Jesus just left it at
that, we wouldn't really necessarily know what he means.
But luckily, he goes on to explain that metaphor in the
very next breath. By the way, that's something you
always want to look for particularly in Parables of
Jesus, says something cryptic read on straight afterwards and
see if he interprets it, because if he interprets it, that's the
interpretation. We have to go with rather than
making up our own sometimes. Times, he interprets.
What? He's just said for us.
Sometimes he doesn't in this case, he does, though, I have
not come to call The Virtuous, but Sinners to repentance.
Now, by the way, Luke himself is a physician.
He's a doctor. So insignificant here that Luke
mentions this phrase about the doctors, but Jesus says, it
means I have not come to call The Virtuous.
But Sinners to repentance, notice that I have not come to
call The Virtuous, but I have come to call the Sinners to
repentance. So, Whole mission is to get
those who have wandered far from God, to come back to him, to
repent. So, in this case, in this
context, he's talking about tax collectors, and sinners.
Jesus has come to call, people like that, to be his disciples.
Now, as the parable of the Prodigal Son, illustrates some
people, at the time of Jesus were already in God's favor, the
older brother in the parable as much as he's grumpy in the
parable, if you know, the parable of the Prodigal Son, the
father says, all that you have is all that I have is yours and
that indicates that this the older brother was in the favor
of God already. So in the time of Jesus, there
were people who are already righteous with God.
We need to be okay with that. Sometimes you'll hear it say
that no one was good. Good enough for God at that
particular time in history and that's what Jesus came to fix.
That's not true. I Think Jesus teaching here.
Makes it clear that there were some virtuous righteous people
in the time of Jesus, but Jesus has come to focus on those who
aren't and who need to come back to being righteous.
So the Messiah has come to restore those who are outside of
God's favor and to bring them back into God's kingdom, notice
what he's calling the Sinners to, I've come not to call The
Virtuous, but Sinners to repentance, he's calling them to
do something to repent. So it's not just calling them to
be his disciple and go to a few, Banquets or something.
He's calling them to repentance. That's his ultimate goal here is
that they would change and turn to God.
We always need to keep that in mind when we when we talk about
accepting Sinners and things like that, the call According To
Jesus is to accept Sinners, but to then call them into something
else, which is repentance. Now how does the Catholic Church
to develop teachings based on this passage?
So there's one clear reference here to it in paragraph, five
eight. Eight of the catechism, which is
in the section about Jesus and Israel's faith in God.
It says Jesus scandalize the Pharisees by eating with tax
collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves
against against those among them who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others.
Jesus, And I have not come to call the righteous, but Sinners
to repentance. He went further by proclaiming
before the Pharisees, that sin Sinners Universal, those who
pretend not to need salvation, a blind to themselves.
So all people need salvation. That's clearly the teaching of
the church and that's the teaching of this paragraph as
well. And basically, this paragraph is
a summary of how Jesus calls Sinners to repentance and how
the Pharisees didn't really like the fact that he did that.
That's the end of today's podcast and thanks again for
listening. Please tune in again tomorrow.
That's the end of today's podcast and thanks again for
listening. Please tune in again tomorrow.