And after these things he went forth and saw a tax-gatherer, Levi by name, sitting at the receipt of taxes, and said to him, Follow me.
The verse opens by pointing backwards. One writer makes that opening phrase — "after these things" in older translations — the key to the call.
We have described three things: (1) self discovered, (2) the need met, and (3) power given. If we know them, we are in a position, "after these things," to hear the Lord saying to us with commanding power, "Follow Me." We then have ears to hear. We are freed from self-occupation, and have a power enabling us to respond to the Lord's call.
Levi's job explains why this call was startling.
Such men were Jews with a licence to collect taxes for the Roman government. This was offensive to the strict, orthodox Jew, especially since many of them would demand more than was due and keep the extra. From the very place where he was taking in the money, Levi is called by the Lord, "Follow Me." Grace produces a mighty change in the selfishness of the flesh: the power of the word of the Lord had immediate effect.
Luke records no build-up and no reform first.
When grace acts, it calls the evil as well as those whom men would count good. The Lord calls the tax collector, Levi (who calls himself Matthew, the inspired writer of the first Gospel). He was called, as it were, in the very act, "sitting at the receipt of taxes." We hear nothing of any earlier process… Grace means the divine favour, absolutely without motive except in God Himself, shown to a good-for-nothing creature, miserable and lost. And the moment you come down to that which is utterly ruined, what difference does it make what the nature of the ruin is, or what caused it? If people are needy and ruined, this is enough for the grace of God in Christ, who calls such that they may be saved and follow Him.
(The quote uses an older wording, "sitting at the receipt of taxes"; the ESV reads "sitting at the tax booth".)
The Lord "saw" him on the way. Was that a coincidence?
Jesus passed by. Nothing in the pathway of the Lord Jesus — the heavenly stranger — was a matter of chance. Every aspect of His commission here had a clear aim, down to what He did, when He did it, why He did it and how He did it. So it was part of the divine plan to meet Levi that very day at the tax office. He wanted to call him so that he might follow Him from that very moment onwards.
The Lord had already called fishermen. A man of means at a profitable desk was another matter.
The call of this man to follow the Master shows the mighty attraction of His word. It was one thing to call lowly fishermen from their nets and their work. It was another to call a man of means from the pleasant task of scooping in the cash. But He did it with two words. "Follow Me" fell on Levi's ears with such power that he "arose and followed Him." God grant that we may feel the power of those two words in our hearts!
Levi left everything, yet the next scene has him hosting a large dinner in his own home. One writer sees no contradiction here, but a change of ownership.
We "forsake" — that is, the affections are severed from our possessions; they are no longer ours, but our Master's, to be held for Him. It may mean parting with everything, as with the early Christians, or, like Levi, we may leave all and yet still have. Levi's house was still "his own," and his money was used to make a great feast for Christ and to draw sinners to Him. A very good example for some of us!
Luke calls him Levi here. The first Gospel calls the same man Matthew.
Who do we hear announcing Matthew's shame but his own mouth? Matthew the Evangelist tells us of Matthew the tax collector. His fellows call him Levi, unwilling to lay a finger on the blot of his unpleasant profession. He himself will not smother it or whiten it at all. He publishes it to all the world in thankful recognition of the mercy that called him — glad that his baseness should serve as a fitting background to set off the glorious brightness of the grace of the One who chose him.
- Seen — the Lord's route past the tax booth was not chance; He came to that desk for that man on that day.
- Called — two words did what no argument could: they reached a man of means at his most profitable moment.
- Grace — the Lord called Levi mid-transaction, with no reform first. Ruin of any kind is enough for grace.
- Rose — the call carries its own power; we hear it once we have discovered self, met our need, and received strength.
- Feast — leaving all did not empty his house; it re-aimed it, so his money now gathered sinners around Christ.
And having left all, rising up, he followed him.
Jesus calls a tax collector at his booth, and the man walks away from the money table. Luke records no argument, no delay and no explanation, which leaves two questions: what call can do that to a man, and what did it cost Levi?
Levi collected taxes, a job his own people despised. Commentators note that Luke records no preparation on Levi's side at all.
But when grace acts, it calls the evil as well as those whom men would count good. The Lord calls the tax-gatherer, Levi, who calls himself Matthew, the inspired writer of the first Gospel. He was called, as it were, in the very act, "sitting at the tax booth." We hear nothing of any process beforehand. There may have been one, but nothing is revealed. All we know is this: Levi was called out of a job that Israelites naturally hated, and called to follow Jesus. Grace means the Divine favour. It has no motive at all except in God Himself. God shows it to a good-for-nothing creature, miserable and lost.
Luke puts the leaving before the rising. One writer treats that order as deliberate: the heart let go before the body moved.
When Levi was called, he left everything, rose up, and followed Jesus. The attraction of Christ's Person and the power of His word made him leave everything before he rose up. What had held his heart until then had lost its grip on him, and his life from then on was to be following his Master, his Lord who had called him by His grace.
One writer draws attention to the hour of the call.
A miracle happened at that roadside booth. This call did not come at an evening service, when all the gold had been gathered in and locked away. It came during business hours, as he collected and counted the coins he loved. Then the voice of the Lord reached him, the chains that had held him fell away, and a new life woke his dead soul. He forsook the old life once and for all, leaving the tax-gatherer's revenue to whoever cared to claim it. Jesus was better than gold.
Levi obeys at once. But commentators find more than a command behind his obedience.
The One who spoke had the right to command. But this proves it was not so much a show of authority as the expression of the claims of His heart. It was more than that. He presented Himself to the heart of Levi. By the attractive power of His person He drew Levi away from everything around him, and after Himself in the path of discipleship. This is how disciples are always made. Try as we will, we cannot follow Christ until He has disclosed Himself to us and won our hearts.
The crowd had already seen a paralysed man walk home. One writer sets Levi's change beside that miracle.
The people had said, "We have seen strange things today," when they saw the paralysed man take up his bed and walk home on his own legs, glorifying God. But they saw a stranger thing when greedy Levi, now free from the passion that had mastered him, followed Jesus. With a heart overflowing with new and generous feelings, he gathered into his house a great company of tax collectors and others, to hear the voice that had set him free. He had stopped collecting coins and had begun to gather souls. A greater miracle was done on Levi than on his paralysed neighbour, for it was a moral and spiritual miracle, changing his very nature.
Levi still owned the house where he held that feast. That detail shapes what "leaving all" means for us.
We "forsake" — that is, we cut our affections off from our possessions. They are no longer ours, but our Master's, to be held for Him. It may mean parting with everything, as with the early Christians, or, like Levi, we may leave all and yet still have. Levi's house was still "his own," and he used his money to make a great feast for Christ and to draw sinners to Him. A very good example for some of us!
Another writer presses what rising up costs:
If we want to follow the Lord Jesus then we also have to rise up. We have to give up things that until now have been very important to us. Rising up always takes spiritual energy; only those who overcome can do it.
- Seen — the call found Levi in the very act of collecting taxes, with no preparation on his side that Luke records.
- Called — grace moved toward the despised man with no reason in him, only in God Himself.
- Left — his grip on money loosened before his body moved; leaving all is first a matter of the affections.
- Rose — the call came mid-business, with the coins still in his hands, and the chains fell off.
- Followed — Christ showed Himself to Levi and won his heart, and the man who collected coins began gathering souls.
And Levi made a great entertainment for him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and others who were at table with them.
Levi has just walked away from his tax booth, and the first thing he does with his new freedom is throw a party. So what does a man do with his house, his money and his friends once Christ has called him?
Levi's call was total surrender. Yet it did not empty his hands. It changed who owned them.
We "forsake…" — that is, our affections are cut off from what we own; it is no longer ours but our Master's, to be held for Him. It may mean parting with everything, as with the early Christians, or, like Levi, we may leave all and yet still have. Levi's house was still "his own," and he used his money to make a great feast for Christ and to draw sinners to Him. A very good example for some of us!
Who in the Gospels makes Christ welcome? Not the respectable host.
It is the sinner who really provides the feast and the company for Jesus. Neither the table nor the friends of the Pharisee were quite right for Him. Only the faith that grasps Him as a Saviour can spread a table for the Son of God in this wilderness world. And I notice this in each account of the conversion of Levi the tax collector. Each one tells us at once that he prepared a meal for the Lord in his own house. He was one of those whom Jesus came down from the bright heavens to visit. He was a tax collector, a known and publicly labelled sinner; and Jesus was the Saviour. So the faith of such people opened the door and entertained Him. It welcomed Him in His true character. Everything else only kept Him standing outside.
The guest list is the shock of the scene — a room full of men everyone counted as sinners.
His heart, gladdened by such undeserved and unexpected grace, goes out to others. … God was displaying Himself in Jesus in a way man never expected. … And, wonderful to say, Jesus the Holy One of God sits down with these tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was now making known the grace of God. Man never understands this — never values it. Instead he all but charges grace with being careless about sin. The truth is that self-righteousness covers sin. It is always as vicious as it is hypocritical. It blames others for its own evil, and grace most of all. There is nothing so holy as grace, nothing that treats sin as so very evil.
Notice who is the host here, and who is the guest.
Here He is the guest of Levi the tax collector. … The King is not the host, for He has not yet taken possession of what is His own. In the day of his power Solomon made a feast for all his servants (1 Kings 3:15). But One greater than Solomon had nowhere to lay His head. In a coming day He will make on Mount Zion for all peoples "a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined" (Isa. 25:6). Yet He was well content to be the tax collector's guest.
Levi paid for it, but the Lord answered His critics as though the table were His.
He soon changes Himself from guest into host, as He did another time with the disciples going to Emmaus. He makes Levi's feast His own. He answers the Pharisees: "Do not complain; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. I came, I spread the feast, not Levi." Levi had spread the feast. But he spread it in deep-hearted sympathy with his Master's mind. Have you ever had a table in your house of which the Lord could say that He spread it, and not you?
Levi went by a second name, and he told this story himself.
Levi is also called "Matthew" in Matthew 9:9, since one man often had two names. When Matthew wrote about this feast himself, he does not mention himself as the host, or say that it was a great feast. He says only, "Jesus reclined at table in the house." Grace had done such a work in Levi's heart that he had become genuinely unselfish, and looked for no credit for it. His one desire here was to have others present to hear the word of his Lord and Master.
- Called. Levi left all to follow Christ, and everything in this verse flows from that.
- Kept for Him. He left all and yet still had — the house stayed "his own," now held for his Master and used to draw sinners to Him.
- Opened. Only faith that knows Christ as Saviour can spread a table for Him. The Pharisee's table left Him outside.
- Filled. Levi wanted no credit; he wanted a room full of people who would hear his Master's word.
- Owned. The Lord took the feast as His own and answered the critics Himself; Levi had spread it in sympathy with his Master's mind.
And their scribes and the Pharisees murmured at his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with tax-gatherers and sinners?
A tax collector had just left his booth to follow Jesus. Then he threw a party for Him with his old colleagues as guests, and the religious leaders had a question about the guest list.
To feel the force of the complaint, you have to know what a tax collector was to a Jew of that day.
A tax collector made his profit under their Gentile masters by extorting money from Israel. So of course people looked on him with horror. But Jesus calls one named Levi, sitting at the tax booth — calls him to be an apostle! Grace must act according to its own rights. If God has been good to you and me, does that stop His mercy and love toward another?
The gathering was not accidental. Levi chose the guests he thought would suit his new Master best. That choice showed how well he knew Him.
Levi says, in effect: I could not gather a better company for this blessed Master. To entertain Him after His own heart, I brought together the very lowest class of society — the tax collectors and sinners. How it speaks of His grace, and how well that man read the heart of Jesus Christ.
Notice who they question. The Pharisees and the scribes were the religious leaders of the day, the keepers of its rituals and rules. They do not go to Jesus. They corner His followers with a question about Him.
They had not the honesty to complain to Jesus, but vented their spleen against His disciples. But the Lord answers for His people: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Granted that they were sick; they were exactly the people for the physician. It does not even say that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself presented as man in grace.
The complaint hides a charge: that kindness this wide must not care about sin. Commentators say the opposite is true.
God was displaying Himself in Jesus in a way man never expected. It is hard for us to imagine how the Jews viewed the tax collectors. Yet here was a great company of them, and — wonderful to say — Jesus, the Holy One of God, sits down with these tax collectors and sinners. He was making the grace of God known... Man never understands this — never appreciates it. On the contrary, he charges grace, at least by implication, with being indifferent to sin. The truth is that self-righteousness covers sin. It is always as malicious as it is hypocritical. It blames others for its own evil, and grace most of all. There is nothing so holy as grace, nothing that treats sin as so very evil.
The word "sinners" was a label the critics used for other people. Here that label turns back on them.
Their personal feeling against tax collectors led them to class such men with the general run of "sinners." These were people who likely did not follow the rituals and regulations of the religious leaders with any zeal. Such rituals were only a cover-up for their own sins, but their proud self-righteousness did not admit this... The scribes and Pharisees were not cured, because they would not admit they were diseased. They felt no need of correction. This itself is disease in its most advanced and alarming state.
This is not a one-off scene. The same objection follows Jesus through the whole of Luke's account. It never once changes His direction.
So they murmured because He ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:30). They said with scorn that He was "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34). They murmured again, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:2). And yet again, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner" (Luke 19:7). But the Son of Man had come to seek and to save the lost, and their murmurings did not stop Him.
- Grace acts. God's kindness works "according to its own rights." It called a man from the tax booth to be an apostle — something no human standard would allow.
- Grace overflows. Levi's response was a feast. He read his Master's heart and filled the room with the very people others avoided.
- Grace is accused. Self-righteousness always charges grace with being soft on sin. In fact, "there is nothing so holy as grace."
- Grace exposes. The critics saw disease in others but not in themselves. Refusing the diagnosis is the disease at its worst.
- Grace persists. The same murmur repeats in Luke 7, 15 and 19, and never once turns Him aside from seeking the lost.
And Jesus answering said to them, They that are in sound health have not need of a physician, but those that are ill.
At a feast in the house of Levi, a tax collector, the religious teachers grumbled to the disciples about the company Jesus kept. His answer is one picture — a doctor and his patients — and everything turns on which group you think you belong to.
They aimed the complaint sideways — at the followers, not the Master. He stepped in before it could land.
The Pharisees might look on and murmur. But the Lord did not want the disciples troubled because they could not answer, or Matthew upset by such an intrusion. So He took up the question at once and closed the mouths of those murmurers. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
The attack on the meal gave Him the opening to say why He had come. Levi, also called Matthew, had thrown a great banquet; the Lord gave him something better.
Matthew made the Lord "a great feast." The Lord made Matthew a greater one... The Master did not turn away from tax collectors and sinners. No — He came to call such people to repentance. He knew their moral state well, yet their eternal welfare was His concern. Who said that? Someone fit to be grouped with them? No. The very objection of the Pharisees was an admission that the Lord was morally above such people. His announcement showed that He would not stand at a distance from them.
Sickness is the reason a physician exists. So blaming Him for being among the sick makes no sense.
Why did they fail to receive their Messiah? Because in their own estimation they did not need one like Him. Why complain, then, that those who did feel their need of such a Saviour came to Him and were made welcome? What sort of physician refuses to treat anyone but the fit and healthy?
So who counts as healthy here? The Pharisees put themselves in that group.
Their rituals were only a cover-up for their own sins, but their proud self-righteousness did not admit this. This self-righteousness of the flesh is its worst feature. The Scribes and Pharisees were not cured because they would not admit they were diseased: they felt no need of correction. This itself is disease in its most advanced and alarming state.
Some writers put it as a matter of what a person supposes about himself.
People who think they are healthy do not realise they need a physician. People who think they are righteous do not see their need of the Lord's gracious intervention.
The verse says nothing about the patients knowing they are ill. The first move is not theirs.
Granted that they were sick; they were exactly the people for the physician. It is not even said that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself as man presented in grace.
Sickness is not the whole of what is wrong with man.
Man is here shown to be both diseased and criminal. As the former, he needs healing; as the latter, he needs pardon. The Son of God is both Physician and Saviour, and beside Him there is no other.
To join the sick is to lose your reputation for being better than others. That is the real reason they objected.
Grace deals with all men on one common ground — that they are sinners. It levels their moral condition, and it comes only to those who need it. Man cannot bear this. What he always tries to do is to draw a line between righteousness and unrighteousness in man, so that he himself may have a certain standing before others. Belittling God's righteousness and magnifying our own always go together.
- Diagnosis. Everyone at the table was ill; only some knew it. Refusing to admit the disease is not health — it is "disease in its most advanced and alarming state."
- Doctor. A physician who treated only the fit and healthy would be no physician at all. His presence among sinners is the proof of His office, not a stain on it.
- Initiative. The verse never says the sick recognised their sickness. God knows the need and seeks the needy — the search starts with Him.
- Double cure. Sin leaves man both diseased and guilty. Christ comes as Physician and Saviour — healing for the one, pardon for the other.
- Level ground. Grace meets everyone on one footing: sinners. That is why people who prize being better than others still murmur at it.
I am not come to call righteous [persons], but sinful [ones] to repentance.
Levi the tax collector has just left his booth to follow Jesus. He has thrown a great feast, and his old associates fill the room. The religious leaders complain about the company Jesus keeps. His reply raises two questions: who are "the righteous," and what does it mean to be called "to repentance"?
The critics did not take their complaint to Jesus. They aimed it at His disciples, so He answered for them.
They did not have the honesty to complain to Jesus, but took out their anger on His disciples. But the Lord answers for His people... Granted that they were sick; they were just the people for the physician. It is not even said that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself as man presented in grace.
Another writer names the error behind the complaint.
They mistook the Lord altogether: He came to show how grace could deal with those who had no righteousness.
The Lord is not saying some people are good enough to need no Saviour. He is describing people as they appear to themselves.
A new day had dawned. Those who thought themselves righteous (Luke 18:9) were like people in health, who did not need a physician. For such He had not come. No wonder they murmured!
But self-righteousness is not only their problem. It can live on even in sight of the cross.
But sadly, we have not the least true claim to righteousness — and self-righteousness comes to us just as naturally. If we look around, we may quite easily find the Pharisee in the criminal's coat. Nearer still, in our own hearts, the spirit of Pharisaism is ready to spring out from under the shadow of the cross itself — the very cross that God appointed to condemn it.
The verse pairs a medical picture with a moral one. We need both to describe our condition.
Man is here shown to be both diseased and criminal. As the former, he needs healing; as the latter, he needs pardon. The Son of God is both Physician and Saviour, and beside Him there is no other.
The parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark stop at "sinners." Luke alone records the last two words. That is no accident.
Notice this. In the parallel passage of Matthew and of Mark, the best authorities leave out "to repentance." How far from the truth it is that repentance is a Jewish thing! Luke, according to the deep moral design of his Gospel, has these words.
So what is repentance? One writer sets the bar high.
Scriptural repentance is nothing less than this: we side with God in His judgment of our sins. We take His part against ourselves. And so we bow in the dust before Him in true self-judgment.
Because "to repentance" is part of the verse, His welcome of sinners is no approval of their sins.
They implied that the Lord was associating with sinners; His reply is that He was "calling" sinners out of their old life to follow Him. Grace to the sinner does not mean indifference to his sins.
Repentance is not a price we pay before grace arrives. Grace produces it.
He is a physician looking for the sick. So He does not ignore men's need of repentance; He comes to bring them to it. It is knowing the goodness of God that brings men to it.
There are two doors into salvation, and most people try the wrong one.
They want to enter by the saint's door, instead of the sinner's door... All the while they are turning their back on the door by which they are to enter... So long as you seek to do, or bring some worthy thing for salvation, you will find a closed door. Come as you are, come to Jesus with your sins, and accept the sinner's Saviour. Your need is your claim. Come to Christ as a sinner — not as a saint.
- Sick — Man is both diseased and guilty. He needs healing and pardon, and Christ is both Physician and Saviour.
- Sought — God knows the need and seeks the needy, even before the sick are aware they are sick.
- Excluded — Only one group stays outside: those who think themselves well. The Pharisee spirit can hide in any heart, even under the shadow of the cross.
- Called — Grace calls sinners out of their old life to follow Him; it never means indifference to their sins.
- Repentant — Luke alone adds "to repentance": taking God's side against yourself. His goodness is what brings you there — so come by the sinner's door, where your need is your claim.