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Luke Lesson 16 (2009)

JESUS, A SINNER-FRIENDLY SAVIOR

Luke 5:27-32
Key Verse: 5:31,32

“Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”

A soldier was going to return home from fighting in the Vietnam War. He phoned his parents from San Francisco. He told his father, “Dad, I’m coming home, but I have a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me.” “Sure,” his father replied, “We’d love to meet him.” “There’s something you should know,” the son continued. “He was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.” “I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.” “No, Dad, I want him to live with us.” But then the dad said this, “Son, you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden to us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.” At that point the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died falling from a building. The police believed it was suicide. The parents were taken to the city morgue to identify the body and recognized their son at once. But to their dismay they discovered something they had not known: their son had only one arm and one leg. Rejection is very tough to deal with. We don’t want to be rejected by others. But we reject certain types of people inadvertently, like the father in the story.

During the last several weeks, we have been studying about Jesus who showed his mercy on various individuals, the man possessed by an evil spirit (4:31-37), Simon’s mother-in-law (4:38-39), Simon Peter (5:1-11), the man with leprosy (5:12-16), and the paralyzed man (5:17-26). Today, we see that Jesus shows his great mercy on Levi, a tax collector, and a group of people who had been rejected and dumped by most people in Jewish religious society by providing not only forgiveness but also fellowship with himself. This produced a negative reaction from the religious leaders. In today’s key verses, verses 31 and 32, Jesus explains what kind of people he calls to himself and why he welcomes them. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Look at verse 17. “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him.” Sometime after the healing of the paralyzed man, Jesus went out and spotted a man named Levi sitting in his office. This man was the kind of man whom the ordinary Jews despised the most because of his profession. He collected taxes from the Jews for the Roman government, and many of his fellow tax collectors were corrupt. Recently, many people were angry with a man on Wall Street, who mismanaged billions of dollars for individuals and foundations while he had bought all the good toys: the penthouse apartment in Manhattan, the shares in two private jets, and the luxurious yacht. Many people called him out. In the movie, “The Wall Street” the main actor said, “Greed is good.” For a long time, people have condoned selfishness and greed. Now its effects are visible. In some sense, everyone is responsible for the economic meltdown. Tax collectors in Jesus’ time were hated by ordinary Jews because of their unethical and unpatriotic behavior. We don’t have the details about the ethical aspect of Levi’s job performance. Unlike Zaccheus who was a chief tax collector (19:20), Levi was an ordinary and local tax collector in Capernaum, whose job was to collect the surcharge as people traveled from city to city. Yet, by simply being a tax collector, he was branded as a selfish, dirty and unethical person with whom you don’t want to hang out. Tax collectors were not welcomed to the local synagogues either.

How did Jesus see Levi the tax collector? Look at verse 17 again. As Jesus went out, he saw Levi sitting at his tax booth. I am almost certain that it was not the first time that Jesus had seen Levi in his booth. They must have had several encounters with each other before this incident, since Jesus and Levi lived in the same town. Perhaps, Jesus himself had to pay the toll-tax to Levi as he traveled around the area. When Levi saw Jesus, he found that the way Jesus treated him was different from other guys who mostly sneered at him. He felt that Jesus respected him as a human being. From time to time, perhaps Levi also had heard people talking about Jesus, how he healed so many sick people and how incredibly personal his teaching was. He also heard about Jesus’ declaring that he had authority on earth to forgive sins (5:24). Levi definitely knew that this Jesus was not an ordinary man and was different from the ordinary rabbis in the town. He had great respect for Jesus and wanted to know about him. But the question in his mind was, “Will this man Jesus really accept me since I am a tax collector?” He might have thought that he was the last person in whom Jesus would ever show interest. He thought, “Well, I also charged him more than I was supposed to. He would probably condemn me.” But that was not the case. One day while he was sitting at his booth, Jesus approached him and said something he could not imagine. “Follow me!” he said. It wasn’t just a casual command. In fact, Levi was in Jesus’ mind and Jesus came to visit him in his booth to begin a genuine friendship. How did Levi respond to Jesus’ invitation? Levi didn’t hesitate. He left everything and followed Jesus. Since then, Jesus and Levi became friends. Their relationship was genuine and permanent. Of course, Levi also became one of the chosen Twelve who later became the Apostles of the early church. The real beauty is that the personal relationship has been restored between God and a sinful man.

Look at verse 28. “Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.” The joy of salvation was so great that Levi could not contain it. He threw a big party for Jesus and invited all of his tax collector friends in the area and others, perhaps their family members and girlfriends. Most of these people who gathered at Levi’s house were the ones whom most people in society didn’t like to be with because of their unacceptable lifestyle and bad reputations. They were considered unclean and untouchables especially by the orthodox sect of Judaism, called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were separatists who believed that people have to stay away from certain kinds of unclean sinners. Associating with them would make them ceremonially unclean, meaning “unholy.”

However, Jesus didn’t mind mingling with these people. He was eating with them, indicating that they were one. It was a wonderful occasion to show that he had no preconceptions and reservations against them. It was also a wonderful opportunity to share the good news of the kingdom of God with them. He probably told them many stories and parables, like the parables of the prodigal son. A couple years ago, I met some of my college friends in Korea. They were very happy to see me. It was the first reunion after nearly 25 years. Most of them were either CEO’s or college professors. However, they were not Christians. We met at the local restaurant. They were drinking wine and offered me some, saying, “We know you are a pastor. Pastors don’t drink right?” But I drank some anyway. We shared some of our beautiful memories of the past and sang our favorite old songs. After dinner, one of them told me how he appreciated that I didn’t refuse their offer to drink. He said that he felt accepted by me, a religious man. I don’t mean that we should go around and drink with people to make them feel accepted. The point is that we should not draw a line to separate ourselves from certain people. People need the Lord. And the Lord didn’t separate himself from these people. Jesus was not sin-friendly, but he was and is a sinner-friendly Savior.

Yet, the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus’ association with this group of people. Look at verse 30. “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and “sinners”?’” It’s interesting to see that they complained to the disciples about Jesus. Maybe it was because Jesus was too popular for them to stand against. They just could not accept Jesus’ radical behavior toward those whose lifestyle they could not tolerate. This event was the second major conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees in Luke’s gospel. When Jesus had proclaimed that he was the Son of Man who has authority to forgive sins, they were greatly disturbed. Now they were upset by Jesus’ association with the tax collectors.

Jesus was not always against the Pharisees. He actually shared the same views and practices with the Pharisees in many ways. Jesus surely knew that the tax collectors and those who gathered in Levi’s house were not righteous people. They were sinners. They were doing many bad things. After all, they were betrayers of Jewish people. But here we see the major difference between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees preferred a level of quarantine from these sinners. They stayed away from them. Jesus, however, preferred to associate with them with the aim to restore them. There is no one who cared about a life of righteousness and moral integrity more than Jesus did. But Jesus didn’t disconnect himself from sinners. He sought out sinners and called them to God to live a new life. Here, we learn that legalism is a great obstacle for evangelism. If we remain legalistic toward others, like the Pharisees, we cannot minister to the people who are truly in need.

What hinders us from evangelizing people is not that they are sinful but that we are legalistic. We often avoid certain people because we feel uncomfortable around them, sometimes even because we feel that we are better than them. So rather than seeking them out, we run away from them, often filled with fear about what types of situations we might find ourselves in if we talk to them. But we must remember that evangelism is a counter-cultural exercise that will produce its awkward moments. Topics of discussion may get uncomfortable. But for evangelism to be effective, the unsaved must be reached, since they are not actively looking to come to study the Bible or into the church. Therefore, we need to be more open and creative about evangelism strategy, building bridges to reach the unsaved and develop interest that can become opportunities for evangelism. We need more seeker-friendly programs, Bible studies and services.

In verses 31 and 32, Jesus explains why he welcomed the tax collectors and sinners by using a proverb. He answered them, “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” One of the spiritual problems of the Pharisees was their self-righteous attitude. Here, Jesus challenged the Pharisees by indicating that there are no good and bad people – there are only those who know they’re bad and those who don’t. By nature, we are all sinful, but with the most positive aspect of his teaching, Jesus calls us to repentance.

For many years, doctors thought that the cause of ulcers was stress, too much coffee, or spicy food. But in the early 1980s two doctors, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered a bacterium in the lining of the digestive system that they suspected might be the real cause. The Bacterium is called Helicobacter pylori. And in the early 1990s it was proved by nearly two thousand articles in medical journals. For many years, instead of prescribing antibiotics, many persisted in prescribing acid-blocking drugs, which would temporarily relieve the symptoms of ulcers, but the ulcers would often came back and eventually cause stomach cancer. In a similar way, many people get only temporary relief for spiritual and emotional problems. If a person has a sin problem, no amount of self-help techniques will completely take away the pain or cure the disease. The antibiotic for sin is repentance. No repentance, no real healing.

The Greek word for repentance, metanoia,is composed of two parts: meta, meaning change, and noia, meaning mind. So repentance is the change of mind. Repentance is requires change in both our attitudes and our behavior. Repentance is also a process. We need to repent every day. Repentance is a Christian lifestyle, not one time action. A Christian woman asked another believer how he was doing. With a broad smile he replied, “Repenting and rejoicing, sister!” This man was living in a spirit of repentance – daily confessing and turning from sins and rejoicing in God’s forgiveness. Christians have the joy of salvation through repentance. So the moment we stop repenting, we lose the joy of salvation. Because sincere repentance involves sorrow, we may forget that repenting leads to rejoicing. When we first repent and become new believers, we experience great joy. But if we then choose to live with un-confessed sin, our joy is lost. Jesus said that it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, and he did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

If we have no joy of salvation, something is wrong with our life of faith. Perhaps the Pharisees were angry at Jesus because they felt that they were losing their control over people because of Jesus’ growing ministry and popularity. As long as they were concerned about their control, they were getting deeper into the darkness of sin. God gave us his amazing grace of salvation so that we may be more loving toward others who do not know God’s grace of forgiveness of sins. People need the Lord, especially the grace of forgiveness of sins. But we are often insensitive to others due to our pride and self-righteousness. Jesus knew that all of us are sick in sin. Some of our sicknesses are more serious and more subtle than others. Some are so deep we aren’t even aware of them. But Jesus opens his arms of love for all of us and says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Levi was overjoyed when he was found by Jesus and invited all of his friends to celebrate God’s salvation in his house. Jesus is not sin-friendly, but he is a sinner-friendly Savior. May the Lord help us to reach out to the unsaved with open arms of love even when it is difficult for us, that the Lord may restore us all in the joy of salvation as we live and walk in the spirit of repentance.
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