Daily Devotionals

Trouble Maker Week 5: Thursday

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind. Luke 5:27-28

Each one of the men that Jesus chose to be one of His 12 disciples would have been surprising by most people in Jesus’ day. Some of them would have even been shocking. One of these men was Levi, who you probably know as Matthew. He was a tax collector. You need to know that tax collectors were despised during Jesus’ day. First, they were responsible for taking the Israelites’ taxes and giving them to the Roman government. They were also known to take more taxes than the Israelites actually owed and pocket that extra money for themselves. In other words, they were hated by most of Israel. Despite these things, Jesus chose a tax collector to be one of His disciples. 

Luke 5 tells us about Jesus’ call of Levi, the tax collector. Luke explains in this chapter that “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth” (verse 27). Most would have looked at him with anger or disgust. Many would have condemned him. This is not what happened with Jesus. He looked at Levi and said, “Follow Me” (verse 27). I wish we could know what was going through Levi’s mind because I have a feeling that He was more surprised than anyone. By all accounts, Levi was considered an enemy of Israel. Despite these things, Levi was exactly who Jesus wanted to follow Him. He saw beyond Levi’s past and present to the future He had called him to. 

In an amazing act of faith, with Jesus’ invitation, Levi instantly got up, followed Jesus, and left “everything behind” (verse 28). Can you imagine the faith required to do what Levi did? No one would have expected someone like Levi to be called a disciple of Jesus, let alone show such faith and leave “everything” behind. His story shows that God uses anyone and that no person is “too far gone” to be called and used by Jesus. No person is beyond the grace of God.

Moving toward action

Is there anyone you have written off because you believed there is no way that they would turn to God or that God would use them? Pray for them right now. Pray for God to work and move in their lives. Then, reach out to them today and invite them to join you to worship with us this weekend.

Going Deeper

Luke 5:27-39 (NLT)

"Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

31 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

33 One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”

34 Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. 35 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be stored in new wineskins. 39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”