I especially loved the sermon on calling Levi (Matthew) as a disciple. He was a tax collector and in Jewish culture, that position was considered lower than a sinner. Outright and open sinners, who had no regard for the laws and statutes of God, were more accepted than tax collectors. To be a tax collector meant that you sought the approval of Rome to tax your own people. It was a lucrative business for both Rome and the Jewish person who dared ask. Once they were approved, they could begin taxing their communities for just about anything and if taking money wasn't bad enough from your own people, you were doing it in the name of the enemy...twice as bad! (Mark 2, Luke 5)
I have always believed you can't take the individual, human emotion away from biblical characters, when reading the bible. Sometimes we have the false idea that they were emotionless, zombie like creatures who were bland and lifeless... They come off that way if you just read the words of the text, but if you let the stories come to life, you get a very real picture of how emotional, strong willed and beat down many of these 1st century Jewish people were.
So, it's not a far cry to think that when Jesus approached the booth that Matthew was sitting in, to collect taxes, the crowds must have thought Jesus was going to give Matthew a piece of His mind! Surely He was going to show Matthew the injustice of his livelihood and belittle Matthew, because, after all, Jesus was Jewish too. It's not a stretch to imagine the followers He did have at this time, groan with disgust as Jesus didn't chastise Matthew, but rather asked him to join His followers. I can imagine a few might have walked away because they were not going to be in a group that had as an equal associate, a tax collector...I mean, people have their breaking point, they have their standards and sometimes, too much is just too much (sarcasm).
What I find absolutely interesting about this account and the other accounts of Jesus asking people to follow Him, (Peter, John and James, Phillip and Nathaniel) is that there is no mention of repentance! There is no mention of a salvation experience! There is no mention of "change your life, stop doing this and then you can follow me!" It's as if He literally said, "come as you are and follow me!"
How awesome and yet confusing is this! Now, we must not assume at this point that they were believers. I had always imagined they were but if you follow their stories, their faith grew, moment by moment, but not because of their great faith, but because of their lack of faith! They got it wrong in just about every situation they encountered and even Jesus said on more than just a few occasions, "do you still not believe" and "you people of little faith."
The testing of their faith, in following and trying to believe actually led to their outright belief....but it took a while...for almost all of them. It wasn't even the death, it was the resurrection. I always wondered why no one was at the tomb, waiting for Jesus to burst forth and come alive! I mean, it's so clear from the texts. I know I would have been there....at least, I think so. Yeah, probably not!
These guys had a hard time believing a dead guy could come back to life! What a comforting acknowledgement that the guys who walked with Jesus, side by side, didn't expect Jesus to come back from the dead....why a comforting feeling? Because they didn't get it right either and they saw Him and walk with Him.
Too much of our current world Christianity tells us that we got to get it right! How could we not believe, it's clear and obvious! Yeah, when you have a story, records and eyewitness accounts in a book recorded 2000 years ago! If they walked and heard the 1st hand account and struggled with it, how in the world are we supposed to think we will get it right all of the time.
We spend too much time judging people based off of a single moment in time instead of viewing the entire collection of ones life. If we had only the story of John wanting to burn an entire village up because they didn't want Jesus to come through, we could easily conclude that he didn't get it and wasn't a Christian. If all we had was Peter's denials, it would be safe to assume that he wasn't a real believer either. But those moments were just that, moments! An entire body of work is a string of moments tied together, that leads us to a better understanding.
Perhaps my favorite story in all of this is the centurion guard in Matthew 8 and Luke 7 (a Roman soldier)....the enemy! He approached Jesus, asked for his servants healing, Jesus wanted to go to his servant and the guard said no...he believed Jesus was able to do his healing from right there and he just wasn't worthy of having the presence of The Lord at his house. Jesus was so moved by this, He stopped His followers and declared this was the greatest act of faith He had seen this far....are you kidding me! This guy wasn't even Jewish! Faith was not available to him. He was on the wrong team on 2 accounts (he worked for the enemy and by birth, not being Jewish, he was out anyway). This is astounding. Jesus turned to His followers, those who supposedly believed in Him (if you believe they actually did) and He used a non Jew and an enemy as the sign of greatest faith He had ever seen!
Jesus was definitely counter acting much of what the Pharisees taught. They were exclusive, even to the Jews....if you did these laws then you were in but if you didn't, you were out! You had to do "this" and have these "evidences" to be one of them, for it to be real, genuine. Jesus seems to be flipping that around and saying, be one of us and along the way, you will become! It seems as if belief doesn't come before following. It really seems as if Jesus was saying, following will lead to belief.
It definitely seems to make it more genuine and it definitely takes the "check list" system out of the equation. Almost, as if the follow first principle leads to a more healthy acceptance and enjoyment of doing the law, which Jesus himself said "I have come to fulfill, not abolish." (Matthew 5). There seems to be a natural falling in love with Gods ways and desires this way. The belief to follow idea seems to be structured around the do's and don't do's, which is why, I believe, many Christians in our current world battle over their fleshly desires and have low or poor self esteem as a Christian.
It's like practicing anything, really...one doesn't become a baseball player the moment they put their first uniform on. Now, they may look like a baseball player, but there are skills and footwork, and rules that need to be understood first. You aren't a player if you know the rule book but can't hit a ball or run the bases. Even if you know what to do, a situational genius, you got to be on the field to be able to put the knowledge to use. Getting out on the field, putting on a glove, learning the skills needed along the way will lead you into becoming an actual player.
Now, not all who follow become believers. When Jesus was freaking people out by telling them to eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6), the bible records that many "followers" said "this teaching is hard" and they walked away. This is so very true for the analogy above. Little league fields are full of kids with the want to play ball but as you go up in levels, the numbers dwindle because it's harder at each level and kids just drop out.
So, this has been a huge shift in how I have always viewed the disciples in the bible and how one actually becomes a believer. Jesus promises Phillip and Nathaniel in John 1, follow me and I will show you Greater Things than what you just saw! Who can follow Jesus, anyone can! the invitation is open to everyone! Come on, follow me, come and see, take a taste, yes it's hard, yes you will get it wrong and yes, if you follow, you will look back and see you are not who you were!
Praise be to God that He asks us to follow, just as we are because He loves us too much to allow us to stay where we are!
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