The Long Table, part 1
A table in the tax office
Caleb Moreno
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus calls a tax collector named Levi, and Levi throws a party. The guest list is the scandal, and the scandal is the point.
Levi collects taxes for Rome, which makes him rich and widely disliked. Jesus walks past his booth, says two words, and Levi leaves everything behind. The first thing he does as a follower of Jesus is host a very large dinner for all his friends.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:31-32
The religious leaders complain about the company Jesus keeps. Jesus does not argue about whether the guests are sinners. He simply says that this is exactly who he came for, which turns out to include the people doing the complaining.
Talk it over
Who would make you uncomfortable at a dinner with Jesus?
What would it look like to throw a Levi party with the friends you already have?
Which do you identify with more right now: Levi, his friends or the critics?
Go deeper
Read Luke 15:1-2 and the three stories that follow. They answer the same complaint.
Speaker
Caleb Moreno
Date
Passage
Luke 5:27-32
Length
36 min
