PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Luke 5:27–32 (NIV)
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 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?”
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.”
CONSIDER THIS
There is a not-so-subtle move Jesus makes in his unfolding subversive plot to save the world. He is, in effect, telling the insiders that they are out and the outsiders that they are in. Just as you are sure Jesus is squarely in your camp, he does something that causes you to question it. One minute he takes on the religious establishment and the next he invites a tax collector into the inner circle.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
While the people respected the religious authorities, they did not appreciate the onerous, legalistic frameworks and burdens placed on them. However, the people explicitly distinguished the authority Jesus carried from that of the Pharisees. When Jesus decides to befriend the traitorous and treacherous agents of Rome (aka tax collectors) it was definitely strike one for the people. This would have been strike two in the minds of the scribes and Pharisees. Tax collectors were like rogue IRS agents, overcharging and extorting the people and keeping the ill-gotten gains for themselves. And the people could do nothing about it. They carried the imprimatur of the state. So if calling a tax collector to the inner circle wasn’t enough, look what happens next:
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 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?”
This would have been a capital P-A-R-T-Y, finest foods and wine, bougie bunch of guests, probably some Roman society people, maybe some celebrities, who knows. It was likely not a low society of the poor and marginalized people Jesus was used to. Why did Jesus do this? What do you think? Is Jesus trying to a) make a statement, b) send a message, or c) does he just not care?
My answer is d) He cares too much about people to let what other people might think deter him.
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.”
There is how things appear to be and how they really are. Jesus seems to have little tolerance (albeit significant patience) for people who focus on appearances. He cares about the reality. There is only one way to disqualify yourself from Jesus’s fellowship—to think you don’t need him.
In the end there are two kinds of people: 1) those who know their neediness, and 2) those who don’t. Okay, there is a third: 3) those who know their neediness but keep it hidden by maintaining appearances.
I am in category 1, a needy person, and I am always finding Jesus coming for me. Which one are you?
THE PRAYER
Our Father, thank you for this grand banquet of tax collectors. Thank you for the way Jesus is an all inclusive kind of person and yet an equal opportunity offender. Thank you for the way he doesn’t care about appearances but about reality. And thank you for the way he has patience for those he can’t tolerate. Holy Spirit, bring me into deep self-awareness. Show me where I am pretending to not be in need. Show me where I am altogether blind to my need. Give me the courage to get real and stay real in the presence of Jesus. I’m weary of my own facades. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
THE QUESTION
So which kind of person (see above) are you?
1) those who know their neediness, and 2) those who don’t. 3) those who know their neediness but keep it hidden by maintaining appearances.
Which did you used to be? Which are you becoming? Why is it hard for you? What lie might you have believed somewhere along the way about being in need?
THE HYMN
I’ve got a perfect hymn for us today. Some of you have already guessed it. Yep! “I Need Thee Every Hour.” It is hymn 340 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. If you have an extra four minutes and thirty seconds, listen to our good friend, Matt Maher’s beautiful rendition of the hymn here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.
3 Responses
It was my neediness that caused me to call out His name 13 years ago in my garage. My soul was tired of being one of those who know their neediness but keep it hidden by maintaining appearances. Now, I’m living by slowly, purposely becoming like Jesus. And you can’t become like Him without Him. Some days, I do better than others, but my path hasn’t changed, Christ. This I know, I used to think I was a body, with a soul, trying to figure out how to have a spiritual experience. How to find my purpose and identity in the world. All that gave me was frustration, shame, and insecurity, but those struggles finally led me to Jesus.
Now, in Christ, I know I’m a spirit, a child of God, with a soul, who is hanging out in a body of flesh for a brief time. Becoming like Christ is our purpose, and through Him, we learn our true identity.
I believe that if we’re honest, all of us would have to admit our need for a savior/physician. As this story demonstrates clearly; those who’ve been raised in the “religious establishment “ (institutional church) are the one’s most likely to be ignorant regarding their need for spiritual medical treatment. I know that this has been true of me. The institutional church in America has embraced too much of the American business model for doing church. In an effort to capture a larger market share of an overwhelmingly consumeristic culture, many churches have embraced the old Burger King strategy, “Have It Your Way”. This is the most fatal course of action to take if the ultimate goal is to become a healthy church.
The religious establishment tends to train people to snuggle into and wear the self-righteous mask of pious rituals, rules, and routines — the I’m-holy-wardrobe. However, Jesus is searching for the lost — the real and the raw who know they are needy now and aren’t just hoping for a someday pass into Heaven.
Before I encountered and surrendered to the risen Jesus, I believed the lie that I was a good person because I was outwardly moral and wanted to follow the rules. However, when Jesus entered my life and I began to devour the Bible, He began to show me my great need for His presence, mercy, deliverance, healing, forgiveness, and empowerment.
By the grace of God, I’m now aware of my great need to be continually clothed with Christ. I agree with Jesus. He said: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” I feel the reality of those words every day. Yet, I’m also aware of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I’m ever amazed at how He speaks and calms the storms in me moment by moment and keeps me afloat when I would surely sink without His presence!