Lunch with Levi notes

Here are my sermon notes from 20 May 2007. The second service message did not include my references to Peter in the Caravaggio painting of the Call of St. Matthew. You can find this painting in a variety of places on the web. If you have questions or concerns about my interpretation of Caravvaggio's interpretation of the story, I'd love to interact here.

Lunch With Levi
Matt. 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32

Matt. 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
Matt. 9:10 As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.
Matt. 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Matt. 9:12 When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.
Matt. 9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” NETBible

Background of the story…Jesus’ story.
Meals with Jesus

Healing the leper
A miracle of healing visibly (the leper) is followed by a miracle of healing invisibly (the visit to Levi’s house brought an outsider into the kingdom by Jesus’ contact and cleansing).

I. Jesus calls Matthew, who follows him.
Matt. 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

a. Matthew = Levi

b. Sitting at the “tax booth”

Anchor Bible Dictionary, Norman Hillyer,
For Matthew himself (called Levi by Mark and Luke) the call of Jesus entailed great sacrifice. He left everything (Lk. 5:28). Fishermen could return to their boats (Jn. 21:3), but a teloœneœs who gave up his occupation had no prospect of another job, even with the skills that he undoubtedly possessed. Of necessity a tax collector would be versed in several languages, experienced in keeping records, and probably know shorthand (G. Milligan, The New Testament Documents, 1913, 241-7). A system of shorthand invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro, a freedman of Cicero, in 63 B.C. was widely used.
The toll house (teloœnion) at Capernaum was an important centre commanding both the sea route from east and north of the lake and also the great land road, the way of the sea (Matt. 4:15), leading from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast. Custom would thus be levied on all goods carried by ship or caravan. In Matthew’s case the duty would be collected not on behalf of the Roman government but for the tetrarch Herod Antipas. This fact would however not make his calling or class any the less unpopular. Two inscriptions from the Asian cities of Magnesia and Ephesus mention “those concerned with the toll on fish” (A. Schlatter, Der Evangelist Matthäus, 19636, 302), and it is possible that a toll on catches of fish was collected at Capernaum as well. If so, Matthew would have known the fishermen-disciples, and probably Jesus himself, who used Capernaum as his headquarters. This would explain Matthew’s immediate and total response to Jesus’ call to discipleship.
Anchor Bible Dictionary, Dennis C. Duling
The location was probably a toll or customs office or booth normally found at ports of entry (Jos. JW 2.287), or on the boundaries between various districts, for example, Jericho (cf. Luke 19:2), or, in this case, Capernaum (Mark 2:1; Matt 8:5, 9:1).

c. Matthew follows Jesus.
By this response, Levi/Matthew begins a new life; he now cedes control over his life to the rabbi, Jesus. Walking away from this Tax Station, he is making Jesus the centre-point of his life.
Application: I recognize the call of Jesus on my life by my readiness to give him the central role in my life.
Watch what happens next…

II. Jesus follows Matthew.
Matt. 9:10 As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.

a. Jesus has a meal at Matthew’s place.
The family meal was the centre-point of family life. To be invited to this meal was to be virtually included in the family itself.
The extensive list of dietary laws in the Torah not only protected Israel from some harmful consumables, it also separated obedient Israelites from their nonconforming neighbours. They could not therefore eat with their neighbours without compromising their distinctiveness in being God’s people.
Inviting Jesus to this meal embraced the rabbi as a family member, invited him into the identity of the family, perhaps it was the ultimate expression of fellowship with Jesus, and therefore, followership of Jesus.
Rev. 3:20—Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone will open the door, I will come in and will eat with him and fellowship with him.

Application: When you have the sense that Jesus has knocked on the door, asked to be given entrance, invited himself to dinner, then you have heard the call.
Responding to the call means that Jesus is now central to your life and work.

b. Matthew’s colleagues join in the meal.
Notice that one of Matthew’s first acts was to invite his colleagues to share this same meal with Jesus; that is another sign of the call. Once called, there is a compelling desire to invite others to share the meal, share the life, share the journey with Jesus.



III. The Pharisees question Jesus’ other disciples.
Matt. 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

a. The recurring problem of ceremonial cleanness.
We saw this with the healing of the Leper last time: one of the ways that the Mosaic Law communicated the centrality of divine holiness was to draw lines around physical wholeness, to clarify distinctions between broken and whole bodies, and thereby to draw attention to the need for divine holiness, and divine intervention.
Here, the centrality of separation and purity are represented by the Pharisees, those zealous for national purity.
These were not merely grumpy church ladies; the Pharisees were convinced that the blessing of YHWH could only come, Israel would only be liberated from Roman rule, when the nation repented and returned to full obedience.
If Jesus were teaching that the Law was not central, that obedience was not important, then Jesus would prove to be a false teacher, a betrayer of Israel.

b. Tax collectors and sinners contaminate the clean.
The tax collectors were normally Jews who sold out to Roman rule by making the highest bid for tax collection. Gaining the governor’s contract, the chief tax collector would then collect taxes from his neighbours and forward the bid amount to the governor, on its way to Rome. His own profit came from charging his neighbours some amount above the committed remittance.

Now, these betrayers of Israel were gathering for a meal with Jesus, proving that Jesus was the friend of the unclean, and by that a betrayer himself.

Application: the Pharisees were so concerned about this because it was evident that YOU BECOME LIKE THE PEOPLE YOU EAT WITH MOST.
In university, I took my meals at the commons. Every evening, I would meet friends there, eat the meal, discuss our experiences during the day.
We would chat about the lectures that challenged us most, about profs who were openly antagonistic about the faith. We tore into readings that impacted our developing worldview. We learned together. Over the weeks, months and years that this took place, I formed my own worldview, I became somewhat like those men and women, and they became like me.
In a similar way, when debi and I married, we ate the evening meal together, learned from one another, developed a common commitment to our family and deepened our commitment to Christ.
When our children were old enough to remain at table after the food was consumed, they entered into a similar experience with us, as the borders of our family expanded.
The people who share meals with you are influenced by you and you by them.
If you invite Jesus into the conversation around the table of your life, he will influence you; if he becomes the one with whom you most often ‘eat’, then you will become like him.

Keller: Jews were not infected with pagan beliefs because they couldn’t eat with them.

IV. Jesus overheard the Pharisee’s objection and responded with several obscure riddles.
Matt. 9:12 When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.
Matt. 9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

a. Only the sick need a doctor.
Virtually all religions operate on the principle of CONTAMINATION OF THE HEALTHY THROUGH CONTACT WITH THE INFECTED.
Here, Jesus claims that THE CLEAN CLEANSE THE UNCLEAN.

EBC, DA Carson
12-13 These verses again connect Jesus’ healing ministry with his “healing” of sinners (see on 8:17). The sick need a doctor (v.12), and Jesus healed them; likewise the sinful need mercy, forgiveness, restoration, and Jesus healed them (v.13). The Pharisees were not so healthy as they thought (cf. 7:1-5); more important they did not understand the purpose of Jesus’ mission. Expecting a Messiah who would crush the sinful and support the righteous, they had little place for one who accepted and transformed the sinner and dismissed the “righteous” as hypocrites. Jesus explained his mission in terms reminiscent of 1:21. There is no suggestion here that he went to sinners because they gladly received him; rather, he went to them because they were sinners, just as a doctor goes to the sick because they are sick.
The quotation (v.13) is from Hosea 6:6 and is introduced by the rabbinic formula “go and learn,” used of those who needed to study the text further. Use of the formula may be slightly sardonic: those who prided themselves in their knowledge of and conformity to Scripture needed to “go and learn” what it means. The quotation, possibly translated from the Hebrew by Matthew himself, is cast in Semitic antithesis: “not A but B” often means “B is of more basic importance than A.”
The Hebrew word for “mercy” (hesed ) is close in meaning to “covenant love,” which, according to Hosea, is more important than “sacrifice.” Through Hosea, God said that the apostates of Hosea’s day, though continuing the formal ritual of temple worship, had lost its center. As applied to the Pharisees by Jesus, therefore, the Hosea quotation was not simply telling them that they should be more sympathetic to outcasts and less concerned about ceremonial purity, but that they were aligned with the apostates of ancient Israel in that they too preserved the shell while losing the heart of the matter, as exemplified by their attitude to tax collectors and sinners (cf. France, Jesus, p. 70). Jesus’ final statement (v.13b) therefore cannot mean that he viewed the Pharisees as righteous people who did not need him, who were already perfectly acceptable to God by virtue of their obedience to his laws so that their only fault was the exclusion of others (contra Hill, Greek Words, pp. 130f.). If the Pharisees were so righteous, the demand for righteousness surpassing that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law (5:20) would be incoherent.

b. I want mercy and not sacrifice.
NIBC, ROBERT H. MOUNCE
Mercy translates the Hebrew hesed, a word rich in meaning and conveying the idea of strong covenant faithfulness and love. Jesus then interprets his earlier statement by adding, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (v. 13). The pronouncement reveals a consciousness of having come to this world from a heavenly sphere. There is no reason to assign this insight to the faith of the early church (as some do), unless one begins with the assumption that Jesus was no more than a man or that he was unaware of his divine origin.

Dramatically, Jesus then challenges their view of holiness. The Pharisees had a fragile view of holiness, a view that considered everyone around as a threat to personal holiness.
Jesus had no such fear. He knew that he could NOT be contaminated. Rather, contact with him could cleanse!!
Those who have been cleansed by him become cleansers themselves. Therefore, a disciple of Jesus can become a little Jesus, can live fearlessly, can cleanse those who might have been a threat in their former life.

Keller: The mark is mercy, not sacrifice [the sacrificial system]. Don’t look to see how compliant you are with the codes, but look for mercy: love, service and compassion to people who are not like you. If you are now able to deal with “the bad people” then you are becoming like Jesus.

c. I came to call sinners, not the righteous.
Tim Keller’s:
How do we get the power to live that way?
why is it that your disciples don’t fast like we do?
Jesus: no fasting while the bridegroom is with them!
He does not want to have a relationship only like that of a king to subjects, but like that of a husband to a wife.
If you have a relationship with the Lord of the universe that is SO PERMANENT, then you have the sort of confidence that will lead you to contact the bad people around you.
How can he make the unclean clean? How can he impute holiness to us?
Because he took our diseases, became an outcast. He experienced all that we fear might occur to us.
2 Cor. 5:21
It melts you emotionally.
If there is a line, then the humble are in and the proud are out!
Now you don’t go out into the world with the fragile, self-achieved self-image. In him, you are beautiful to your spouse.
When you are living the way I lived, then you know that you are being transformed.

This is a “good infection.”


V. What’s the point?
a. What was Jesus’ message?
b. What does this mean to us?
c. How do we respond to these riddles?
d. What might happen if we were to take these seriously?

http://lanefusilier.blogspot.com/


Mark 2:13 ¶ Jesus24 went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.
Mark 2:14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.25 “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
Mark 2:15 As Jesus26 was having a meal27 in Levi’s28 home, many tax collectors29 and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
Mark 2:16 When the experts in the law30 and the Pharisees31 saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”32
Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.33 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 5:27 ¶ After105 this, Jesus106 went out and saw a tax collector107 named Levi108 sitting at the tax booth.109 “Follow me,”110 he said to him.
Luke 5:28 And he got up and followed him, leaving everything111 behind.112
Luke 5:29 ¶ Then113 Levi gave a great banquet114 in his house for Jesus,115 and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting116 at the table with them.
Luke 5:30 But117 the Pharisees118 and their experts in the law119 complained120 to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”121
Luke 5:31 Jesus122 answered them, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.123
Luke 5:32 I have not come124 to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”125