Luke 5:27-29-After this he (Jesus) went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.
If you have ever moved schools growing up, then you remember the trauma of the first day of that new school. Wondering if anyone will come up to you and relieve you from that feeling of being a total outcast! If you were fortunate enough someone was nice enough to introduce themselves, and give you an identity other than “the new kid” or outcast in school…

An “outcast” is what Levi a tax collector would’ve been considered as in biblical times. Some one known to be a thief, a complete sinner and outcast amongst society. Yet Jesus comes and invites this man to come follow Him! In a moment, Jesus calls this outcast away from the identity from which his sin and society labeled him as, into a disciple…

In response to this call, fresh from being an outcast, Levi invites Jesus along with many other “outcasts” into his home to have a great feast with the Lord! Levi did not allow his relationship with Jesus to no longer relate to the people he once “rubbed elbows” with, but made him engage them!

This is what understanding the grace of the gospel in our personal lives should provoke us to do! It should cause us not to think that we cannot relate because “we are righteous now”. Yet it should cause us to engage with sinners because we know we relate to them. But the difference is that we have met a Savior who does not leave us bound in our sin and an outcast!
In His Love, Ld