CHRIST’S CALL
‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’
The call of Levi and the incidents associated with it are full of interest and instruction. Note:—
I. The power of Christ’s calling grace.—Levi belonged to a class who were a very proverb for wickedness. Yet even he at once ‘left all, rose up, followed’ Christ, and became a disciple.
II. Obedience to Christ’s call brings joy.—Levi ‘made a great feast in his own house’; and ‘there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.’
III. Converted souls desire to promote the conversion of others.—Levi invited ‘a great company of publicans’ to share in his feast. Most probably these men were his old friends and companions. He knew well what their souls needed, for he had been one of them.
III. The chief object of Christ’s coming into the world.—We have it in the well-known words, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’
Illustration
‘We must be careful not to suppose that Levi neglected his duty to the government and inflicted loss on his employers, by this sudden action here recorded, in leaving his post. It is highly probable that, like many tax-gatherers and toll-collectors, he hired the tolls at the place where our Lord found him, by the year, and paid in advance. This being the case, if he chose to leave his post, he did so entirely at his own loss, but the government was not defrauded. Watson remarks, “Had Levi been a government servant hired at a salary like our custom-house officers, to collect the duties, he must in justice have remained until a successor was appointed. But having himself purchased the tolls and dues for a given period, he was at liberty to throw up the office of exacting them at pleasure.” The word translated “feast,” is only used here and Luke 19:13. It means a kind of large reception banquet, such as only wealthy people could give, and at which the guests were numerous. The worldly sacrifice which Levi made in becoming Christ’s disciple was probably greater than that made by any of the Apostles.’