Luke 5:27-32

The Call of Levi. Jesus Is The Great Physician Who Can Heal The Outcast (5:27-32).

A narrative revealing that He had come to forgive sins is now followed by a passage revealing that he has come to call sinners to that forgiveness. Indeed He was going to shock the Pharisees and scribes even more by calling a hated outcast to follow Him. This man was a tax collector, a customs officer, and every eyebrow in Galilee would be raised when he was called. They did not know that he would go on to write a Gospel.

Levi was a man who served the hated ruler Herod Antipas as a local official collecting tolls on his behalf from those who passed along that route, probably the trade route from Damascus. For Capernaum was basically a frontier town between the territory of Herod and that of Philip. Such people were despised. They were considered to be betrayers of the people, for they were dishonest and lined their pockets by mean of extra ‘taxes' at everyone's expense. And with their constant contact with Gentiles they were seen as continually ritually unclean. They were seen on the whole as very unpleasant and irreligious people who were seen as traitors by all decent people.

The resulting criticism would then lad on to Jesus revealing that He was come as the Great Physician, the One sent by God to heal the wounds of His people, and to aid specially the hurt of soul. He was answering the call of God, ‘is there no physician there?' (Jeremiah 8:22). There the heart of God is revealed as breaking because of the sickness of His people, because the Lord was not in Zion, because her King was not in her (Jeremiah 8:19), and His people had missed their opportunity. Elsewhere in the Old Testament God is revealed as the Great Physician, for it was to Him that the Psalmist said, “I said, Oh Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you” (Psalms 41:4). While Isaiah tells us that He is the God Who is the healer of those with a humble and contrite spirit (Isaiah 57:15). And that is precisely what Jesus was intending to do here, to heal the souls of those who were repentant and who sought God. He was here on earth doing God's healing work for sinners. He was here to set God's king in Zion (compare Psalms 2:6). Thus once again He reveals Himself as acting in God's name, on God's behalf, doing God's work, in a way that was connected with His Sonship.

He could thus say, “I have come (as a doctor) not to call the righteous, but sinners” and thus align Himself with God as the Great Physician. He saw in these people those who said, “Come and let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us and He will heal us. He has smitten and He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1). (Notice that Hosea 6:2 may well be behind His claim that He would be raised on the third day and Luke 6:6 is quoted by Him against the Pharisees in Matthew 9:13. This was clearly a passage He knew well and applied to His ministry, which may suggest He had it in mind here).

We may analyse this passage as follows:

a And after these things he went forth, and beheld a public servant, named Levi, sitting at the tollbooth, and said to him, “Follow me” (Luke 5:27).

b And he forsook all, and rose up and followed him (Luke 5:28).

c And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a great crowd of public servants and of others who were sitting at meat with them (Luke 5:29).

d And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples (Luke 5:30 a).

c Saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the public servants and sinners?” (Luke 5:30 b).

b And Jesus answering said to them, “Those who are in health have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Luke 5:31).

a “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32)

Note that in ‘a' Levi, the outcast, is called to follow Jesus and in the parallel Jesus has come to call sinners to repentance. In ‘b' Levi leaves all and follows Him, and in the parallel Jesus is the physician for the ailing. In ‘c' public servants and ‘others' gather for a meal and in the parallel the questions is why the disciples eat with public servants and sinners. Central in ‘d' is the antagonism of the Pharisees and scribes.