Celebrate!!

We are going to spend several entries on this passage because there are so many important messages here about who Jesus is, who we are and the whole viewpoint of religion.

Luke 5:29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 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?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Lets just look as verse 29.  Levi has been called by Jesus and he has left everything behind to follow him. Levi's decision to follow Jesus became a celebration.  Was it a banquet for Levi, was it a banquet for his friends or was it meant to make the Pharisees mad (which it did)?  Primarily it was none of these things.  We need to see that in this verse the banquet was for Jesus. 

Levi is proclaiming that Jesus has done a great thing in his life and he wants to honor him with a banquet.   Remember the last time?  Levi left his old desires, his old goals and his old behaviors behind.  Why would giving up who he was be a cause for celebration for the person who asked him to do that?

We can pretend that our life without Jesus is fun, exciting and full filling.  But in reality it is not.   You might be familiar with the quote from Henry David Thoreau: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."  Though this was not a plea from Thoreau to urge folks to follow Jesus.  I believe it is an accurate depiction of what is really inside of those who hold back from following Jesus.


Levi experienced the true joy and peace from giving up his life and now following the only true savior, Jesus Christ.  The banquet is for Jesus, but the celebration extends to all of Levi's friends.  He wants them to know who Jesus is.  This is the same compulsion for all Christians.  Just to be clear I don't get a notch on my belt when I tell others about Jesus, instead I have the joy of revealing what God has done in my life.  I have the joy of sharing something that can change your life.

So if you have decided to follow Jesus, celebrate!!  If you haven't then please examine your life of separation from God.  See my first blog entry to know what you can do to follow Jesus.

http://searchforsavior.blogspot.com/2008/03/simple-answers.html