Several years ago, when we lived in St. Louis, we were part of a new church that we called Levi’s Table. Rob and Karen Graham are our good friends and they led this church at that time. We took the name from the story that I’m reading today in Matthew 9, and I’m remembering some of the beautiful times that we had together.
We called this new church Levi’s Table because – as I recall – we had a desire to call the “sick”, to call the sinners to come to the table with Jesus.
Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees, the religious rulers at the time. They couldn’t understand how Jesus could come to a tax collector’s booth – Matthew’s booth – where a Jew worked for the Roman government, then went to his house where he proceeded to have dinner and take part in a party that was thrown by Matthew, the traitor tax collector, alongside several of his best friends, other sinners.
Yet this is exactly where Jesus wanted to be. He wanted to be with the “sick”, the sinners who were far from God so that he could call them to come to repentance, to believe in him. He didn’t intend to become one of them. Neither was he tolerant of their sin and behavior. He called them sick and in need of a doctor. He called them sinners, not righteous.
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:12-13
At the same time, Jesus’s response, when asked why he was eating with these tax collectors and sinners, seemed to rebuke the Pharisees. Aside from explaining what he was doing, as I read what he is saying, Jesus almost seems to be calling out these religious leaders. Without him saying it directly, I think you can read between the lines of what he is saying and almost hear Jesus asking a question or two:
Why wouldn’t I eat with the sinners?
Why aren’t you eating with the sinners?
Do you think you are so “healthy”, Pharisees?
We need to be asking ourselves similar questions. Even if we aren’t criticizing others, or asking the same questions that the Pharisees are asking – why are those people eating with sinners? – are we abstaining from inviting others who are sinning from coming to Christ?
One of the greatest joys that I have had in the work that we have done recently is to invite some of the ladies, the prostitutes of our city, into parties that we have thrown. Especially as teams have come to town to work along with us, we have invited people that we have met while the teams have ben here with us to come to a party, typically toward the end of the time that the team has been with us. We have food, games, music, sometimes some dancing, and celebration. But in the midst of the various interactions, those who were invited and have come to the party are hearing about Jesus.
The last group that visited us spoke Spanish. Many, if not nearly all, of the prostitutes of our city also speak Spanish. Having room yet at the party, we sent the team to go and invite the ladies to come and join us at the party. Two of them did. They ate. They laughed. And they had a good time.
But most of all, they heard about Jesus. They understood that the reason for all of this was to spend time together and know Jesus. And they stayed. They didn’t run. They received an invitation to the banquet, and they came.
As far as I know, they haven’t yet gone on to believe. We have yet to see the ladies of the area that men typically frequent, where their bodies are sold, and where drugs and alcohol are freely distributed, come to faith in Christ and be baptized. But we are continuing to pray that this will become a reality. We continue to ask God that Jesus would be known amongst these people and that the work of these women would end because they have repented and left behind their old lives for something new. A new life. A life in Christ.
But that will only happen if we will go to the sinners, if we will eat with them, and we will share Jesus with them, just as Jesus did at Matthew’s house.