Invitation to a Changed Life

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Luke 5 (click the link)


REFLECTIONS:
Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?”

Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.” (Luke 5:29-32, The Message)

This whole chapter is about what happens when Jesus introduces himself to people. Awe, repentance redemption and rejection are seen clearly in its pages. Envision it with me…


Peter
The opening scene has Jesus backed up to a lake with crowds pushing in to hear the word of God. So he gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to put out a little bit further from the shore, and he begins to speak, letting his words bounce up to those seated around him in the natural amphitheater at hand. 

When he is done teaching, he tells Simon to push out into deeper water and let his nets out for a catch. This is interesting to me, because Jesus is paying attention to the practical needs of those around him. He noticed the fishermen cleaning and putting away their empty nets before he started teaching, and I think he wants to bless Simon for letting him use his boat, and also show Simon a little of who He is. Simon is tired from fishing hard all night. He knows there is nothing out there. But something about Jesus makes Simon give it a shot—he pushes out, lowers the nets, and his boat starts to sink from the huge catch. He beckons over the other boat, and they are both filled to the brim.

What is it that captures a fisherman’s heart? Two boat loads of fish in waters that he knows were empty. We don’t know Peter’s situation. Maybe he was worried about provision for his family. Maybe he just wanted to get ahead a little. But now he is faced with a situation that defies logic, that he just can’t chalk up to luck. Jesus said, “Go,” Peter said, “if you say so,” and now there are fish everywhere. Peter falls to his knees and says, “‘Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.’ When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him… Jesus said to Simon, ‘There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.’ They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.” (MSG)

This is amazing. It’s not Jesus’ teaching that moves Peter to awe. Jesus reaches in and touches Peter right where he lives. In the beautiful light of Jesus’ lordship over the things he created, Peter sees himself as he really is: sinful, and worthy of abandonment. Imagine Peter’s joy when Jesus invites him into a different kind of life, where he can fish all day long for men and women in the kingdom of heaven, where he can be with Jesus always.


The Leper
Next we have a villager who is covered with a skin disease. In this time he would have been thought of as not only physically unclean, but spiritually unclean as well. This is a man who has not been allowed to worship for the duration of his illness, because his skin screams to all, “Don’t let me touch you, it would defile you! Unclean! Unclean!”  This is a man who has not been touched by anyone since his flesh began to rot away. Yet he has the courage to say to Jesus, “‘If you want to, you can cleanse me.’ Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I want to. Be clean.’ Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.”(MSG)  Jesus could have kept his distance here. The man just wants to get healed. But Jesus wants to heal him of all the spiritual abuse he has received because of his illness. He wants to reach into his heart and gently wash away the wounds of rejection, shame, and all the other rotting things in his heart. Jesus, a rabbi, touches him. And the message to us is that if he can be touched and cleansed, anyone can. Even me. Even you.


Paraplegic Man
We all know this story. Jesus is teaching, the religious leaders have come from far and wide. The scriptures tell us that the healing power of God was on Jesus that day. That to me reinforces the idea that he is fully human in this moment, relying on God alone for any power to heal (like we have too). He also had to withdraw to out-of-the-way places to pray, like we do.

So he is sitting there when the friends of this man lower him through the roof, impressing him with their belief in action. I think if I were in his shoes, and the healing power of the Lord was on me, I would have taken one look at this guy and assumed that what he needed was to be physically healed. But Jesus sees what’s what, and knows that this guy’s heart needs attention. The most important, most desperate need this man has, is a need for forgiveness. So Jesus forgives his sins.

Cue the grumbling of the religious ones. “Blasphemy!” “How dare you!” 

“This is how I dare, says Jesus. This is what I do. I forgive sins. But so you can see with your own eyes that I have a right to do this, get up and walk!” If I were directing this scene, I would have had Jesus yell this part dramatically.  Who knows how it happened. All I know is that Jesus is comfortable living and breathing and moving in the authority he owned. And the people who witnessed this were awestruck. This man’s real life was changed the moment his sins were forgiven. I think the physical healing was the icing on the cake. And the religious leaders even got what they needed. They needed to see the truth in action. They too were invited on this day into a changed life—but many of them exercised their right to say, “No, thank you.”


Levi
Next we see Levi, a Jew, who is collecting taxes from the Jews for the Roman government. We know that these people were seen as traitors to their own people. We also know that corruption was widespread and that many of these people took more than the government was asking for to line their own pockets with. Levi knows he can’t come back from this socially, or spiritually. Then Jesus walks up and says to Levi, “Come along with me.”  A simple scene, straightforward, Levi at work, Jesus says just a few words. But think about it. Jesus is a rabbi. There is a buzz about him and crowds following him wherever he goes. There is something special about him and everyone knows it. Levi has probably lost most of his Jewish friends. He has probably been gossiped about, hated, shunned and rejected for working with the enemy. So for Jesus to walk up and invite Levi into his fold of disciples is extraordinary, and it did something to Levi’s heart. Scripture tells us he walked away from everything and went with Jesus.

Later Levi gives a big dinner at his home for Jesus and invites other tax men and disreputable characters, which offends the religious leaders. What kind of rabbi eats and drinks with crooks and sinners?

The kind that invites the outsiders, all of us really, into a changed life. Changed inside and out.


PRAYER:
Jesus, let us see you as you are, so we can see ourselves as we are, desperately in need of you. Fill us with awe in your presence. Touch us where we live so we can hear the invitation to the different life that is your kingdom on the earth. 


WHO AM I
I am Suzanne Zucca, and I identify with the outsiders.