57. A Walk With Jesus pt 5a

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and He began to teach them. Mark 2:13

I find it funny, that when Jesus does something amazing, generally right after an argument with the religious leaders, He just walks away. Healing the man in the beginning of the chapter, showing He has the power to forgive sins, He then leaves. And in this case the crowd that was praising God follows Him.

As He walked along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow Me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed Him. Mark 2:14

Tax Collectors:
Levi or Matthew, the author of the first Gospel, was a publican, he owned a booth and collected taxes from the Israelites. The tax collectors were hated people, they were considered traitors to the nation. Jews believed they were only under the rule of God, and because Rome had come in and taken over, the Jews felt oppressed, and hated the Romans for it. The only people worse than Romans, were Jews that collected taxes for the Romans. Another reason they were hated, was that whatever the tax collectors gathered over the amount required by the government, they could keep; they were rich at the expense of their brothers pocket.

Application:
Your Levi, hated by your own people, making money doing the most despicable job in the country. People only come to your place of work to give you the money, they felt you were stealing from them, they looked at you as a traitor. No doubt there would be insults and looks of disgust. Then one day at work you see a crowd walking on the shore line following a teacher of some sort, and He looks right at you and says, "Follow Me." A crowd of people who hate you, and their leader says to follow Him?

Jesus loves the broken hearted, and to such he desires to draw near. Why do we wait? Why do we assume that Jesus could not understand the pain we are going through? Or worse, why do we hear the call of our Lord and choose not to respond? I praise God that He is patient and suffers long, He desires that no man goes to Hell but that all should be saved. Trust in His unfailing love today, and be saved.

Brothers and sisters of the faith, have we forgotten that day of restoration, when we cried out for forgiveness and he answered with love. The day our Lord said to our hearts, "Follow Me," and with joy and gladness we left our pain, our wounds, our problems and sins at our booth and chose to follow after Him. Take some time today, and remember when you were that tax collector, the enemy of the cross, and praise God for the love and mercy He has shown You. He is worthy of our praise.