Jesus Calls Levi at the Tax Booth, “Follow Me” (Mark 2:13–17)

 

Jesus Calls Levi at the Tax Booth, “Follow Me” (Mark 2:13–17)

“There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). In other words, every person is a sinner. But the one who realizes before God that he is a sinner receives the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. The one who considers himself righteous has no share in that inheritance.

In Mark 2:13–17, Jesus saw Levi the tax collector sitting at the tax booth and said to him, “Follow me.” Then Jesus went to his house and shared a meal and fellowship with many tax collectors and sinners. God welcomes anyone who repents of sin and comes to Him, giving them the banquet of the kingdom and pouring out His divine grace.

Jesus Teaches the Good News of the Kingdom

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

Jesus went out again by the lake, and a large crowd gathered around Him. He taught them the truth of the good news of the kingdom. He opened His mouth and explained the mysteries of the kingdom.

God is the Word (John 1:1). By His Word, He created all things; by His Word, He rules and sustains all things. His Word drives out darkness and shines light.

God is light (1 John 1:5), and in Him there is no darkness at all. Just as the darkness disappears when the sun rises in the morning, God’s Word shines into the places in our hearts where pain and hardship bring a kind of darkness. His Word drives out that darkness and fills us with light.

God is life (John 11:25), so in Him there is no death. It is like springtime, when dry branches suddenly sprout leaves, flowers, and fruit. In Him there is no death, only life in fullness. Jesus died on the cross, but God raised Him on the third day. When the difficulties of life bring despair or hopelessness to the heart, God’s life–giving Word drives out death and fills us with the power of resurrection life.

This is why Jesus never stopped teaching the good news of the kingdom—whether in homes, in the fields, or by the lake. Anyone who hears His Word and opens their heart comes to understand the secrets of the kingdom.

Jesus Calls Levi: “Follow Me”

“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).

Jesus saw Levi sitting at the tax booth. Levi became one of Jesus’ disciples, later known as Matthew, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew. As a Jew who had aligned himself with Rome, he was called a traitor. Yet he felt trapped, unable to escape that path. The harsh looks and rejection from his fellow Jews were unbearable. Tax collectors were viewed as public sinners, mentioned alongside prostitutes. For a Jew to be treated like a Gentile was deeply shameful.

But Jesus saw him sitting at the booth—He saw Levi’s pain and sorrow. God heard the groaning of the Israelites under Pharaoh’s oppression (Exodus 2:24). Jesus looked at the crowds and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34).

God called Moses and saved His people from Pharaoh’s hand. In the same way, God does not ignore our pain or hardship. Israel’s exodus from slavery pointed forward to Christ saving humanity from the chains of sin and death.

Job’s story makes this clear. God Himself said that Job feared Him and was upright. Satan insisted that if God took away his blessings, Job would curse Him (Job 1:11). But Job did not sin (1:22). Then Satan insisted that if Job’s body were afflicted, he would curse God (2:5). But Satan was proved a liar and suffered defeat (2:10).

God knew Job’s suffering from the beginning, and it was God who allowed Satan to strike him (Job 1:12; 2:6). So suffering is not accidental and not the result of bad luck. Behind it is the deep love of God who trains His children. Our trials are evidence that He loves us.

“‘The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all” (Hebrews 12:6–8).

“Follow Me”

Jesus said to Levi, “Follow me.” This was both a command and a heavenly invitation. Jesus invited Levi—who had lost his way and was sitting in darkness—into the path of salvation. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the door, the way by which we come to God (John 10:7).

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:9–10).

Jesus’ call to Levi was to bring him from destruction into life. But this world is full of deception—false promises of salvation. Drugs, for example, promise sweetness but end only in devastation. Everyone knows their dangers, yet countless people fall into temptation.

Levi would have fully understood what it meant to become a tax collector. There is no way he didn’t know how tax collectors were treated by their own people. Even so, Levi became a tax collector. That’s how strong the temptation of worldly success and wealth is. No one is an exception. Now Levi could not undo what had already been done. He was sitting at the tax booth again, doing what he normally did every day, but his heart was troubled, anxious, and dark.

So then, what does it mean to follow Jesus? First, it means responding to His invitation by faith. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). Levi did not know how following Jesus Christ would straighten out his tangled life or bring him peace. But he believed the Lord’s word and followed Him just like Abraham did.

Following Jesus also means listening to His words and putting them into practice. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall” (Matt 7:24–25). And those who hear and obey His words bear the fruit of love, joy, and peace.

Above all, following Jesus is not a one-time event but walking in His way every day. The Lord’s way is the way of the cross. It is the way of being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world through sacrifice. That’s why the path of following Him is entering through the narrow gate, and few choose it (Matt 7:13–14). Many people initially follow the Lord, but when the way of the cross feels shameful or burdensome, they turn back (John 6:66).

Among Jesus’ disciples, Judas Iscariot had no faith and hated the cross, so he ultimately betrayed the Lord. In his final farewell message, Joshua told the people to choose the LORD and serve Him alone, to throw away the foreign gods among them, and to turn their hearts to the LORD the God of Israel (Josh 24:22–23). The people answered that they would serve the LORD their God and obey His voice (24:24). But it wasn’t long before they abandoned the LORD and served foreign gods (Judg 2:11–12).

Following the Lord Jesus Christ is sharing in what is still lacking in Christ’s sufferings (Col 1:24). Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek when someone strikes the right one, and when someone forces us to go one mile, to go with them two miles (Matt 5:39, 41). Jesus told His disciples that because they do not belong to the world—because He chose them out of the world—the world would hate them (John 15:19).

But following the Lord is the way to life. After our days on earth are over, there is God’s judgment (Heb 9:27). That judgment means eternal punishment for those who do not believe and eternal reward for those who do (1 Cor 1:18). Therefore, those who are not ashamed of the gospel of the cross of Christ and continue to believe will inherit the kingdom of heaven through the power of the gospel (Rom 1:16). Levi received grace to choose the path of following the Lord.

Jesus Eats with Levi

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him” (Mark 2:15).

Jesus sat in Levi’s house and shared a meal and fellowship with him. At that time, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and His disciples and joined the meal. Here, “sinners” refers especially to prostitutes. For any Jew, this would have been shocking enough to fall over in disbelief. But Jesus welcomed those who came to God by faith and filled them with heavenly blessings that come from above. It is like the heavenly banquet we will enjoy in the future (Rev 19:7–9).

I Have Come to Call Sinners

“When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’” (Mark 2:16–17).

But when the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, they rebuked His disciples. In their eyes, such a thing should never happen. They could not see Levi’s faith, nor God’s grace, love, or forgiveness. All they saw was their own standards and their own thoughts. They hated that Jesus was with tax collectors and sinners. They did not understand why He would do such a thing. In the end, they wanted to kill Jesus because He did not fit their ideas.

So Jesus told them that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners. There is no one righteous on this earth. Jesus became flesh to save all people (John 1:14).

Therefore, anyone who refuses and does not believe in Jesus is like someone who thinks he is righteous on his own. The Pharisaic teachers saw themselves as separate from tax collectors and sinners and condemned them. They did not believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, but rejected Him. They considered Jesus unnecessary.

Anyone who rejects Jesus and does not believe cannot receive God’s grace or the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. But the one who admits his sin and follows the Lord receives the inheritance of the kingdom as a reward. God, in His mercy, sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ and gives every spiritual blessing through Him. By the merciful blood of Christ, God washes away the disease of sin within us. Amen!

December 7, 2025

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Scripture quotes are from the NIV.