Jesus Loves me this i know!
In today's mini lesson i will show you an example in the bible on why Jesus loves us regardless of where we are in our life.
Luke 5:27-29
Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
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.
If we take a look at the history of tax collectors in this time, we find out that they are not the most popular people. Some facts about tax collectors as follows
The Jewish people rightly considered them traitors because they worked for the Roman government, and had the force of Roman soldiers behind them to make people pay taxes. They were the most visible Jewish traitors with Rome.
The Jews knew that the tax collectors would over collect and whatever they over collected they would keep in their pockets. Also, tax collectors would bid between each other to decide who gets the contract to collect in the specific region.
Tax collectors were regarded as outcast and everywhere they went their shame followed them that even included their families.
Now that we know a bit about tax collectors we begin to appreciate the invitation that Levi/ Matthew received. Jesus loves people right where they are, they don't need any requirements or specific skills to or wealth to be accepted by Jesus.
Matthews response say's all, he left everything and followed Jesus. He gave up a pretty lucrative tax collecting business to follow Jesus. Was Levi/Matthew upset about giving up his tax collecting business? if we look at verse 29 we see he threw a big banquet which should suggest a couple of things
- He gave everything up Cheerfully
- He wanted other tax collectors to experience the love of Christ
I once was an addict to cocaine and ended up in jail i had many issues like Levi but when i decided to let go and give my life to Jesus i began to experience the true love of Jesus.
I hope this is an encouragement to you please feel free to leave a comment below with any questions
In his name