The Ones Who Need Jesus

Levi was not a popular guy; in fact, most people didn’t like Levi at all. In Jewish society during Jesus’s time, tax collectors were despised as the lowest of the low. They worked for the enemy—Rome. They cheated their own people, and they got rich doing it. That was the kind of man Levi was—but he wasn’t that different from us. Like us, he was a sinner who needed Jesus.But God was working in his heart. When Jesus extended a simple invitation to Levi, “Follow me,” Levi did just that, leaving his tax collecting booth, his job, and his sinful past behind him. This complete obedience was evidence of his faith in Jesus. Levi became a follower of Jesus and, eventually, one of the twelve disciples. We know him as Matthew (Matthew 9:9)!Levi knew others who needed Jesus, and he invited them to his house to have dinner with the Savior. These people were just like Levi—tax collectors and sinners. Levi wanted them to meet Jesus; maybe they would be saved from their sins too. But the Pharisees (Jewish religious teachers) who witnessed Jesus eating with this crowd were shocked. “Why would Jesus hang out with such sinners?” Jesus answered them by saying, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I havecome to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (verse 17).Of course Jesus wanted to be with people like Levi and his friends. He loved them, even though their lives were empty and wasted because they followed sin, and not God. They needed their hearts healed from sin—they needed “Dr. Jesus” to save them and make them right in God’s eyes. These were the ones who needed Jesus.And so do sinners like you and me. • Laura N. Sweet• Levi’s abandonment of his job and his past showed his complete change of heart and his faith in Jesus. How did inviting his friends to meet Jesus also show that change?• Did the Pharisees see themselves as “healthy” or “sick”? What didn’t they understand about their own sin? • According to Romans 3:22-28, why do we all need Jesus? Jesus…told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17 (NLT)

Read Verses:

Luke.5.27-Luke.5.32|Mark.2.13-Mark.2.17