"And after these things He (Jesus) went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow me. 28. And he left all, rose up and followed Him."
I do not know how much time Levi, or Matthew, spent with Jesus before this incident, but however long he had known Jesus, his response here was remarkable. Since he was a tax collector, Levi would have been a wealthy man. I'm sure that he had a lot to leave, but he left all of it to follow Jesus. This made me wonder about myself. How much have I given up to follow Jesus? Better yet, how much would I be willing to give up to follow Jesus? How much would you be willing to give up to follow Jesus? We also need to ask ourselves how much we have actually given up to follow Jesus. To many people in churches, serving Jesus is a matter of convenience. If it is inconvenient, then they go on about their own business. Think about it for a moment. Levi's life would change drastically. Following Jesus brings a drastic change in life. No doubt, Levi pretty well did what he pleased before meeting Jesus, and probably had a lot of "stuff" that he had accumulated over the years. Think of the "stuff" that we have accumulated over the years. How much of it are we willing to give up for Jesus? Our "stuff" comes to mean a lot to us for some reason or other. (I won't take the time or space to psychoanalyze this.) To part with some of it would be like losing a part of ourselves. This is illustrated by one of my favorite TV shows, American Pickers. The two "pickers" go into people's barns and houses, where they have accumulated years of "junk." They will literally be surrounded by all kinds of things, but the person who accumulated these things sometimes does not want to part with any of it. There are times when the “pickers” find an article that has been buried under a pile of junk for thirty years, but they still don’t want to let it go. It is amazing to me how attached we can become to what we own. It's almost as if what we own now owns us. Keep in mind that Levi "left it all and followed (Jesus)." It seems that he left all of the money sitting on the table and walked off and left it. This would mean that he walked off and left whatever else he owned to follow Jesus, because following Jesus was a full-time job for His disciples. We need to think of our accumulation of money and "stuff" and ask if we are willing to do the same - if following Jesus demands it of us. Let’s look at other disciples who had to leave all to follow Jesus. For example, Peter, Andrew, James and John gave up a lucrative fishing business to follow Jesus. This was probably all that they had ever done in their lives. But they left it to follow Jesus. Think of the apostle Paul. When he was converted on the Damascus Road and became a follower of Jesus, he gave up all of his education in Jewish law, all of his well-being with the Jewish community, and all of the negative opinions that he had about Jesus and His followers. If we will put ourselves in the place of these men, we will understand the faith and dedication that it takes to leave all and follow Jesus. At least think about it today. I think you will agree that this is a challenging thought. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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