The Gospel - "Follow Me"!

Luke 5:27-32 New International Version

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. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Tuesday - February 15

Using Martin Luther’s distinction of the Law and the Gospel, what do you think that the Gospel is here? “Follow me” sounds like a command (law). But here “follow me” is the Gospel! Why? Levi is a tax collector (who is probably also Matthew, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew). He worked for the Romans collecting taxes from his fellow Jews. Even if he was honest and did not take too much, he was still considered a traitor and a religious outsider. Yet here is Jesus calling HIM to follow and be a disciple. This is called “election.” Jesus freely elected an unworthy sinner to be a part of His kingdom! That is what baptism is for you and me! That is the Gospel!