Saturday after Ash Wednesday – Follow Me

We most often associate Lent as the season for ‘giving something up’, but simply giving something up for the sake of it can be an empty practice. Rather we should seek to create through this a space in our lives whereby we can take on, or recognise, something of more importance and greater worth. Sacrifice then, can play a wholly fruitful role in our lives if it is made in charity. Some sacrifices are less laudable. In today’s Gospel we can recognise both sides of the coin.

Luke recounts to us the calling of Levi, a tax-collector, later more familiar to us as Matthew. He is presumably a man who knows about ‘sacrifice’. To take on such a role effectively meant placing yourself outside of your own community as a despised collaborator of the Roman government. Tax collectors had a poor reputation among the Jews, to say the least. Taxes are never popular but those taxing on trade from their customs posts were doubly despised: their reputation for dishonesty was legendary. After they had a reached the quota demanded by the Roman authorities they could keep whatever else they made; it was a sure way to make money, and lots of it. So being a tax-collector made you wealthy, secure in possessions, but you had to be prepared to sacrifice family, friends, and the whole Jewish cultural-religious system in which you were raised. Men like Levi were prepared to make that sacrifice, and once made, there was no going back.

When Jesus sees this despised figure sitting at his booth He does not shun him. In fact, He does the unthinkable and asks that he follow Him. He gives him an opportunity that no one else can or will. Levi responds by following: “And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.” Leaving his post, Levi effectively abandons his old life but without promise of worldly security; his own people do not recognise him and his old post will soon be filled by another. It is a brave decision and his trust in Jesus is remarkable. He once sacrificed everything he had, his very reputation for material wealth, now he makes another choice involving great courage and risks the only thing he has left – his material security – for Christ.

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” In Jesus’ response to the Pharisees we see that no one is beyond Christ’s mercy, not even the tax-collector. We, however, regardless of the nature of our sins, are called to respond. Inevitably, a response to Christ’s call will involve sacrifice, possibly of a radical nature, but if we make the right choice and listen to Him then He will not abandon us and the rewards will be far greater that those that can be given by earthly powers. Like Levi, we all have a choice – sit in our ‘booths’ or rise and follow Him.