Daily Devotional
"After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, 'Follow me.' And leaving everything, he rose and followed him."
Luke 5:27-28
Two words: “Follow me.” In the original language the command is a present imperative. It is not an invitation to spend the afternoon with Jesus. It means follow Me and keep on following Me for the rest of your life. And Luke adds a detail Matthew is too modest to mention about himself: he left everything.
Consider the cost. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen, and they kept their boats; after the resurrection they even went back to fishing for a time. Matthew had no such safety net. A man could not walk away from a tax contract he had bid on and then ask for it back on Thursday. When Matthew stood up from that booth, the door closed behind him. Following Jesus was not an addition to his life. It was a new life.
Here we see both sides of Christ’s love. His love is accepting: He came to Matthew right where he was. His love is also transforming: He loved Matthew far too much to leave him where he was. Accepting love without transforming love slides into indulgence and, eventually, neglect. Transforming love without accepting love badgers people until they reject it. Only Jesus holds both perfectly. He sits down with you at your table, and then He says, “Follow me.” The same voice that welcomes you is the voice that calls you to change, and you can trust it, because “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
Today's Challenge
Which do you find harder to believe: that Jesus accepts you as you are, or that He intends to change you? Why? What has following Jesus cost you, and what might He be asking you to leave at the booth this week?
Prayer
Father, thank You that Your Son both welcomes me and refuses to leave me as I am. Forgive me when I want only His acceptance without His call, or when I treat His call as a list of demands without His welcome. Give me Matthew's readiness to rise and follow, and to keep following, even when it costs me. Finish the work You started in me. Amen.
