As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. (Mark 2:14)
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus could just walk right up to a man and command him with two simple words, “Follow me”. The amazing thing is that for the most part people would receive this loving command and leave all and follow this Man. Think of the attraction Jesus had upon sinners as He passed their way. Think of Levi (also named Matthew) who was getting rich off the profit of collecting taxes from fellow Jews. No wonder these tax collectors were so despised. They charged over the Roman assessment and pocketed the rest. They were rich at their brother’s expense. Yet Jesus sought out those society basically gave up on. He walked right over to his office and said to Levi “Follow me”. And he left all and became a follower of Jesus right then and there!
Jesus is still calling sinners today to follow Him. His call goes out to one and all, even those nobody cares about or has given up on. Isn’t it great to know that Jesus has come our way and has given us a personal call to be His disciple? The next step is to “Put your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee”. And when you do, your life is changed, like Levi’s life was changed. Levi became a close follower of Jesus his whole life. He counted the cost and realized that there really is no cost in comparison to what you gain in Jesus Christ. He never bemoaned giving up his lucrative job and identifying with this prophet from Nazareth. And we will never regret what we have given up when we think of how our Lord suffered and died on our behalf to give us the blessings of abundant and eternal life.
The call for us is still to follow. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are instructed to follow Him, not only at salvation but in all of our life. Isn’t it interesting how we get so ahead of the Lord that we are in actuality asking the Lord to follow us? Yet the Lord has a beautiful blueprint for our lives if we would just get behind Him and let Him lead. We can trust our life to the Lord because His Word has said:
“I will go before you and make the crooked places straight...” (Isaiah 45:2)
At the beginning of this new year, let’s ask the Lord to go before us and then let’s follow where He takes us. It’s going to be a wonderful adventure as we follow His leading. Let’s get out of His way and let Him make those crooked places straight so we can enter Canaan’s land and partake of the milk and honey! Happy New Year!!
Louie