Oct. 14, 2017
In the Footsteps of the Great Physician — Part Two
Levi the tax collector was as much a Jewish social outcast as a leper—yet Jesus still called him to be His disciple. Drawing attention to its brevity and clarity, Alistair Begg examines Levi’s call and the immediate obedience that followed it. Jesus would then go on to share a table with sinners, a mark of identification with them. These events demonstrate Christianity’s uniqueness: instead of us reaching up to God, He reaches down and changes us.
Jesus Calls Levi
13He went out again beside the sea, and dall the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14eAnd as he passed by, he saw fLevi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
15And as he reclined at table in his house, many gtax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16And hthe scribes of1 the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, g“Why does he eat2 with tax collectors and sinners?” 17And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. iI came not to call the righteous, jbut sinners.”
Copyright © 2026, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
