Leaving Everything Behind

February 25, 2012

Saturday After Ash Wednesday

If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. Isaiah 58:9b-11

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Luke 5:27-28

Piety

From "Things We Leave Behind" by Michael Card

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQY2auav8Qw

Matthew was mindful of taking the tax, pressing the people to pay. Hearing the call, he responded in faith followed the Light and the Way. Leaving the people so puzzled he found, the greed in his heart was no longer around and it's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.

Every heart needs to be set free, from possessions that hold it so tight. 'Cause freedom's not found in the things that we own. It's the power to do what is right. With Jesus, our only possession, giving becomes our delight. We can't imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.

We show a love for the world in our lives by worshiping goods we possess. Jesus has laid all our treasures aside "love God above all the rest." 'Cause when we say 'no' to the things of the world we open our hearts to the love of the Lord and it's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.

Study

What would it take for us to make a dramatic change in our lives? The disciples left everything behind to follow Jesus. How would people react if we did the same?

Imagine explaining that move to your spouse and family. The encounters described are relatively brief. Levi does not have to submit his resume to Jesus and await an interview. He does not have to rely upon references or a background check. He is sitting at work one day and has a relatively short encounter with Jesus that is not detailed in the Gospels. Yet when he is commanded and requested to follow Jesus, he leaves everything, follows Christ and then throws a banquet for the Lord.

There are two parallels to consider. First, Levi reacts much in the same fashion as Peter, James and John. These fisherman left behind their father and their boats and their nets to follow Jesus and to become fishers of men. This action is part of Luke’s theme of complete detachment from material possessions.

The second parallel is to the banquet in the Prodigal Son parable. Levi goes one step further after leaving behind his career as a tax collector. He holds a banquet for his new boss the Jewish carpenter to which he invites sinners -- not unlike the father in the parable of the prodigal son who throws a banquet for the son who was lost and now returned. The Pharisees react to this feast like the son who had remained with the father because they question why such an honor is bestowed on the son who left and squandered his inheritance. Here again the outward actions are hard for the public to understand.

Action

Usually, we set out to pursue our own agenda -- build a career, find a life-partner, get married, raise a family save for retirement. However, Jesus is the disrupter in the lives of the fishermen and the tax collector and the rest of the disciples and us. As Isaiah lays the foundation, the idea of discipleship is the Ideal of leaving behind our own agenda and taking up the agenda of the Lord. If we hold back from following our own pursuits or seeking our own interests, then we shall reap the worthy reward.

What personal ambition or goal can you set aside and replace with a Gospel calling during this Lenten season? Lord, teach us to walk in your ways, not our own.