Leaving Everything Behind

Leaving Everything Behind

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

Caravaggio, THE CALLING OF SAINT MATTHEW

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. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. Luke 5:27

Piety

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live. Ezekiel 33:11

Study

There’s still time to change the road you’re on.

Detour!  There’s a muddy road ahead. Detour!

Sign!  Signs!  Everywhere a sign! 

Think about the subliminal messages we get from pop culture: music, movies, books, magazines, and more.  Contrast that with the books of the Hebrew Bible that make up our Old Testament and the sacred scriptures in the New Testament.  The message is really pretty similar.  Change. Follow me. 

The difference is which direction the cultural messages would have us turn.

Levi was a first-century Galilean (presumably born in Galilee, which was not part of Judea or the Roman Judaea province), the son of Alphaeus. By most accounts, he had made a pretty good career for himself.  As a tax collector, he would have been literate in Aramaic and Greek. His fellow Jews would have despised him for working on behalf of the belligerent, occupying army from Rome. Some might consider him a traitor.  

It is no wonder that the Pharisees objected to Jesus fraternizing with the enemy.  However, Jesus responded equally to requests from Romans or Jews or Gentiles.  No matter your background, Jesus saw everyone with the potential to change. This was no different from what the Jews studied in their sacred scriptures.

We encounter people in the New Testament who heard the message and did not change. They end up sad (the man with many possessions) or condemned to burn in hell (the rich man who did not help Lazarus at his gate).  We also encounter those like Levi/Matthew who hear the message and act upon it. They reap the rewards.

Action

Actions speak louder than words.  If Jesus just went around saying to change but shunned those who were the audience, he might have been seen as a hypocrite.

The reward for dropping his career in tax collecting was having a better relationship with Jesus.  Levi left everything behind. Peter walked away from his boats.

Re-read Isaiah.  Lent gives us a chance to take baby steps.  Remove from our lives some little thing — the speck of dust in our eye or the wooden beam.  After a few days, we might not miss it.  Maybe we fill in that time with something else.  Something good.  Something that brings us closer to Christ and our neighbors. After 30 days, we might never go back to that old habit or action.