The gospel is so much greater than self-sufficiency because we can’t do this in our effort, but only through clinging to Jesus and His work on the cross because 1 Peter teaches us He died for our self-sufficiency, He died for our insecurities, He died for our inadequacies, He died for self motivation, He died for our sins, once, for all, and He didn’t die for it so that we can go back to self-sufficiency. That is why Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It is why He says, “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.” Did you know there is rest in Jesus?

Sometimes people think when we go to Jesus we need to get our life in order, we need to be better, we need to work harder so we start going to church, start reading the Bible, start praying for our friends, and somehow we think if we are doing more then Jesus is going to love us more and if we are doing less Jesus is going to love us less, and it feels like this constant yo-yo. but that isn’t the gospel. The gospel is Jesus comes to us, Jesus embodies all the good that could ever be done, Jesus takes all the bad that could ever be done, He dies for it, He overcomes it, and that is why He says all who are thirsty come to me and you will never thirst again. He has done it all.

Now here is where we struggle. When we read Scripture and see that Jesus has done it all we feel this weight removed, we are thankful, but we are also paralyzed a little because we are not sure what to do and we over analyze it. Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? I am doing better than that guy? But she looks like she is doing better than me and we start to panic. Some of us just give up and stop all together, some of us start working harder, but either way it doesn’t feel like Jesus has quenched our thirst, it doesn’t feel like His burden is light and His yoke is easy, it doesn’t feel like we have found rest. It feels like we are exhausted.

Do you know who the tax collectors are? They are the traitors. They are some of the most corrupt people at this time. They are Israelites who have abandoned their devotion to Israel and now work for Rome. They cheat, manipulate, take bribes from the rich, and take advantage of the poor. They work for the people who have enslaved their people and the collect taxes. Nobody likes people associated with taxes. Right Dan? Jesus is not only talking with him, but goes to his house with other tax collectors which is a sign of friendship in their culture. This is highly offensive to the religious people at the time.

There are a couple of observations we can make about this passage. The first is how Levi responds. What does verse 29 tell us? Levi throws a party. It is a simple way of being others centered. He invites people into his home, invites over other tax collectors, invites Jesus and throws a party. Some of you didn’t know you were so others centered. You have been throwing parties and living out Scripture and you didn’t know. It is that easy. Just as a side note isn’t that a great picture of Jesus, sitting and dining with the people who were considered the worse types of people? Sometimes Jesus is presented as someone who is unapproachable, distant, intimidating, and yet Luke 5 describes him at a party with tax collectors.