Being the Change
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Luke 5:27-32
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022126.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus offers another way, a change of life, a conversion to Levi and he takes it. Levi takes the extreme risk of leaving everything behind to follow Jesus. In making this decision, he invited his community together to celebrate his transformation. Included in the bunch were his fellow tax collectors. They were his tribe; the group of people bound by their profession with all the pros and cons it brings. They made a lucrative income, but, because of their power and abuses, they were looked down upon. Levi was leaving it all behind. He was moving from a life of known comforts and struggles into a new unknown with its own set of challenges and awards. Those that were closest with him wanted to be there for him, even though, in some form, he’s leaving them behind too.
The Pharisees and the scribes didn’t know all this. We can make assumptions on what they would have thought, but they never even gave the chance to know otherwise. Their judgements are on the surface, they play into the obvious stereotypes of their time and do not see beyond it. They cannot see that tax collectors are just like them, human and created in the image and likeness of God. To the Pharisees, they were just something to be objectified. Something to fill a role in their narrative. The Pharisees are the good ones, and the tax collectors and others like them are the bad ones. And Jesus, for associating with them, is one and the same with them.
Jesus understands the Pharisees perspective and speaks to them from that vantage point. Jesus implies in what he says that the tax collectors are sick and sinners and the Pharisees are righteous and healthy. But, in saying such things, he’s really saying, you have made them sick by how you haven’t accepted them and neglected them. He had come to heal the sickness caused by society’s ostracization, judgments, and purity codes. Jesus came to restore the balance and reveal what was hidden under the surface. Those who are glorified by society are just as susceptible to sin as those who are not. Those that thrive within the systemic sins of society have more to lose by fighting against it. Jesus chose to work most with those who could be more instruments of change; those who were more open to change and see a new and better world.
You can drive more change from the top, but often the type of change that’s needed is hard for those in power to commit to because they have something to lose. Jesus too calls us today to be instruments of change in the world; to sow seeds of love. We have the choice like all the characters in today’s story. Are you going to sit on the sidelines and silently judge? Or are you going to transform your life like Levi and advocate and befriend those in need like Jesus?
