“CHOSEN”

13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Mark 2:13-14

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. There is none like Him; there is none that can compare to Him. In fact, He alone can take us to heaven; He alone can change our lives and give us hope. In this blog series, I’d like to highlight three essential truths that make Jesus the one and only amazing Savior.

Jesus’ ministry is moving from synagogues to the lakeside, essentially making the open air His church. This was so because of the healed leper’s disobedience. Since the man told the people about Jesus, the Lord could no longer enter a town without being mobbed by people wanting to be healed.

Mark 2 is divided into four parts, and today’s passage is the second, which immediately follows Jesus’ healing of a man who could not walk and declaring his sins to have been forgiven. Here, he calls Levi, whom He eventually chooses to become one of His disciples.

The passage begins with Jesus moving from Capernaum to the Sea of Galilee once again. Galilee was one of the great places of connectivity in the ancient world. From there, people could go to Europe and Africa, thus, all land traffic must go through this region. At the time, Galilee was ruled by Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great. Capernaum was the first town where import and export taxes were collected, and here, Levi (who was later renamed Matthew), worked.

While teaching, Jesus sees a tax collector going about his daily routine. Mark names this man “Levi” (le-wee, “joined”). He is the son of Alpaheus (“changing”). He is a Jew with a very un-Jewish occupation—collecting taxes from his fellow Jews on behalf of the Roman government. He is a regular collector (akin to a loan shark), stationed at an intersection of trade routes. His job is to collect tolls, tariffs, imports, and customs, likely for Herod Antipas—the local dictator who married his brother’s wife and put John the Baptist behind bars.

This passage shows us how Jesus sees everyone. In the middle of His sermon, He notices this man, just doing what he always did. I’m sure this wasn’t a chance; Jesus planned it long ago to choose Levi to be one of His disciples.

The same goes for all Christians. The Bible says that God has chosen us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). God sovereignly picked us out to live blameless lives for the glory of His name. This truth should bring us to our knees and make us in awe of the Almighty God who reigns over all of creation.

How grateful are you that God decided to reveal Himself to you?

Pursue the Savior today!

Photo by Shraddha Agrawal on Unsplash