The Call of Levi

S. Mark ii. 13–17

It was not an uncommon thing to assume a new name upon adopting a fresh calling. Simon was named Peter, Saul became Paul. In like manner, Levi, rejoicing in the change from a life of shame to one of glory and honour, signalised the step and the power by which it had been brought about, by calling himself Matthew, “the gift of God.” x Comparing together the Synoptist Evangelists, we find that the first describes the call of Matthew, the second and third of Levi, under precisely similar circumstances, and there can scarcely be a question of their identity. S. Chrysostom so little doubted it that he used the variety of designation to illustrate an important principle, viz., that men should be as severe as they like towards themselves, but should draw a veil over the shame of others, and conceal their offences if followed by repentance. S. Mark and S. Luke, not wishing to blazon abroad the fact that the Apostle and Evangelist had belonged to the hated class of publicans, give him his old name, by which he had ceased to be known at the time when they wrote; but S. Matthew, thinking only of the goodness of God, and regarding himself as “a miracle of mercy,” is careful to recall the fact, that he who is now the honoured Apostle was once the despised tax-gatherer.

In all the Roman Provinces, no doubt, it was considered a hardship to be compelled to pay taxes to the Imperial Treasury; but to the Jews it was inconceivably galling, because it entailed a surrender of their most cherished prerogative. To be called upon, again, to acknowledge their alien subjection at the bidding of their own countrymen, was to make the cup of bitterness a thousandfold more bitter. As God’s chosen people they refused at heart to admit anything but a Theocracy. The arm of Rome was too strong to be resisted by open rebellion, but they made no pretence of disguising their hatred of her authority. Her official publican was “the Pariah of Palestine.” Nothing was too bad for him. He was an outcast from society; his offering was regarded as defiled and excluded from the Korban; 2 his evidence was inadmissible in a court of justice; and contracts entered into with him were not binding on the conscience. “Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican” gathered up in a recognised proverb the idea that all communication with such an one must cease.

Notwithstanding all this, Christ chose a publican to be an Apostle and to wait on His Ministry. He found him at Capernaum, in his toll-booth on the shore of the lake, where it was his duty to take toll for the fisheries, and assess the value of merchandise passing through the port. Thus he belonged to a class of publicans especially hated, because extortion was more easily practised in custom-house dues than in the poll-tax, which was fixed. It finds expression in the Talmudic saying, “Woe to the ship which sails without having paid its dues.”

Now it is quite possible that the real turning-point in Levi’s career was the cure of the paralytic. If he had witnessed that, his heart would be touched by the great stress laid upon the forgiveness of his sins. It would awaken him to a realisation of that, which the common belief, that repentance was impossible to men of his calling, had made him forget; and he may then and there have resolved to break with the past on the first opportunity. The Evangelists, at any rate, have linked the two events most closely together, and followed up our Lord’s public declaration of forgiveness with an even more forcible illustration, in His choice of “a publican and sinner” to be numbered with His disciples. “As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him.” Porphyry and Julian assailed the truth of the narrative, on the ground that it was irrational to suppose that a man would quit a lucrative calling so suddenly at the bidding of a passer-by. But they made no allowance for the fame of Jesus, none for the magnetic influence of Him “Who spake as never man spake.” It is very probable, too, that the lake-side had been the scene of His teaching often before, and that Levi’s attention had been aroused by His burning words, as well as by the miracle which exhibited His pardoning mercy. And so the instant the right hand was held out, he eagerly grasped it, and left all behind.

His first act was a manifestation of gratitude. His brother Evangelists record, what with singular modesty he veiled in his own account, that the “great feast” that followed was given by him. It marks the depth of his sincerity, that he lost no time in making an effort for the deliverance of his fellow-sinners. He invited as guests those who had shared his shame, in the hope that they might become partakers of his joy. It was doubtless a rude shock to Pharisaic prejudice that Jesus should accept the discipleship of a publican; but it must have raised a storm of reproach and anger that He should sit down to meat with a whole company of them, and that, too, on one of the fast-days of the week. It gave rise at once to a twofold question, the first touching the principle of associating with sinners, the second on the propriety of observing the fasts. The former alone belongs to this portion of the narrative. “How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?”

Our Lord was ready with an answer. It was a recognised maxim in their oral law, and it had its echo in heathen writers in abundance, “The physician’s sphere of work lies among the sick.” Translated into the spiritual life, it says that the mission of the Redeemer is not to the righteous, but to sinners — ay, to the very publicans from whom they had turned away. There is surely a severe rebuke to His gainsayers underlying the words. “You,” He seems to say, “are the recognised guardians of the people, but ‘the diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.’ I on the contrary, ’ am the Good Shepherd,’ and care for My sheep. I have come to seek and to save that which was lost, and I rejoice more over this poor publican who confesses his sins, than over the ninety and nine who think themselves safe within the fold. ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”

Note: The full name is Mattathias; Theodore, Doritheus, Theodotus, Adeodatus, and Nathanael, are all equivalents in different languages. A few of the Fathers refused to identify Levi and Matthew, but it is impossible to believe that two publicans could have been called at the same time and place, and that one should have become so famous and the other be no more heard of.

Note: This illustration is taken from Abraham’s Festival Lectures, No. xxxv.

Note: It was obviously advantageous generally to employ natives of the province, as better acquainted with the people and their occupations. We may witness a faint image of the relationship of a Jew to the publican in that of an Irish tenant to an Irish agent employed by an English landlord to evict him.

Note: This term was used of the offering, S. Mark vii. u, and of the place where it was received. S. Matt, xxvii. 6.

Note: Edersheim, i. 515-518, gives many particulars of the office, and says that Levi must have belonged to the Moches or douanier class, whose office was connected entirely with rates on merchandise. The ordinary publican was called Gabbai.

Note: The original of verse 13 expresses this by the imperfect tense, tfpxero, used to go, and 15i5acn<ei>, was wont to teach.

Note: Cf. p. 48. 2 Stier mentions Antisthenes, Diogenes, Pausanias, and Ovid. To repentance” is absent from the best MSS.