Levi’s tale is about mercy, not money

By John Pearring

Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:9-14
Luke 5:27-32

In Jesus’ time, most tax collectors worked under the weight of sinful awareness. Tax collectors agreed to rob their neighbors with the weapon of the law. They could charge Jews whatever they calculated the person could pay with the Roman army at their backs.

“It’s just business,” they might say today. “Nothing personal. I’m just making a living. A good living, yes. It is what it is.”

Underneath the angst over money changers in the Temple and tax collectors emboldened by the Roman army, Jesus can get pigeonholed as an economic rebel. “Commerce, that’s what he’s concerned about,” says the money and power-obsessed worry warts. “Stop the money changers and lenders!”

Like all great misunderstandings, a fistful of truth in scripture gets used for other agendas. Rather than discuss the misgivings of economic systems, let’s focus on what Jesus actually said after he recruited Levi, the tax collector.

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners” (Luke 5:31-32).

Mark presents an identical quote for Jesus. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Matthew, the tax collector called Levi, wrote one of the gospels, too. He interestingly adds one phrase to these verses:

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).

Levi’s tale is about mercy, not money. It’s a counter-cultural message. God desires that we be perfect, and he doles out his mercy as a dual tool — calling us to holiness and showing mercy as the example of holiness. He wants specific things from us but responds with mercy as we fail.

As referenced in the notes of the USCCB scripture translation of Hosea, Samuel, Amos, Micah, Ecclesiastes, and Matthew, Jesus asks us to paint a word picture. Study “the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” Here’s a compilation of these six prophets and authors:

For it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Even though you bring me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; Rather let justice surge like waters, and righteousness like an unfailing stream. Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. Draw near for obedience, rather than for the fools’ offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil.

"Draw near," God urges.

The point Jesus is making, from what our Church teachings tell us and these scriptures emphasize, is that without God we don’t know how to keep from doing evil. God says we can avoid evil by concentrating on him, returning often to a steady intimacy.

Instead, we fashion our methods of repentance to please a God we incorrectly image. We keep our selfish ways and offer sacrifices to God to make amends. “Look, God! I’m doing all these things for you!” We mutter under our breaths so he can’t punish us.

We’re not asked to take a portion of our greed and give it to charity as a substitute for love. Or tie ourselves down to fruitless works because we don’t want to be allowed to run off and sin. “ See! I’m reined in!”

We’re asked to walk humbly with God and be loyal and obedient to him, turning to him in our disloyalty and disobedience for forgiveness and reformation. The true righteous, the saintly that we study in our Church, were still sinners who turned to God. Maybe more immediately than us and more willingly according to God’s will.

To do that, we must know him well and practice what he expects from us rather than conjure our estimations of pleasing God.

Merchants vary from legal eagles with hearts of gold to nefarious traffickers who skirt the law and market illicit goods. Hands-off manufacturers and commercial vendors who offer necessary items and services, stuff that can’t be bought anywhere else, historically take advantage of us with outrageous prices. The flow of goods is controlled to charge people more or flood the market to starve competitors. This is not new. What used to happen on the street happens in the digital landscape. Boundless hucksters squeeze money out of folks tricked and trapped by gambled promises. These are the ones that Jesus seeks out. Like Levi, he wants us.

Maybe it’s just a rare cheat that we do. Confessions are likely rampant with repentance over us exacting a dollar here and there from innocent and unknowing eyes.

“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” No kidding. And his mercy wipes our sin away.

I hesitate to name a specific broker’s victim-laden career path because any transaction sparkles with the allure to deceive. Commerce is rife with sinful opportunities.

Socialism and its bedfellows hold that the temptations of greed and graft discredit all forms of economic systems. People are bad because they are tempted, so eliminate the temptations. That’s not God’s solution to evil. For instance, the authority given to the Pharisees was meant for good. The authority isn’t evil. The misuse rends our hearts and souls. Temptations aren’t created from our desire to make a living.

Jesus speaks not about the economy but the illness and alliance with evil. He doesn’t wax and wane about market prices. He hearkens for the sinner to turn to him. 

Business is personal because we bring God to the marketplace. We are expected to make a living with our ears listening to the Holy Spirit and our temple bodies representing and witnessing the expectations of our brother and King.

Draw near for obedience, rather than for the fools’ offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil.

Draw near.