March 19, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow Me,‘ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house attended by a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.”

(Luke 5.27-29)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As in Matthew’s gospel and in Mark’s, the call of Levi as told by Luke follows the healing of the paralyzed man. It would seem, if we followed the story of Matthew and Luke, that Levi’s tax booth was just outside where Jesus was “at home teaching”. In Mark, we are given a different location that appears to be by the lake. Early in Jesus’ ministry is Jesus ever very far from water? Perhaps it was then that Jesus’ house in Capernaum wasn’t far from the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It would have thus been easy for Jesus to find Levi. In truth, Jesus didn’t need to find Levi. Jesus knew right where he was. Jesus passed by the tax booth many times a day when He was in Capernaum. I have no doubt that Jesus felt Levi’s gaze as He passed. Their eyes may have even met. Levi could have felt Jesus searching out his soul. Levi would have felt Jesus who was passing by as his Immanuel, God with me. Maybe there were times when Jesus passed by without looking but prayed in His spirit for Levi. He heard the things said about Levi by the same people who opposed Him. Similarly, Levi would have heard the same things about Jesus from the same people. They were kindred spirits, in a way. And when the silent prayer was done, Jesus would look back. He would see Levi looking after Him. Levi would avert his eyes seeing Jesus had looked back. All those days of Levi waiting and wondering…waiting and wondering until the day when waiting and wondering would cease.

That was the day when Jesus stopped passing by. Simon and Andrew, James and John would have stopped. Those following with interest hoping Jesus would again scatter some Word of God as the sower sowed seed so that the eater could eat stopped. Those following with interest to entrap Jesus with the very same words would stop. Those who had never paid any attention to who He was and who the others were or to what was happening just across the street stopped. It might have been as if heaven and earth stopped. The birds hushed their singing. The waters stopped lapping at the shore. The nearby marketplace fell silent. Maybe even the wind became so calm that the earth itself would gasp for air. We know it is said “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Jesus cleared a space. He made the path straight for the coming of the Lord. The Lord came straight to Levi. Levi saw Him. Levi always saw Him. Everyone “saw” Him but not everyone knew Him, cared about Him, cared for Him, gave Him a second thought or even wondered who and what He as so many others seemed to. Levi tried to look away, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t under a spell as if a demon compelled him. He was transfixed on the deep blue sea of Jesus’ eyes. Peter would see Jesus coming across the troubled waters in the early morning hour storm and say, “If it is You, Lord, then ask me to come to You.” Levi was certainly in his own stormy life with the waves of Jews and Romans rising against him. In Jesus, however, he saw a peace he had only dreamed of and struggled to earn. It was the very reason why he became a tax collector. He might one day make enough money to get away from it all. He could go somewhere where no one knew his name, his past or his hopes. He was caught like a bird in a cage. In Jesus’ eyes, he felt the call of freedom. It was a passing thought and a fleeting notion. He was waiting and wondering for the day “when.” That day, when Jesus left His house filled with those whose anticipation stifled the atmosphere, He walked up to Levi’s tax booth. He saw Levi. Levi saw Him. Jesus was not passing by. The hope of freedom was looming right in front of him. Looking into the eyes of the One who was searching through the storms of his life, Levi felt the peace that surpassed everything he had understood. So, doesn’t it make sense that if the one thing you truly longed for that would restore meaning and purpose to your life was offered to you that you would take hold of it and never let it?

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.