This man had both a Jewish name and a Greek name. His Hebrew name was Levi. This was a name with a tremendous heritage. He had been named after one of the sons of Jacob. If was from the tribe of Levi that the priesthood was descended.

He also had a Greek name, mentioned in Matthew 9:9. His Greek name was "Matthew" (Gift of God"). He might have taken this name after his conversion.

I imagine that when Levi was born his parents had high hopes for him. Perhaps he would be a rabbi or a scribe. But somewhere along the line he went astray. And he became a tax collector.

As Levi is introduced to us, he is sitting at his tax booth. Tax-collectors don’t necessarily rate at the top of my list of favorite people, but they do not have the stigma today that they had in that day.

Levi was not merely working for the I.R.S. He was an agent for the Romans. He had purchased a franchise from the Roman government which gave him the authority to collect taxes within this district. He was working for the very people who had subjugated his country.

His contract with Rome required that he collect a certain amount of taxes. Anything over that amount he could keep for himself. This meant that he made a profit by overcharging people on their taxes. There was a great deal of abuse involved. He took bribes from the rich and he extorted money from the poor. He was hated by everyone. He was considered to be a turncoat - a traitor to his country. The only people who would have anything to do with him were other tax collectors and prostitutes. He was excluded from the synagogue and the temple. He was forbidden to speak in a court of law. His word would not be believed.

There were two types of tax collectors. They were both hated, but one was despised even more than the other.

The first was the general tax collector. He collected three general taxes.

The second type of tax collector was the way-side collector. He was able to collect taxes on imports and exports, on anything bought or sold, on roads, bridges and harbors. He could even invent taxes. He might charge a tax on the axles on your wagon, the number of wheels on your cart, or on your animals. He could even charge a pedestrian tax if he saw you walking on a road. He could tax the fish you caught and he even had the right to open your packages or private letters to see if they dealt with any business that might be taxed. The abuses were unlimited.

Levi was this second type of tax collector. And as Jesus comes up, he is sitting by the road, waiting for people to come by so that he could tax them.

If I were looking for a qualified man to be a disciple of Jesus, to be one of His biographers and to be one of the preachers of the gospel, I never would have considered Levi. But then, I probably wouldn’t have considered you, either. Or me.

If you can find one sufficient reason for Jesus calling you to Himself, then you haven’t understood what it means to be called by Him.

There were a lot of surprised people that day. The crowd was surprised. And the disciples were surprised. But the most surprised person of all must have been Levi.

The call which Jesus gave to Levi was probably the shortest, least motivated speech ever given to anyone except for one thing - Levi followed. Sometimes we forget about the supernatural power of the message that we preach. We get so involved in the packaging of that message that we forget the absolute power of the message itself.

James Rand, at the beginning of his career, worked as a salesman for a banking equipment firm. He went to see Frank Muntzy, a publisher and financier who was opening some banks in Washington and Baltimore. In their meeting, Rand was so persistent and so persuasive that Muntzy wrote him a letter of introduction and sent him to his Washington office.

Rand was so excited about his product that, by the time he got to the head of the Washington office, he forgot all about the letter. Exercising that same persistent zeal, he went on to sell $25,000 worth of bank equipment without ever once bringing out the letter. It was only when he got home that he remembered the letter and opened it. This is what it said: "Learn all you can from this man, but don’t buy anything from him."

We carry a letter from the Father and it is a positive letter. But sometimes we spend so much time trying to give our sales pitch that we forget to give the letter.

Levi’s response was whole-hearted. He didn’t stop to grab a few bags of gold. He didn’t even try to talk to Jesus about helping to finance His ministry. He merely obeyed. Our problem is that we try to take all of our baggage with us when we follow Jesus.

Did you ever see a track star carrying a suitcase? You don’t win races when you carry baggage with you. The only way you win races is by getting rid of anything that slows you up. This is what Levi did. He had a great business going. All he did was sit around and take money from people. But he left it all to follow Jesus.

I don’t think that they were really trying to find an answer to this question. This is really a rebuke.

Jesus uses the analogy of a doctor. Healthy people don’t need a doctor. They do not make hospitals for healthy people. You don’t get up in the morning and say, "My, I’m feeling good this morning! I think that I shall go check into the Emergency Room."

This is an indictment against the scribes and Pharisees. They are claiming that the tax-collectors and sinners are the sickest sort of people. By their own reasoning, it is these people who need a physician.

The analogy is simple. It is the job of a physician to work with sick people. By the same token, it is the job of a forgiver to work with people who need forgiveness. Jesus went to people who had the deepest need.

The words of Jesus are a rebuke. If effect, He is asking, "Are you a doctor who has no desire to cure the sick? Are you a physician who only accepts appointments with healthy people?" They have come to point out the disease, but they want nothing to do with the cure. They thought that their job ended with the delivery of a diagnosis.

All too often, this thinking has invaded the church. We see churches which have doctors who don’t want to treat sick people. Can you imagine going to a hospital and having them say, "You can’t come in here! This place is only for people who have overcome their sicknesses. You go home and get healthy and then you can come back."

The church is supposed to be a place where you come to find help for your hurts. It is the place where you can find strength for your weaknesses. And it is the place where you find forgiveness for your sins.

Jesus did not come for healthy people. He did not come for righteous people. He came for sinners. This is good news. If He had only come for the righteous, then He wouldn’t have come for you. Or me. The problem is that there are many who think that they are righteous. They will not see their need. And because they can’t see their need, they will not come to the One who can help.

This is the negative aspect of the gospel. The gospel is good news. But before you can appreciate the good news, you have to hear the bad news. The bad news is that you are lost in sin. You are under the condemnation of a righteous God. You are without hope. And it is only when you believe the bad news that you will come to the Great Physician to be healed.

When I was growing up, my family did not have much money. When clothes began to wear out, my mother would take a patch and put it on the place where the hole was. And there were times when she was putting patches on patches.

How are we to understand this parable? Remember that Jesus is explaining why His disciples do not fast. He is illustrating His answer through this parable.

In those days, clothes were made either from cotton or from wool. Both of these fabrics would shrink. If you had an old robe with a big hole in it and patched it up with a piece of new cloth, then the next time you washed it, the patch would shrink and rip the robe. The result would be an even bigger hole. If you wanted to patch an old robe, then you had to patch it with an old patch.

Here is what Jesus is saying. There is no way that the things which He is teaching can fit into the ritualistic systems of the Pharisees. His message of an internal holiness and a repentance from sin is like a new patch being placed upon an old garment. It will tear apart their system of legalism.

Check out your wineskins. Are they looking a little worn around the edges? Stop patching up old wineskins. Come to the new wine.