Daily Bible Reading 23rd May 2026 // Luke 5:27-32
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The call of Levi (Matthew) gives another instance of the greater kind of miracle, that in the moral and spiritual realm. This is, indeed, Christ's real work, as He Himself indicates in 32, 'I came... to call sinners to repentance'. Levi was a tax gatherer, and it is clear from the gospels how deeply such people were held in contempt and distaste by the people. The system of tax collection was such that an unscrupulous man could extort a great deal of money from his luckless countrymen - and many did. They were therefore a despised and hated class of men, and by none more so than the Pharisees, in whose eyes they were flagrant, obvious sinners, and outcasts of the people. This is the kind of man Jesus called to discipleship on this occasion. Interestingly, Matthew's own account of his conversion is couched in different language from Luke's or Mark's. Luke says 'He saw a publican....'. Mark says, 'He saw Levi....'. But Matthew says, 'He saw a man, named Matthew....' Essentially, all say the same about him; but Matthew himself records a wonderfully illuminating fact. It is as if he were saying to us: 'When men looked on me, they saw the tax-gatherer, the sinner, the member of the despised class; but when Jesus looked on me, He saw a man - a man with a soul, a man in need, a man made in the image of God, capable of being made - re-made - into a life with meaning and purpose, capable of being recalled to the dignity of true personality. Can you imagine what that meant to me', cries Matthew? 'Do you wonder that I left all, to follow Him?' This is the simple truth of the matter; for Levi was called out of that cold, dark, lonely life of isolation, into fellowship with the Son of God.