Permanent Vacation!

After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. ~ Luke 5:27, 28

It's vacation season, so what does it take for you to pack up and go? My mother was meticulous about her packing. She had lists for each person: how many pairs of pants, what type of shoes, right on down to toothbrush and comb. The list sat with each person's designated pile of items in her room until the night before we were to leave. Once every pile consisted of the items listed, it was double-checked and loaded into a suitcase --with the list. The list would be referenced when it was time to pack again for our return home. And we were returning. 

The passage above makes it pretty clear: Matthew had no intention of returning to the place from which Jesus called him. Imagine, you're sitting at your desk one morning, or eating lunch in your cab, maybe you just got the last little tyke down for her nap. Jesus shows up. Follow Me. Okay, you're not gonna leave the children behind, but standing up from your desk, opening the door of your cab, and just walking off? Away from your livelihood? Away from the business you built up from the ground or the vocation that was your father's and his father's before him? Away from your coworkers who have been like family to you? Away from a guard shack you've passed through every day for the past sixteen years? No send off, no exit interview or letter of resignation. Where's Kevin? I think he took something over to Radiology. Away, and to what? Imagine explaining that to your spouse. Well, no, Jesus didn't say anything about personal days or a 401K. Bi-weekly? No, I don't think I get paid at all. It sounds like there's going to be a lot of travel involved, though. Maybe I can rack up those airline miles and we can go see your sister like we planned.

But if you have no intention of coming back, does any of that matter? There'd be no need for a list: what you've got in your hands and on your back is the whole of it. And when those things become unnecessary or too heavy, you put them down and keep it moving. When Jesus calls, He is faithful. Whatever we can need, whatever we will need along the way, He provides. 

In verse 29, Luke tells us Levi then took Jesus back to his house and threw a huge party. He'd just walked away from a cushy job fleecing the sheep of Israel to an unpaid position at Jesus' non-profit, and he celebrated? He didn't sit down at the kitchen table crunching numbers, telling the family how they were all going to have to cut back --take shorter showers and eat at home more often. He brought out the fatted calf, invited his --now, former-- coworkers. I mean, there can only be one explanation, right? No, he hadn't lost his mind. He was free!! I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that, maybe, for the first time in Levi's life, he was free --he felt free! So free he was willing to empty out all the cupboards in celebration despite having just walked off the job. So free he ignored the seating chart and sat the tax collectors next to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law next to the disciples. Okay, so I don't necessarily know that, but it seems they were all there. Matthew was free, and it appears he wanted everyone else to be free as well. Come and meet the One worth leaving everything for! Come and see the One who has freed me from stuff and societal norms. Come and listen to the words of One to whom I have turned. Come and never go back. Oh, and by the way, if I have anything to do with it, my children are coming with me.