By Douglas K. Wilson, Ph.D.
Dean of Christian Studies, University of Mobile
FOLLOWED
Luke 5:4–11, 27–32
This week’s lesson focuses on adults who followed Jesus, both as His hand-picked disciples and as interested onlookers who wondered if Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.
In this chapter, we see professional fishermen, a Levitical tax collector and unnamed associates who recognized their own need to follow Jesus. At the same time, we note that those who were experts in the Scriptures observed Jesus, yet they were blind to His purpose to save sinful people.
In Luke 4, Jesus announced His ministry at the hometown synagogue in Nazareth, reading from Isaiah 61. Messiah, the Anointed One, will minister to “the poor … the blind … the captives” and “the oppressed” (Luke 4:18–19).
Pride keeps some of us from acknowledging our own poverty, blindness, captivity and oppression. On the other hand, we may blame others for our economic, physical or social or political condition.
Peter, James and John (4–11)
Luke introduces the fishermen of Jesus’ inner circle in this passage, though he makes no reference to Simon’s brother Andrew. Matthew and Mark record that Andrew (Matt. 4:18, Mark 1:16) was with Simon during this encounter with Jesus.
Based on a harmony of the Gospel accounts, this incident resulted in Jonah’s sons (Simon and Andrew) and Zebedee’s sons (James and John) following Jesus and becoming fishers of men.
With a crowd gathering around Him at the Sea of Galilee, Jesus requested to use Simon’s boat as a platform from which to speak. By taking the boat out a short distance from shore, Jesus would be able to speak to a wider audience than if He were standing on land.
Not only did Jesus request to use the boat, but He also gave fishing advice to a man who made his living catching fish. Simon submitted but with some hesitation. Afterward, Simon feared Jesus and asked Him to go away, acknowledging himself to be a sinful man.
Levi (27–28)
Our focal verses here provide a parallel account to those of Matthew 9 and Mark 2. Levi was likely a reference to his tribal ancestry, with Matthew being his personal name. Once again, we see a grown man working as a professional when he was invited to follow Jesus.
Tax collectors were not known to be generous and compassionate individuals. Levi became a generous man, inviting fellow tax collectors and others of questionable character to a banquet. Note that an encounter with Jesus transforms the lives of those who trust Him.
Luke points out here with Levi and later with Zacchaeus (Luke 19) that transformed tax collectors became generous after following Jesus.
Sinners (29–32)
In addition to inviting his fellow tax collectors, Levi hosted Jesus and others at his party. Jesus was keeping company with “tax collectors and sinners.” His legalistic observers — the scribes and Pharisees — had a problem with Jesus and His disciples associating with people of questionable character. At some point after the party, the Pharisees asked the disciples: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Note Jesus’ response. He affirmed the individuals who attended the banquet were broken, hurting, sick people. He was the doctor to whom the sick would come for healing.
Jesus was also communicating indirectly that the Pharisees and scribes were unaware of their own brokenness. As commentator Howard Marshall writes in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, Jesus was “challenging His listeners to self-examination regarding their own sickness.”
Consider the discomfort you experienced in the year 2020. Now imagine that 2021 and the rest of your life was like that. How would you adjust your priorities? Who would you follow, on social media and in actual relationships? These men from Bethsaida and Capernaum dropped everything to follow Jesus. Will you?
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