Open Table

Good morning to everybody here in the auditorium. Good morning to everybody watching and joining us in venue and online and on the TLC app. My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here and I am so excited this morning because we are starting a brand new series we call Meals with Jesus where we are going through the gospel of Luke and looking at every single meal that is mentioned in this gospel.

And why are we doing this? Well for one reason, I don't know if you've noticed, but we are at a cultural moment right now in America where food is just huge culturally. Watch this, a recent survey says 76% of Americans say they enjoy talking about food and restaurants and sharing their recent discoveries. 53% of Americans say they watch at least one food show on TV every single week and there's so many, have you noticed? Shows like Top Chef, No Reservations, Man vs. Food, Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef, Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins and many many more.

Somebody said food is the new fashion. I mean it's gotten to the point people are even posting more food pictures on social media than pictures of their own children. This is a real thing and you know what? I think in some ways we're just rediscovering what the ancient world knew and that's this meals are fun and meals are very meaningful. Meals are where you really get to know one another. Meals are where you start family traditions.

In this series as I said we're gonna look at the meals with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament. They are the books where we learn about Jesus. Luke is one of the four Gospels and 20% of Luke's Gospel is about Jesus at meals. One scholar says in Luke's Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal at a meal or coming from a meal.

Now why would Luke structure his gospel this way? Well meals are the perfect way to get to know somebody aren't they? I mean even today if you want to get to know somebody you say hey let's grab a cup of coffee sometime you know let's grab some lunch together and get to know one another and Luke knows that and he structures his gospel so that we get to know Jesus at these meals.

You see the chart there in your notes there's all kinds of breakfasts and lunches and dinners with Jesus all through Luke. In fact it turns out this is one of the criticisms that Jesus's opponents have against him. He likes to eat too much. He quoted his own critics the son of man has come eating and drinking and you say look at him a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Not only did Jesus spend a lot of his time at meals he used meals as a metaphor in his teaching a lot he said things like I give you a kingdom that you may what? Eat and drink at my table in the kingdom. As another scholar says of Jesus Jesus did not go around merely talking about eating and drinking he went around eating and drinking a lot and that's why I want to do this series.

I think at the end of the series looking at all ten meals of Jesus in Luke you're going to feel like you know Jesus a lot better you're going to feel like you sat down with him at a meal and you gain nourishment for your own souls. So are you ready for this? This is intriguing isn't it? So let's look at the first meal mentioned in the gospel of Luke today in Luke 5:27–35. This is the story of Levi's party and there's three important truths I see about Jesus in this first meal you can jot these down in your message notes and the first one is this Jesus values people that others despise.

Jesus values people that others despise and this is important because if you've ever looked down on yourself maybe you struggle with despising yourself or maybe other people have despised you through your life you're gonna gain a lot of just super encouraging news from this. This happens very early in the ministry of Jesus so he's trying to establish what he's like and it says after this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi and this is the same person also called Matthew in the Bible by the way just like today a lot of people had two names and used both of them Levi is the same tax collector as Matthew and he's sitting at his tax booth.

Now stop right there for just a second what I want to do this morning because this is kind of a familiar story for a lot of us is I want to kind of blow your mind with some some info about this that's sort of behind the scenes that you may not know. It's a tax collector now these days nobody really likes tax collectors right you probably don't exactly feel warm feelings when I say the initials IRS or April 15th which just happened recently but there's no comparison with how much tax collectors were absolutely hated in the first century.

Why? Well Rome at this point ruled Israel right so how did they collect tax? Well instead of having Romans go out and collect tax they always had in all their provinces the locals collect the tax and the Romans would sell the franchise sell the ability to collect tax to the highest local bidder and so whoever won the franchise they got a right to go around through the countryside and collect tax in that region.

And here's the way they made money they gave to Rome a percentage kind of a cut of what Rome demanded but then they could charge over and above that whatever they wanted to as their own private kind of profit. So the tax collectors gave Rome a percentage as Rome's cut but then added whatever profit margin they wanted and that meant they got incredible wealth. Tax collectors could stop anyone at any time for any tax inspection so you can imagine how much people just loathe this.

No search warrant just stop right there surprise tax inspection let me see if you got anything you need to pay tax on and they could charge tax about just about anything. Taxes collected included poll tax, letter tax, produce tax, market tax, export tax, import tax, land tax, income tax, ground tax and the ground tax covered anything you grew on your own ground like you had to pay one tenth of any grain you grew in your own yard you had to pay one fifth of any fruit you grew on your own fruit trees you had to pay one fifth of any wine you made yourself to the government.

And then when you left your house there was wheel tax, axle tax, road tax, cart tax, border tax, bridge tax and I could go on and on and there was any kind of tax basically if they stopped you on the road with one of those surprise you know tax checks or if they came knocking on the door they could find something to tax and then when you couldn't pay all these taxes they became loan sharks and they charged up to 50% interest or more and if you didn't pay they would send their thugs to break your legs or rough you up a little bit.

This is true that was kind of like the tax mafia so when people looked at tax collectors they not only saw what we saw you know somebody taking our money they saw somebody who was a crook an extortionist a mobster and a traitor a Roman collaborator and that meant tax collectors were actually banned from the synagogue which was the Jewish weekly service that they went to for teaching and learning from the word it was kind of like our equivalent of our church service.

They couldn't go to synagogue no you can't go because you are a bad tax collector. Not only that they were banned from the temple consequently the only people who would hang around with tax collectors were other tax collectors and other people marginalized by religious society like prostitutes and watch this now even within that subculture there was strata there was a caste system.

Watch this the first type of tax collector was called a gabai and in those days the gabai was sort of a general tax collector they could like to the land tax the income tax kind of those big-time people who collected the big annual taxes. Zacchaeus is somebody in the Bible who was one of these and later on in the series we're gonna meet Zacchaeus but then under the gabai there were some small-time tax collectors and they were called the mokus and they dealt with all the sort of day-to-day tax collection duties import road tax, poll tax, axle tax, bridge tax and they were considered the rankest of the tax collectors.

And they were two kinds of mokus there was a great mokus and a little mokus and you were considered a great mokus if you employed people because that meant you had a franchise you put your people at the tax collector collection stations you didn't do it yourself but you were a little mokus if you just kind of had to sit at the tax collection station by yourself you didn't have any staff it was just you and maybe this is because you were new to it couldn't afford staff but probably this was because you didn't want to pay staff you were that greedy you were like no I'm just gonna work it and I'm gonna collect it all myself.

And if you were a little mokus you were the most hated of all the hated people you were the worst tax collector of all the tax collectors and Levi was a little mokus. There were some writings that said the little mokus were the bottom rung of the social ladder some existing Jewish writings at the time say the little mokus were just a shade below prostitutes not a shade above a shade below and those same writings said repentance for them is impossible they've gone too far forgiveness could never happen for them they're unforgivable people.

So if you want to know how far God goes to rescue people Jesus very early in his ministry goes all the way down to the very very very very very lowest person. Now some of you're going how do you know Levi was a little mokus? It doesn't say that here in verse 27 in the text it does did you notice it says he was sitting at his tax booth so we know he was a little mokus and by the way let me let you picture this we know just where his tax booth was.

The Bible says this happens in a village called Capernaum show you a map this was a border town at the top of the Sea of Galilee there was a border that ran right through the sea like the California Nevada border runs right through Lake Tahoe very similar to that and archaeologists have found the Roman mile marker that stood right where the border tax booth would have been on the road the Via Mars that ran right through Capernaum and Levi's booth would have been somewhere right next to this marker so we actually know pretty much exactly where this story happened.

But he was a little mokus the dregs the unforgivable probably the most hated man in Capernaum but Jesus notices him. Watch this the word saw means not just to notice but to gaze intently and in Luke's writings both in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts which we're gonna study this fall he uses this word a lot where Jesus just comes up and he gazes at somebody.

Now this is gonna make you uncomfortable in the first place right somebody anybody comes up to you they're starting to walk past and they just go and they just start gazing at you but if you're a little mokus this is really gonna make you uncomfortable because most people are trying to avoid eye contact with you kind of like how when you're in school and you got a tough teacher you avoid eye contact with the teacher because you don't want them to call on you right you don't want to make contact with a little mokus because what's he gonna do hey come over here for a spot tax check?

So the only people who ever stared down a little mokus were people who were about to just erupt right just go all crazy on him and he's like oh here it comes again and Jesus stares him down and of all the things that Jesus could have said Levi I never expected this new rabbi in town to look at him and say follow me. What? Yeah you you know what you're exactly the kind of person that I'm looking for to be my disciple I want you come on let's go. What me? Nobody ever says that kind of thing to me and it says Levi got up left everything and followed him he just goes running after Jesus.

Now you know what I love about this he doesn't know all the theology about Jesus he doesn't really even know exactly what Jesus is teaching but he has that tug that sense of calling and he knows he wants to follow and I have to tell you sometimes as a pastor I get a little bit worried in our era that people who are attracted to Jesus go oh I can't follow Jesus till I have all my questions answered and all my questions about Jesus all my questions about God all my questions about the Trinity all my questions about predestination all my questions about heaven and hell all my questions about inspiration all my questions about the church and all my questions about the history of the church and all my questions about the church's position on all the currently hot-button issues in politics and then maybe I'll decide to follow him.

Matthew Levi didn't have any of those answers all you need to really know if you are deciding whether or not to follow Jesus is whether you want to follow Jesus that's all you really need to know and then while you're going along the way with Jesus he's going to teach you and bring you along in all of these other ways.

And so Jesus notices people that others just ostracize but then he goes further point two Jesus befriends people that others ostracize he befriends him and gets into his inner circle. Check this out next verse then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house and a large crowd of who tax collectors and others were eating with them just the other people I think Levi was like you have got to meet this guy and so I invites all his other friends who were a bunch of other tax collectors you got the gabay eyes and the big mokus and a little mokus and the only other people would hang out with them were prostitutes.

A lot of times in the Bible do you remember that tax collectors and prostitutes were kind of the lowest dregs and they're the people associated with Jesus it's because they're the only ones that would hang out with one another they were on the same social acceptability scale which was like zero. So I want you to picture this it says it was at his house and it was a large crowd so even as a little mokus Levi was already very wealthy because this must have been a large place.

Now I really want you to picture this because I really think we just don't we skip right over this what was this great banquet like and why would religious people have found this so offensive? Check this out look look at the screen. Daniel Rogoff was the restaurant and wine critic for the Jerusalem Post which is a daily newspaper in Israel he's passed away now just passed away a couple of years ago but he was also the senior writer for gourmet and wine magazine and as kind of a personal hobby since he lived in Jerusalem changed between Jerusalem and New York kind of every year and he decided you know what I want to find out what these banquets were like they're mentioned a lot in rabbinical literature and in early Christian literature what were these really like?

And he found some things that might really surprise you he said they resembled Roman banquets more than anything else. In other words this was not let's get a nice pizza from pizza my heart this was really elaborate. He says the middle classes and the rich in Judea trying to mimic the Greeks and the Romans he says a large banquet in Roman Judea lasted 10 hours or longer this is bigger than Thanksgiving.

He said they started with a first course of hors d'oeuvres of small fowl and it's not like they each had a little wing they each had several pigeons and game hens and ducks and so on and then usually there was some kind of entertainment intermission as you digested that there were acrobats there were dancers there were fire eaters there were animal trainers there was a ventriloquist who went around with a little Marcy no that's not in here that but it was like a mini Cirque du Soleil thing and then that was followed by a second course of soup and appetizers that was followed by the main course of roast meat and fine wine.

Now stop right there here's a kind of graduate level question what kind of meat do you think they didn't eat at these banquets? This is in Judea what didn't they eat there? They didn't eat pork. What else didn't they because it wasn't kosher? Shellfish somebody said wrong. Daniel Rogoff says that's what he expected to find in fact there is ample evidence that they lavishly enjoyed non kosher food there's lists of the menu of feast at King Herod's banquets and he had shellfish he had shrimp and lobster and pork.

How could they have gotten away with that in Roman Judea? Well as Daniel Rogoff points out the Pharisees wouldn't go to these banquets and so everybody else is like who's gonna criticize us the Pharisees aren't here we can have whatever we want isn't that fascinating? So that's probably the kind of stuff that they're having here and what did they eat all this with? This might surprise you when we were in the Israel Museum about a year and a half ago or so when was that about two years ago something like that but they had a special room that was a display of first century Judean eating implements because we think of them just eating with their hands and so on they they used silverware they used glasses in the early first century in Judea that was the first era of mass-produced glassware.

And so in other words they eat with stuff that looks a lot like stuff that you might have in a nice silver setting in your own house. One of the things they said at the museum that has surprised archaeologists was even in the the middle-class homes not homes of great means they might not have had any other luxury but they had a set of silver for entertaining people because that was considered the way that it was proper to serve meals.

So this is the guy these are very fancy banquets this isn't crazy medieval you know King Henry the eighth stuff this is very sophisticated stuff except for the fact that they did love to throw their leftovers on the floor. Here's a painting of a great banquet from this exact era the guests reclining on couches bones thrown everywhere and some of you have teenagers at home this is my home every Friday night.

Now again what are they talking about? What would what would anybody talk about at a banquet for 10 hours? Eventually what you're getting to is how's business right? How's business Fred? And remember who are these people? Other tax collectors with their staffs you know the hit men the enforcers the prostitutes. How's business? Well I had to beat up Frank today. Yeah I've had problems with Frank too. Hey I've got some new ideas for being a loan shark it's called a credit card I think it might catch on you know Jesus passed the pigeon this is what's happening and obviously Jesus didn't approve of everything that's going on but he loves these people and what's he doing? What's Jesus doing there?

Here's something I didn't know before this last week when I read Daniel Rogoff's work a large banquet was traditionally divided into two parts the first was the dinner which I just described to you but part two was what they called the symposium and this was when an entertaining guest lecturer would come in after people had eaten all that food and he'd give kind of a TED talk kind of a little brief entertaining lecture that was meant to stimulate the mind as well as stimulate the senses and and I'm thinking this is what Christ was doing at these places and these symposium speakers had to be great because I lids were heavy and to hold the attention of this crowd right you had to learn how to speak well you had to be punchy and sharp and brief and colorful and that's how Jesus spoke and I think that's one of the reasons that they love to have him at these dinners.

So this is an amazing party and then the fun police show up and as usual its religious people. Next verse but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples Jesus' disciples why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? In other words why are you engaging in this crazy non kosher extravagant expensive banquet?

You ever wonder what what is their problem? Why do the Pharisees drop in on everybody's good time and tell them to stop it right? What do they care what somebody else is doing with their money and with their time and in their house? Well in a word here is why the Pharisees were so worried they were concerned about contamination and this is actually the root of all man-made religion isn't it? You got to stay away from being contaminated by other people in other casts or or who have other sins than yours.

What they were worried about was getting sin germs from other people and if you have ever worried about getting actual germs from anybody then you can relate to the Pharisees and I just read this this week do you know what the most germy surface in your house is? Anybody shouted out what do you think it is? The note that sinks? No. What else? The toilet somebody said? No. What else? Dishes? No stop talking you don't know you're all wrong by a wide margin the germiest place in your house is your kitchen towels. Your kitchen towels this is so gross 89% of kitchen towels they tested in a recent study contained coliform bacteria which is the really really bad stuff.

Now you know some of you right now cannot stop being grossed out thinking about your kitchen towels right now you want to go home and change them right now. In fact that's what Scott just did he just left and changed his kitchen towels because he knew what I was going to talk about. Well if you feel like that that is what the Pharisees felt when they saw Jesus with those tax collectors and sinners they were like oh that's just icky right because that's contagious to the rest of this.

What do you what does it matter to them what somebody else does? This is huge the Pharisees taught the Messiah will come to Israel when the whole nation has cleaned itself up. God won't send the Messiah till we're all clean till he sees all of Israel wholly doing right as defined by the law including kosher law and that meant if you weren't keeping kosher then you were not just you know a bummer to yourself you were a bummer to the whole nation you were ruining things for everybody because the Messiah will only come where we're all cleaned up.

And that's why they went around correcting people they thought that we're only doing you a favor man because the Messiah is not gonna come till everybody's obedient and this is why it's such a disconnect for them when Jesus shows up says he's the Messiah and what does he do? He plunges right into the pool of unclean people they're like that's not what the Messiah does that's the opposite of what the Messiah does.

They thought in fact earlier in the same chapter a leper comes up to Jesus now lepers people with leprosy were considered very unclean not allowed to even go into town let alone the temple and this leper throws himself at Jesus' feet and says if you are willing make me clean he gets it Jesus doesn't even have to touch him Jesus just has to be willing and he'd be clean and Jesus says I am willing and that's all he had to do but then he does something he doesn't have to do it says he reaches out and he touches him touches the leper. Why? He's making a point to all the people who were standing around looking at him touching somebody who's literally unclean and it's a point he's continuing to make here at Levi's party and it's this all throughout history when the diseased come into contact with the clean what transfers the cleanness or the disease?

The disease you don't catch health from somebody you catch a cold right? But Jesus is saying my healthiness is so robust that it's actually more contagious than the disease. Jesus is health Jesus is wholeness Jesus is holiness itself with Jesus infection works in reverse all the way down to our inner character and that's a dynamic completely opposite of religion as Tim Keller says religion creates a fragile holiness right what the Pharisees thought God's not gonna come and help us until we get our act cleaned up that's exactly the way people in America think God's not gonna help me I'll get to get my act cleaned up first that's a fragile holiness because then if you are holy if you are clean it's like oh I might lose my cleanness and I better not have anything to do with bad people because they'll defile me but in Jesus there's a robust holiness because it originates in God and not in you because it's by grace and not by works.

Next verse Jesus answered them it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick I haven't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance as a great church I know that has this slogan everyone is welcome nobody is perfect anything is possible don't you love that and that's the sign Jesus is putting up everyone's welcome because nobody's perfect and anything's possible does that mean Jesus approved of everything going on at that party of course not but he's more interested in helping these people than he isn't judging them and that has to start with a relationship and that's point three Jesus empowers people others judge.

The Pharisees just go around judging these people they feel like that's the role to be the moral police but Jesus empowers them. Watch this Jesus had just said you know I'm doing this to reach these people but the Pharisees keep complaining next they say they just don't like the fact that they're having fun they go John's disciples often fast and pray John's disciples aren't having fun like your disciples and the Pharisees disciples the same thing but yours go on eating and drinking basically how come you're having fun because we're sure not.

And Jesus answered can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? Now stop right there and circle friends of the bridegroom. Friends it's so much more empowering to know Jesus is your friend he's your friend than to think he's like the super Pharisee or to think he's he won't come until I clean up my act. Now he comes right down to the lowest level and he befriends me and that empowers me the joy the confidence from having him as my friend.

And then he goes on to say they'll mourn soon enough and he's talking about the night he was crucified already at this point early in his ministry Jesus knows the ultimate way he is going to transfer health to our disease is by dying for us on the cross.

So let's just wrap up with this if I'm a follower of Jesus number one I'm gonna know he treats me like this do you know he treats sinners including you like he treats these people in this story? Do you know for sure he is not here at church waiting for you to show up and be good or at least better than you were last week? He's at your house with you wherever you're at empowering you to change as your friend and and he notices you even though other people may have rejected you or made fun of you he loves you.

Do you know that he treats you like this because if you do then number two you're gonna treat others the same way I'm gonna treat others the same way and don't put away your notes because just for a couple of minutes I want to camp out on this point and when you're done writing that point look up here for just a minute because I'll show you something interesting.

When Matthew writes his version of this story when he describes what happened at his house he includes a couple of details that Luke doesn't include I mean he was there and one of them is this an extra phrase from Jesus Jesus says to these Pharisees but go and learn what this means I desire mercy not sacrifice he's quoting Hosea and this is mind-blowing mind-blowing if you get what this means he's saying the mark Jesus is saying the mark that you've been in contact with me is not scrupulous religiosity it's what mercy mercy kindness compassion toward people who are not religious not like you not good he says to the Pharisees go and learn this and my question is have you learned this have I learned this?

Let me tell you here's why this is so hard nobody wants to say they're a Pharisee but would you at least agree with this statement church activity can create a kind of ivory tower keeping you out of contact with the unchurched people would you agree with that? It's obvious churches especially churches like ours can get so big and so busy that we're always a church with the church people what about being at the parties with the party people? Are you ever in proximity to them?

If you really want to be like Jesus you are going to have meals with some people that religious folks might feel very uncomfortable with because that's what Jesus did. In fact probably like Jesus you're gonna be invited to things and you'll feel like well my religious friends judge me for going to this it might raise some eyebrows maybe if you went to this thing people might think you approve of something some political view or something that you don't approve of or you don't hold or you have some opinion that you don't have but will you go because you've been invited and Jesus would go.

Now obviously be wise I'm not saying if you're in recovery go to a bar if that's a difficulty for you or whatever you got to think about this but can I can you climb out of our ivory tower? One of the most profound examples of this I know of happened in Hawaii you might know the story anyone on the islands with leprosy in the 1800s was banished to Molokai where they grew hopeless according to an account written in 1868 quote drunken and lewd conduct prevails here one resident said there's no law here only chaos and despair it was literally a place of leprosy and prostitution and lawlessness nobody wanted to help and then came father Damien a Belgian priest who was serving at a church on Oahu comfortable church when stories of Jesus going to the lepers struck him and he literally went to live with the lepers orphanages were built shacks replaced with houses farms were organized schools established churches built but he still didn't really see a lot of people come to Christ until after 16 years of caring for the lepers father Damien himself contracted leprosy and his faith became contagious.

It was then that suddenly he saw waves of people coming to Christ because they knew he was with them and he became so beloved on the islands he was even knighted by the Hawaiian royal family but I was researching him this week and you know he did get criticism guess from where? The religious leaders some things never change I found a letter to the editor that a leader of the church in San Francisco wrote calling him quote a coarse dirty man who contracted leprosy due to his carelessness going and ministering to people in Molokai doesn't that sound like what the Pharisees said about Jesus?

So my question is this you might say well that's an extreme example well what about the people here in Santa Cruz? What about your own neighbors on your own streets? Do you even know who they are? Do you hang out with them? Jesus in this first meal is saying I call you to have an open table he extends grace to everyone and he calls on you and me to do the same.

Let me just get very personal here we are at a church that is over 125 years old and that is awesome we just built a beautiful new building and that's phenomenal but do you know what the typical problem of churches like us is? We stay inside our beautiful building and we get insulated and we get to the point where we only know other people who are just like us right here at TLC and that is a way for a church to die.

We've got a great building but not let's let's not stay inside that building Jesus would say keep going keep extending your circle to people outside the circle people on your streets people in your town and when you see that mindset happening then real Jesus level growth can happen again right here. Let's pray together which would you bow your heads with me?

God I thank you so much for offering us mercy and forgiveness and compassion not for the people who think they're perfect already but for the sinners so the church isn't made up of people who think they're good it's made up of us who know that we're not good and so father I pray well I know that you are saying to some hearts right now follow me and my prayer is that some people here right now would go okay I don't understand it but neither did Levi in this story today and I want to leave the sin in my life and I want to follow you Jesus and teach me along the way what that means that we're not the righteous we're the sinners but you have mercy on us so much so that you paid the penalty for our sins on the cross and help us to mix it up more with the people in our community help us to be like Jesus and to be with people confident that the Christ in us is more contagious than the sin in them and it's in his name we pray Amen.