Levi and Simon

The first recorded meal for Jesus and his disciples was recorded in Luke chapter 5. Jesus had just called Levi ( publican) to be his disciple. Levi in his great joy prepared a great feast for Jesus and invited all his Publican friends to eat with them.

Of course Publicans were despised by the Pharisees who would have nothing at all to do with them and probably accounted for Levi’s great joy in being noticed by the great Prophet Jesus of Nazareth. My guess is that Publicans loved collecting taxes from Pharisees and might even have over taxed them in their glee.

Of course when the Pharisees saw the great Jesus of Nazareth eating with the Publicans they judged and criticized him (according to their standards) implying that a great Prophet would not associate with sinful and traitorous Publicans (who probably loved to spend Pharisee gold.)

The second recorded meal in the Gospel of Luke recorded is in chapter 7 when Jesus was invited into the home of a Pharisee named Simon. A Pharisee was quite the opposite of a Publican. Among other surprising things that happened was a woman who was a great sinner invited herself into Simon’s home and attended to Jesus. Now Simon is associated with a sinner in his own home.

Perhaps she recognized that Simon wasn’t much of a host and didn’t afford Jesus with even a minimal level of hospitality… Simon didn’t greet Jesus with the traditional kiss nor even supplied the basics necessities associated with cleaning his feet before a meal.

Simon despised the woman and it would have never crossed his mind to invite her into his home. He didn’t see anything in her… not even any potential for future righteousness. He was not moved by her tears or her or by any of her emotions. He couldn’t see past her sin.

So why was Jesus’ first meal with a Publican (Levi) and his second meal with a Pharisee (Simon)?

Certainly Jesus demonstrated non-biased hospitality by accepting the invitations of Levi and Simon… no matter their occupations or pseudo religiosity.

Certainly Levi was the better host. Undoubtably he greeted Jesus with the customary kiss and afforded him with the necessities of foot washing (if not washing Jesus’ feet himself.)

Levi did not camp outside of Simon’s house to look for an opportunity to critique Jesus… like why would Jesus associate with those who prayed on street corners, etc. he was too humble for that and he had faith that Jesus could rise to any occasion.

Simon however was not humble and maybe felt himself to be superior to Jesus. He may have even been one of the Pharisees who stood outside Levi’s home criticizing Jesus.

I suppose one of the lessons of these two suppers was to illustrate what true hospitality looks like and the honor that a hospitable person offers his guest… even a guest of the most humblest station.

What would happen if we invited the preacher into our home and he brought a nasty homeless person with him? Would we shun the homeless guy or wash his feet?

I think Jesus ate in the homes of a tax collector and a Pharisee to illustrate that he cared for all people as so should we all.