Have you ever needed to get something done and needed help in doing it?  When thinking about who could be counted on for assistance, faces and names quickly come to mind.  Just the same, there are people you know (hopefully, not many) who cannot, or will not come to your aid.  As disheartening as that can be for us, how much more so must it have been for Jesus when ministering the Gospel to mankind. 

Think back at your recollection of bible study and try to remember a time when Jesus specifically called to a Pharisee, a Sadducee or a scribe to follow Him.  He didn’t.  This became obvious to me as I reviewed the call of Levi from his tax collection office in the gospel of Luke, chapter 5.  Why was this?  The answer is quite obvious to me from the text as we read verses 27-32 and is found in the way the people involved responded.  Levi immediately left behind a lucrative, well to-do lifestyle to be discipled by Jesus who was considered to be a blasphemer, a heretic, a fraud by many of the religious leaders of Israel.  Levi accepted Him for who He was and was willing to serve Him, while the others rejected His teaching, His example, His call and ultimately His merciful grace.  When all is said and done it can be summed by this statement; Jesus called sinners to service because others would not answer that call and as sad as it is many today are the same.  Only those who realize their great need for Jesus will ever consider becoming His disciple. 

The question that bears asking now is HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED Jesus?  Enough to leave everything behind and immediately follow.  Or will stand in the distance looking down on “those sinners”, thanking God you’re not like them.  More than likely you’re somewhere in the middle of those two, but a choice needs to be made.  Does your need compel you to give all your heart or not.  There is no middle ground!

Copyright © 2005, Nolan P. Rutter