As Simple (or complex) As That!

"As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.'  And he got up and followed him."  - Mark 2:14

It's as simple (or complex) as that!  The gospel stories of Jesus calling his disciples intrigue me in their simplicity and austerity.   In Mark 1, Jesus comes walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he sees Simon and Andrew, and then later James and John working their fishing business, casting their nets, tending to their boats, and he said, "Follow me."   And Mark says, "immediately" they dropped everything and followed him."    The scene is accented with a bit of dry humor.  Mark adds, "and they left their Father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men."  Can't you just picture it?  Zebedee sitting in the boat with his jaw dropped, not at all happy at seeing his two strong young sons, assets to the family fishing business, traipsing off after who knows what?

And then in today's gospel Levi sitting in his tax booth, and like a bolt lightening Jesus came by and said "Follow me."   And Mark says, "And he got up and followed him."   It’s as simple (or complex) as that! 

I suspect there may have been more to it, but Mark presents the stories in the way he does because for him and for his community that's what it boiled down to.  Are you going to follow Jesus or not? 

Someone asked me not long ago to express in the simplest terms possible what Christianity means to me.  My answer was "Following Jesus."   The person was a bit taken aback because he said I “left out too much!”   But I can't say it any more essentially that that, because for me, that's what it boils down to!  That's what it meant for the followers of Jesus in the early communities that sprung up around him, and that's what it means for me.   

Today I will try to say something relevant about this simple invitation that, for me, captures the essence of Christianity.  I will approach it with two questions.  First, "Who is this “me” issuing the invitation?"   Second, "Where is he inviting us to go?" 

"Follow me."   First, who is the "me" issuing the invitation?  It is said we can learn a lot about a person by who they hang out with.   A most astonishing thing about this passage is who Jesus invited.  There were few, if any, who were more despised in those days than tax collectors.  Tax collectors were a part of a corrupt and oppressive system of taxation that favored the rich and oppressed the poor.  Tax collectors were also considered ritually unclean.   So what does Jesus do but the very thing that nobody, and I mean nobody, would have ever done.  He walks right up to Levi's lucrative tax office and says, "Follow me."    

And not only did Levi follow him, but Jesus ended up having dinner with Levi in his house - and that was scandalous almost beyond description.   Table fellowship was one of most revered values of biblical times and culture.  You didn't just eat with anybody because table fellowship in the home was an experience of bonding and acceptance at a profound level.  You were cautious about who you invited to your table and whose table you sat at.   Here was Jesus sitting at Levi's table, a house party which evidently included a smorgasbord of the ritually unclean and religious rejects. 

The first thing we learn about following Jesus from Mark is that it means following Jesus over conventional boundaries of respectability.  Jesus steps into the world of the ritually unclean, not with a heart of judgment but with a heart of hospitality.  Jesus wasn't confined by all the conventional boundaries that limited everybody else.  When he gets to where he is going what he offers above everything is hospitality and respect.  That was Jesus' beginning point with the people that the religious elite had written off.   Jesus' beginning point with people was love and acceptance, not as a strategy to advance some hidden agenda, but because Jesus was filled with the heart of God; and God's heart beats with hospitality for all people - period! 

What set the Galilean beach scene and Levi's tax office on fire was love.   The love that Simon and Andrew, James and John perceived from this man caused them to lay down their nets and Levi to lay down his calculator and follow, even against their best rational judgment and common sense.  I like to say, "Faith is the direction my feet start moving when I perceive in my heart that I am loved, even if my head isn't sure!"   Peter and Andrew, James and John and Levi had no idea where they were going; no idea what was in store for them, but somehow they were convinced that they were moving in the direction of a dynamic and life-giving love - the likes which they had not known before.

There is no hint in Mark's gospel that to follow Jesus means to shape up your life first and then follow;   get your act together and then follow;  believe this or believe that and then you are qualified to follow.  No, it is just "follow me"; follow and trust the love that's inviting you on the unknown journey.   That's the "me" of "Follow me."

"Follow me."   So where do we follow?  Where are we being lead? 

There are no road-maps, and we like our road-maps don't we?  Road maps provide a sense of security and orientation.  But Jesus doesn't hand out road maps with his invitation to follow.  What he does is ask us to let go of our insistence of hanging on to our security blankets - and to trust him!   As long as I am hanging on to my security blanket whatever it might be, I cannot fully be his disciple. 

One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that our following will not take us to the places we would choose to go all on our own - you know the easy places where we are never really challenged.   Rather our following will take us to places and to people where love,  compassion and justice is desperately needed. 

That's a little scary for sure!  However, it is possible that an incredible miracle might occur along the way, and this is the good news:  somewhere along the way if I follow long enough, where love is desperately needed and where I want to go might become one and the same destination.   

Just think of it, when that happens I will discover that I am being transformed; that I am not the same person I was before I started to follow; that I may be becoming a more exciting, interesting and courageous person;  saved from my self-indulgence; and my fear; and my prejudice; no longer clinging to the security blankets that were stifling my growth as a person.    Where will my following lead me?  For sure, I guarantee, to places and people I would never choose to go on my own - and in the process of following I will be most likely transformed by the love that is leading me.

It's a transformation that comes as a result of sharing God's love and grace with those I might think don't deserve it; or those I may not like; or those I fear; or those who disagree with me; or those I may even hate. 

There is something buried in this gospel passage that is really easy to gloss over and not see, but it is there as plain as the nose on my face.  There is the verse about "the wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they?  (It's a rhetorical question. Mark's community knew exactly to what Mark was referring)   In the Old Testament the Kingdom of God was often portrayed and pictured as a great banquet - a great inclusive feast - a great wedding party.  Now the practice in those days was to fast until the bridegroom arrived - and  once the bridegroom arrived there was no longer time for fasting.  It was time to pull out all the stops and celebrate!

What Mark is saying is that Jesus, the bridegroom of the Kingdom of God has arrived, and it is not a time to fast, but it is time to begin to celebrate.  And what does the celebration banquet look like, but the meal that Jesus just ate with the ritually unclean and religious outcastsizens.  The Great Banquet is a metaphor for what the quality of our community life is to look like with Jesus as our host and our mentor.  And God help us if it doesn't!

Jesus said, "No one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins... but one puts new wine into new skins."   That's a metaphor about transformation.

Isn't that what we really need the most?  Is it simplistic answers to all of our complex questions that we need?  Is that our deepest need - doctrinal answers?  Or is it something else that we're after?  You see, all the answers and all the doctrines in the world won't really satisfy us or fill us in the deepest places of our beings.   I believe that what we are really after is a love that values us for who we are; a love that casts out all fear; a love that has the power to connect us to each other in ways that we don't have the will, or the courage to do on our own.

One last question might be, "How far do we follow?"  How far do we go? How far will Jesus ask us to go?   You may be asked to follow as far as love can possibly go - to a hill where cross-shaped shadows darken the earth; and people are mocking;  and some are crying;  and a man is dying.  That's how far we might be asked to go!   We are asked to take up our cross and  follow.   This following may be the hardest thing you've ever had to do, because in following you will be asked to let go of so much that our culture holds precious and dear:  security, self-indulgence, prideful arrogance, being in control, materialism, money, power, status, prestige, advantage over others; certain culturally sanctioned prejudices.  But by some incredible miracle, and by some unfathomable mystery, and by some paradoxical power that can only be God's and nobody else's, it's in the risking; it's in the letting go, it's in the emptying of self, it's in the giving away, it's in the following that you will truly find yourself, and you will become the person God intended you to be.

"Follow me," invites Jesus.  It's as simple (or complex) as that.