No One is Too Far Gone For Jesus to Rescue

In Mark 2:13-17 Jesus is walking along, and then he sees Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow

me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. This is incredible! Back

then, people would have thought that the four fishermen who Jesus called in Mark 1 was bad enough.

People would have thought that Jesus started at the low end of the social barrel with the fishermen. But

now he’s gone way past the bottom of the social barrel, all the way down into the dregs of society. Jesus

called a hated, despised tax collector to become one of his followers. And then Levi (who Jesus later

changes his name to Matthew) just got up and follows him!

Let’s look at this from Levi’s perspective. Jesus walks up to him and says, “Hey Levi, how would you feel

about leaving everything behind (including all the wealth you’ve accumulated from your shady but

lucrative career)...how would you feel about leaving all of that behind, and follow me?” It’s widely

believed that Levi was the last of the eventual 12 who would be invited to become one of Jesus’ 12

disciples. So Jesus is rounding things out by choosing a hated, despised tax collector.

I will always be eternally grateful that Jesus shows no partiality to those he calls. It’s enough to bring me

to tears whenever I’m reminded that no one is too far gone for Jesus to rescue. God never gives up

on people. It doesn’t matter what they’ve done. It doesn’t matter how far from God they might appear. It

doesn’t matter how far from God they are. No one is too far gone for Jesus to rescue. No one is beyond

the reach and love of Jesus.

Maybe there’s someone you know, some people in your life who you are tempted to think, “Ya, it seems

like there’s no hope for them.” But we are called to continually love them and pray for them, just like we

see Jesus doing in this passage. When you think of people in your life who appear far from God -

whether it’s a family member, or a colleague at work, or a neighbour, or a classmate from school - let’s

keep loving them and praying for them, because no one is too far gone for Jesus to rescue.

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