A new name

 

The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.  --Isaiah 62:2

I have gone by many names over the years.  When I was young, my parents called me "Rusty" because of my fiery red hair.  Although it was not my legal name, it was a name I answered to and became identified with.  Actually, "Rusty" was the second nickname I received, and it was chosen by my mother, who cringed every time a friend or acquaintance would approach her baby, tousle my hair, and say something like, "Hey , it's Booger Red".

As an aside, Booger Red was the nickname of professional cowboy Samuel Privett (1864-1924) who was known as the greatest bronc buster of his time.  The moniker was also applied to Tommy Nobis, a linebacker at the University of Texas from 1963 to 1965, and the first pick in the NFL draft in 1966 by the expansion Atlanta Falcons.  He played 11 years before being moved up into the front office of the Falcon organization.  Knowing that, it wasn't such an insult in the early 60s to be called "Booger Red", especially in the South.  But my mother hated it, and called me "Rusty" until I went off to college.

I've never really hated my given name, but I have always felt that it needed to be explained to people because it is so unusual.  If I ever have to spell it out for folks, I will often add the tag line, "It's a strange family name; I come from a strange family."  This sometimes evokes a chuckle, especially from other folks with unusual names.

There are names that I have been called, and some that I call myself, that I hate with a passion.  Names like "Idiot" and "Liar" are especially hurtful.  You may have been called by names like this, names that will never be seen on your drivers license or letterhead, but hurtful things you have been called that stay with you a long time.

In our Bible passage today, I will show you a man who people called many derogatory names, but whom Jesus called by a new name.  He was given a new purpose, a new mission, and a new legacy.

He (Jesus) went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to Him, and He was teaching them.  And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow me."  And he rose and followed Him.  And as He (Jesus) reclined at table in his (Levi's) house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him.  And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, "Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

The names people called him

The name Levi means "Joined" or "In harmony with".  When Alphaeus and his wife had a baby boy, they chose "Levi" to signify that they, as husband and wife, had joined together in harmony to become Father and Mother.  They remembered their Jewish history, knowing that Levi was the third son of Jacob (Israel), from whom Moses and Aaron and all of the priestly line descended.  That was his given name.

Identity goes beyond a person's given name.  When you first meet someone and introductions are made, one of the first questions you may ask is, "What do you do?"  Identity is sometimes caught up in vocation.  Levi was known as a tax collector; that was his vocation.  To his fellow Jews, he was identified as a cheat, a thief, and one who betrayed the Jewish people.

You see, in the Roman empire, the Jews were identified as an oppressed people.  The Romans conquered more and more territory, and taxed the people heavily. When the Jewish economy was first established, tithes were collected instead of taxes, because the priests would handle most of the administrative duties in a Theocracy.  When the people clamored for a king, taxes were collected for military defense and kingdom expansion under Saul and David, and then for a new Temple and a huge palace for Solomon.  Having your taxes diverted to a foreign occupying force was both demeaning and degrading.  On top of that, for a Jew to collect those taxes was considered treasonous.  To counter the hatred among their countrymen, Jewish tax collectors would skim some of the proceeds for themselves.  Often, they would inflate the tax rates in order to line their pockets.  As a result, the tax collectors often lived lavishly, using their wealth to psychologically offset the shaming of their countrymen.

No wonder the Pharisees tried to shame Jesus by associating Him with tax collectors and other "sinners."  They knew that the tax collectors were traitors, cheats, and thieves.  These are the names they gave to Levi.

Names he called himself

I can only imagine what Levi must have thought of himself.  In the loneliness of the darkest night, Levi must have called himself much worse names than the slanders slung by his fellow Jews.  This is human nature. In the sound chamber of the human psyche, epithets thrown out by other people get magnified in our minds.  The meaning he gave to his own name may have been Levi, one that is joined in harmony with sinners.  Note the guest list in the dinner party he threw for Jesus.  All his friends were other tax collectors and "sinners."

When people are convicted of their sin, God uses this natural self loathing for His glory.  Notice how quickly Levi got up and walked away from the tax booth.  We have seen this before with the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John.  God had been working in their lives prior to their meeting Jesus, so that when He walked by and commanded that they follow Him, they were ready.  I'm not saying that these other men had low self esteem, or that any of them were involved in open sin before meeting Jesus.  However, God was working in their lives in such a way to make them respond, just as He had been working in the life of Levi so that at the right time, he would respond to Jesus calling.

Levi had been called a tax collector, a traitor, and a cheat.  Henceforth he would be known as a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, and a leader in the church.  He would even be known as the author of one of the four Gospels.  Note here that it was Jesus who elevated the group, not the association with sinners that denigrated Jesus.  When the Pharisees called Him out for associating with openly sinful people, Jesus responded that it was they who needed repentance and forgiveness and healing.  Remember this when some scoffer tries to justify his own sin by saying that Jesus associated Himself with "sinners."  Jesus only ate with them, He did not become one of them; He called them to repent, to leave their life of sin and to follow Him.

Names Jesus called him

When this same story is recounted in the book of Matthew, it is the author who is identified as the tax collector whom Jesus called.  I have seen some liberal theologians who have tried to explain this away, saying that Levi the tax collector must have fallen away, as his name is not listed among the disciples.  They say that Matthew, who wrote the first gospel and is, in fact, listed as one of the disciples, must have substituted his own name into the story so as not to make Jesus look bad (having called someone who didn't or couldn't follow Him, calling into question Jesus' deity, His sovereignty, and His power to save--never mind that He called Judas, who would eventually fall away.)

I don't believe this for a minute.  Let me go on record here as one who believes in the veracity and authority of Scripture.  God's inerrant Word is foundational to faith and to true theology.  Therefore if Matthew says he was the tax collector called Levi, it means that Jesus gave him a new identity.  Where the name Levi means "joined in harmony with," the name Matthew means "gift of God."  Instead of his being joined in with sin and in harmony with sinners, he is now both a recipient of God's gift of grace and a gift to generations of Christians who have read his gospel.

The Bible has many stories of people who have changed their names after meeting Jesus.  We have already talked about Simon being called Peter in our study of Mark chapter one.  The persecutor of Christians called Saul (meaning "prayed for") met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and from that point forward was known as Paul (meaning "humble" or "small").  I think of Isaiah 65:15, "You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put  you to death, but His servants He will call by another name."

Jesus gives us a new identity, a new purpose.  He changes the name we call ourselves, and gives us a new name (see Revelation 3:12).  For Levi, whom we know as Matthew, it meant a complete change of who he was into who God wanted him to be.  It's the same for us.