Luke painted Jesus bestowing messianic grace on a variety of people: a demoniac, a leper, a paralytic, and now a tax collector. He liberated these captives from a malign spirit, lifelong uncleanness, a physical handicap, and now social ostracism. Again the Pharisees were present. In Levi's case, Jesus not only provided forgiveness but fellowship with Himself. The incident shows the type of people Jesus called to Himself and justifies His calling them.
5:27-28 Levi (Matthew) was a tax collector ("publican,"AV). However he was not a chief tax collector as Zaccheus was (19:2) nor does the text say that he was rich, though he appears to have been. Nevertheless the Pharisees and most of the ordinary Jews despised him because of his profession. He collected taxes from the Jews for the unpopular Roman government, and many of his fellow tax collectors were corrupt.
Jesus' authority is apparent in Levi's immediate and unconditional abandonment of his profession to follow Jesus. Levi obeyed Jesus' as he should have and in so doing gave Luke's readers a positive example to follow (cf. 5:11). Luke's terminology stresses Levi's decisive break with his former vocation and his continuing life of discipleship.
5:29-30 The joy of Levi and his outcast guests contrasts with the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes. The religious leaders objected to Jesus and His disciples' eating and drinking with these tax gatherers and sinners because of the risk of ceremonial defilement they ran by doing so. They focused their criticism on Jesus' disciples rather than on Jesus, perhaps because Jesus was so popular.
5:31-32 Jesus used a proverb to summarize His mission (cf. ch. 15). He used the word "righteous"in a relative sense and perhaps a bit sarcastically since no one is truly righteous, though the Pharisees considered themselves righteous. A person must acknowledge his or her need for Jesus and His righteousness before that one will benefit from the Great Physician's powers. This acknowledgment of need is what Jesus meant by repentance. Repentance leads to joy in Luke as well as to life (cf. 15:7, 10, 22-27, 32). Luke stressed the positive call of sinners to repentance in this Gospel and in Acts.
"The connection between 5:32 and 19:10 suggests that they form an inclusion. That is, we have similar general statements about Jesus' mission early and late in his ministry, statements which serve to interpret the whole ministry which lies between them."192
