Jesus, the One Who Sets His Eyes on You

Introduction

Levi is sitting at his tax booth. No one in his town wants to look at him. He collects taxes for Rome, inflates the rates, and lines his own pockets along the way. He is marked: collaborator, traitor, dirty man. That day, Jesus goes out of his way to come to him. He doesn't settle for a glance: he sets his eyes on Levi, attentively, the way you study someone you know by heart. And he calls him.

This sermon by Kitayama, preached at Kobe Christ Glory Church on October 26, 2025, from Luke 5:27-32, wants to meet you at one precise spot: Jesus' gaze rested on you before you changed anything at all. It's not because you finally straightened yourself out that the Lord noticed you. It's because he looked at you first that you can stand up today.

Outline of the article

1. Jesus goes out with one clear goal: to look for you

Verse 27 says: "After this, Jesus went out." He isn't out for air. He isn't taking a stroll to clear his head. He has a clear purpose, and Luke gives it to us a few verses later (v. 32): "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Kitayama points out that it's the same dynamic with Zacchaeus: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). It's also what happens with the Samaritan woman: Jesus "had to pass through Samaria" (John 4:4). Every time, he goes out with a name in mind. Today, your name is on that list.

Kitayama insists: Jesus did not call Levi because he needed one more worker. He didn't say to himself, "I'm short a disciple, let's take this one." He loved Levi first (a weak Levi, marked, without hope and without merit), and it is that love which sets the calling in motion.

2. Jesus "sets his eyes" on Levi just as he is

The Greek word translated "he saw" (v. 27) doesn't mean "he glanced at." It means: he fixed his eyes, he looked at length. When you look at someone that way, it's usually because you're waiting for a reaction, a sign, a response.

Here, it's different. Jesus looks at Levi, and Levi doesn't move. He doesn't convert on the spot. He stays seated at his booth, right in the middle of collecting taxes. Maybe he's charging a passerby at that very moment. No gesture toward Jesus. No change of attitude. And yet Jesus tells him: "Follow me."

In other words, Jesus didn't call him because his life had changed. He called him so that it could change. John puts it in black and white: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you" (John 15:16). Christ's gaze comes first; your response comes after.

Kitayama shares the story of a friend of his, Senshu, whom he met at Bible school. Senshu met Jesus inside a juvenile detention center, while reading the Bible his mother had passed on to him. The passage that struck him? "You are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you" (Isaiah 43:4). Jesus didn't tell him, "I'll save you once you're out." He met him inside the cell, he set his eyes on him there, and he led him to faith. You too, Jesus meets you at the booth where you're sitting right now, not at the next step you imagine.

3. Levi gets up, leaves everything, follows Jesus

Verse 28: "Then, leaving everything behind, he rose and followed him." In the Bible, "rising up" is often the image of a resurrection, a fresh start. Levi's fresh start is not a springtime postcard: it comes at a cost. "Leaving everything behind."

This isn't just a career change. What Levi leaves behind is his income, his status, his network, his security, and above all an old identity. Paul puts it this way: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Kitayama asks directly: is there, somewhere in you, an attachment to the old life? A nostalgia you don't dare name? The honest answer for someone who has been saved is the joy of salvation, and that joy no longer leaves room for regret. "The old has passed away."

4. Levi puts his house at the service of Jesus

Verse 29: "Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them." The Greek text says, literally, Levi used his house for the Lord. In other words, he put what he owned at the service of Jesus. His first move as a saved man is an evangelism meal.

Kitayama draws the line to Kobe: the home groups, the mothers' cafe (Mom's Cafe), the children's restaurant, the monthly "Coffee Time" where CCC Kobe members invite non-Christian students, the young adults' "Church Meal" outing that same Sunday, all of it says the same thing. Not everyone has to cook. Not everyone has to host people at home. But everyone has something to put at the service of Jesus.

The pastor gives his own example: when he announced he wanted to start a children's restaurant, he had no cooking skills at all. Others stepped up and now cook there every week in his place. He also announces the arrival of student evangelism teams from Taiwan, then from Korea, and he says plainly: I don't speak their language; my part is to be with them, to eat with them, to watch over their well-being. That's my way of using what I have.

At Levi's table, someone was needed to cook, someone to serve, someone to invite, a host to welcome. Many different roles, one single goal: to present Jesus.

5. The opposition that comes with God's work

Verse 30: "The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'" As soon as God's work moves forward, opposition shows up. Kitayama says it plainly: in the Bible, God's action and opposition almost always come as a pair. Nehemiah, rebuilding the wall, sees mockers rise up (Nehemiah 4), and the attack doesn't target the stones, it targets the motivation of hearts. The sower sees "the evil one" come to snatch away the seed (Matthew 13:19).

Kitayama tells a scene from the previous week. Two CCC students share the gospel with a young man near Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, using the Four Spiritual Laws presentation. The young man is ready to open his heart; they're about to pray the prayer of salvation together. At that exact moment, a stranger approaches, starts talking to the young man, puts her hand on his head, and recites an incantation. Then she turns to the two students and offers to pray for them too. They politely decline: "No thank you, we believe in Jesus." The seed seems snatched away.

What matters, Kitayama says, is that opposition has no authority over God's work. It doesn't stop it. Jesus himself, faced with criticism, did not back down; he stated his mission even more clearly.

6. Jesus' mission, stated without detour

Verses 31-32: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." The Pharisees believed that keeping their distance from defiled people was holiness. Jesus flips the picture: holiness is love.

And to his disciples, he gives a clear command: "You go, and do likewise" (Luke 10:37). The Church is the one who walks in her Master's footsteps: she goes out toward those no one else looks at, and she sets on them the very gaze of Jesus.

Key takeaways

• Jesus did not wait for Levi to change before setting his eyes on him, he looked at him so that he could change.
• "Rising up" and "following" means letting go of an old identity, not just an old job.
• The one who is saved doesn't keep grace to himself: Levi opens his house, you open what you have.
• In God's work, each person has a different part; the goal, though, is always the same: to present Jesus.
• The opposition that comes with faithful progress isn't a sign of failure, it's a sign that the seed has been sown.
• What you do today isn't wasted: Levi kept records for Rome; God used that to have him write the Gospel of Matthew.

Personal application

1. What "tax booth" is Jesus looking at in your life right now, a place where you feel neither worthy, nor ready, nor changed?
2. What are you still holding onto because it reassures you, even though the Lord is telling you: "let go of it and rise up"?
3. What do you already have (a home, a talent, a habit, a notebook, a skill) that you could put at the service of Jesus this week?
4. Where have you recently seen opposition slow down a gospel conversation, at home, at work, in your family? How do you want to respond: pull back, or hold your ground like Jesus?
5. If you can't be on the front line, what "prayer part" do you want to take in the work currently happening in your church?

Verses cited

• Luke 5:27-32 · the calling of Levi
• Luke 19:10 · seeking and saving the lost
• John 4:4 · Jesus had to pass through Samaria
• John 15:16 · I chose you
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 · the old has passed away
• Isaiah 43:4 · you are precious in my eyes
• Nehemiah 4 · opposition to the rebuilding
• Matthew 13:19 · the evil one snatches the seed
• Luke 10:37 · you go, and do likewise

FAQ

Do you have to change your life before you come to Jesus?

No. Kitayama insists: Levi hadn't changed anything before being called. He was still sitting at his tax booth when Jesus fixed his eyes on him and said "Follow me." Change doesn't come before the calling, it's the fruit of it.

Why does Jesus eat with "sinners" when the Pharisees avoid them?

Because his mission, as he says himself in verse 32, is to call sinners to repentance. The Pharisees thought holiness meant staying away from defiled people; Jesus shows that loving people is at the heart of God's holiness.

What should we do when our evangelism effort runs into opposition?

Don't retreat. Kitayama reminds us that God's work and opposition almost always go together in the Bible. Opposition has no authority over God's plan; just like Jesus facing the Pharisees, we respond by clarifying our mission and continuing to love.