Scripture Daily

Context No. 3171 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 2:12-16: in context

12He arose, and immediately took up the mat and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” 13He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them. 14As he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him. 15He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. 16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

As Jesus passes the tax booth, he sees Levi sitting there and says two words: follow me. And Levi rises and follows him. Soon Jesus is reclining at Levi's table, surrounded by many tax collectors and sinners. The scribes and Pharisees are scandalized and ask his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus calls an unlikely disciple, a tax collector, a man despised as a traitor and a cheat, and Levi leaves his booth at once to follow. And then Jesus goes to dinner in a house full of tax collectors and sinners, exactly the people the religious carefully avoided. His willingness to share a table with the outcast scandalizes the scribes. But table fellowship was Jesus' method: he drew sinners not by keeping his distance but by welcoming them, eating with them, treating them as worth his company. The gospel comes to sinners through a Savior willing to sit at their table.

Am I willing, like Jesus, to welcome and share life with those the "respectable" avoid, drawing them by acceptance rather than by keeping my distance?

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