Mark 2 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!


Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Phariseessaw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This is one of my favorite stories which shows just how counter-cultural Jesus was.  He was truly a revolutionary.  As I mentioned yesterday, Mark 2 is fast moving and packed with action. Right away Jesus is being confronted by the Pharisees by the way he is going about his business.  Whether it is healing the paralytic man, eating with the Pharisees, or redefining fasting and the Sabbath day; he clearly does not meet their expectations.  In fact in their minds, he is down right irreligious.  
But on the other side of the coin, the public following of Jesus is growing rapidly.  News about his message and the works of power he is doing have spread quickly in the area despite the fact that there was no internet.  Today he calls Levi (also called Matthew), a tax collector, to come and follow him. And Levi immediately gets up and follows him.  Soon thereafter Levi invites Jesus to his home (remember tax collectors were well off due to their skimming off the top!). Apparently word got out as many other tax collectors, as well as many "sinners", came to Levi's house for dinner with Jesus.  It was quite a "shindig".  One only wonders what the conversation was like.  My guess is Jesus was blending in and accepting them for who they were, while inviting them to realize the type of life he came to offer.
Meanwhile the Pharisees are furious.  After all, they made a living off of avoiding these types of sinners.  It was unheard for a religious leader to fraternize with such people.  But if you remember from yesterday, Jesus' good news was that  in him the kingdom of God had come and this is what it looked like.  Everything Jesus does shows what God's kingdom looks like on earth as it is in heaven.  
In this case, God's kingdom shows God accept all people who are willing to follow His Son.  God's kingdom is an upside down kingdom. What do I mean by that? Many who were thought of as the last, became first in Jesus' eyes.  And those who considered themselves first, missed out on the kingdom coming due to their self righteousness and pride of position.
If this is how Jesus did ministry, should not the church reach out to those who we might consider tax collectors and sinners?  And who are these people in our culture?  Have you had dinner with them lately?  At their house?

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