Jesus Still Calls

 Mark 2: 13-17

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 Pharisees saw 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.”

What was so compelling in the two brief words Jesus spoke to Matthew that fateful day? "Follow me."  Or was it some discontent in the heart of Levi that made him ripe to answer the call so abruptly?  Indeed, whatever the reason, something powerful, life-changing, occurred, and we are still benefiting from the moment Levi left his money table and followed Jesus.  At his house later, Levi gave a dinner for his fellow-tax collectors as well as some Pharisees, who objected to the presence of the sinful guests. Jesus nailed their objection directly:  :"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  (Mk 2: 17). This answer merits commitment to memory for it serves as an anti-dote to any self-righteous thoughts that might find themself lodged in our heads and hearts.  These thoughts tend to creep in unknowingly  and need to be swept out from time to time. Let us keep the brooms active day after day so that we can heed the constant call to follow Jesus with the total abandonment Levi models for us.

Bro. Rene