Mark 2:13-17
The Calling of Levi
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."
Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to be a disciple...Tax collectors were not well thought of in Israel, because they collected taxes for the Romans from the local people in Israel...But Jesus shows a compassion to people others would shun or think of shunning...
All Jesus had to say was "Follow me" and that did it...Levi left his taxpayer's booth and immediately follows Jesus...
Levi invites Jesus and other "sinners" and tax collectors to eat at his house...Jesus accepts the invitation...The Pharisees, who were the teachers of Moses' Law, questioned why would Jesus eat with "those people"...Jesus answers the Pharisees and tells them it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... Jesus tells us that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners...
Jesus teaches us that people we would normally not associate with maybe wrong...Just because someone is a tax collector, or in another line of work we look "down" on is not right...And it doesn't have to be a line of work, we look down on...Some men tend to slander or think negative thoughts about different people...One's job, the color of one's skin, their nationality, their social status, their wealth status can cause us to think about others in a bad light...Jesus shows us we are to show forgiveness and love for all...When we have a negative thought, stop and think why, are we thinking like the Pharisees of Jesus' day...
Who we associate with can change us, and we must be careful when we associate with evil...And we have to keep our guard up in certain companies we keep...But Jesus came to help the soul of Levi...And I don't think Levi was necessarily bad, he just had a job many people, including the Pharisees did not like or respect...Jesus was not eating and with this group to be changed by their conversations, He was there to teach them to be better men...
We can't just be prejudice, like the Pharisees, to be prejudice...I wonder if the Pharisees even thought about what Jesus was doing... Jesus was going to help the characters of the tax collectors and their ways, habits, and their sins...Jesus was not becoming a sinner...He was not going to change, it was the unrighteous sinner, Jesus wants to change...
Jesus did not come to help all the people who were righteous...If all humanity were righteous He may not even came at all...But most, if not all of humanity are sinners...We needed Him to come...We are sick with sin and need the Great Physician...He has the power to heal us from sickness and heal us and save us from our sins...