Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 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. 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.
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’?” 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.”
1. What have you sacrificed to follow Jesus?
2. What has Jesus done that has surprised, upset, or frustrated you? The Pharisees didn’t like him eating with sinners. They thought they were good enough to be in Jesus’s club. Has any of this attitude snuck into your life? Do you feel you are more deserving than others of God’s grace and presence?
3. Do you recognize your need for him? Jesus spent time with those who welcomed him because they knew they needed him.