READ: Mark 2:15 NLT
Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)
Levi’s first action after becoming a follower of Jesus was to invite him home for a meal so that he could meet his friends. Levi was one of the much hated tax collectors whose job was to rake in money for the hated Roman occupying power. His circle of friends was, on the face of it, as unpleasant a group as Jerusalem could produce.
When I was a minister in Suffolk one of the children in our Sunday club went home one day and spoke with her father who didn’t attend church. She asked him to remind her of the job that he did. Very importantly he told her that he was one of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Taxes. “Oh dear,” said the little girl, ”At church this morning we learnt that tax inspectors are very bad people”. So, ever since, I have been at pains to point out that everything is very different these days and that tax inspectors are now very nice people!
But in Jesus’ day associating with tax collectors and their friends was bound to cause a stir. And it did! The respectable Pharisees and teachers of the law were appalled
at the company that Jesus was keeping. They saw this as clear proof that Jesus was not a proper rabbi, because any self-respecting rabbi would know that associating with such riff-raff would cause a person to be defiled and unable to offer worship in the temple.
Jesus was quite clear what he was doing. He came into the world precisely for the sake of saving sinners and he was eager to spend time with them. Jesus went out of his way to welcome the people that everyone else thought were unacceptable – people with leprosy, children, women, prostitutes. He was happy to shock people because he wanted them to know that absolutely everyone was welcome in God’s kingdom.
QUESTION: As we seek to walk in Jesus’ footsteps what should we be doing to reach out to those whom our society marginalizes?
PRAYER: Thank you Lord Jesus that you came into the world to save everyone, however far they have fallen. Help us to be faithful in following your example. Amen.

Released on 7 Oct 2020