Lenten Daily Reflection 2020-03-06
Mark 2:13-22
13 Jesus* went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
15 And as he sat at dinner* in Levi’s* house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting* with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. 16When the scribes of* the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat* with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people*came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’*
Imagine how Levi felt when Jesus asked him to follow him. Here he is doing the job that everyone hated him for and he was the one that was called to follow. Then to top it off he goes to his house to eat with those that were like him. Sinners and tax collectors were the undesirables of the time. The scribes could not believe that he would want to be seen with them. What he says puts them in their place. "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners". We are all sinners and we are all called to follow him. How many of us would drop everything to follow a man that you just saw for the first time? Maybe he had heard of Jesus but did he ever think something like this would happen? Once he saw him coming I am sure that he had no idea that he would be asked to follow and that later they would all be eating at his house.
We all need to be open to the fact that we are being called to follow and that it means we may need to leave things behind to do this. It may be something small but it may be what is standing in our way. As we go through the Lenten season think about what may be standing in your way to keep you from truly following Jesus.