Reading
Mk 2:13-17
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.”
Meditation
Jesus goes out along the sea; it is in fact outdoors that he usually teaches the crowds, as if he were in a synagogue.
The tax collector called Levi in the Gospel of Mark, appears in the other Gospels with the name "Matthew", which in Hebrew means "gift of JHWH"; perhaps this name was attributed to him after his conversion. All four gospels include "Matthew the tax collector" in the list of the twelve apostles.
Tax collectors were deputies to collect taxes for the Roman Empire and for this reason were seen as traitors by the Jews. Moreover, they could apply a surcharge on the taxes to obtain their own profit margin, becoming rich at the expense of their people. They were often used to abuses, favored by the vagueness with which taxes were established. For these reasons, tax collectors were considered sinners, marginalized by society and excluded from families.
The simple and immediate action with which Levi responds to Jesus' call indicates a radical experience of conversion. Levi realizes that following Jesus will be "the biggest deal" in his life and organizes a banquet which is probably a party and an occasion to say goodbye to his friends.
The acceptance by Jesus to sit at the same table as the tax collectors is considered by the scribes belonging to the sect of the Pharisees (the specification indicates that not all the scribes were) as deeply offensive to the ceremonial law, to which they were particularly devoted, cultivating a legalistic attitude.
Jesus indicates as the privileged recipients of his call not "the healthy" (v. 17) - literally "the strong" (Gr. Hoi ischyontes) - but those repentant sinners who wish to follow the call to live the gospel. The Pharisees who observe Jesus' banquet with the tax collectors refuse to recognize that they too need conversion. But as the apostle Paul will say "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). Only if we are humble and accept to sit with Jesus at the table of sinners will we be able to recognize in him our salvation, the source of eternal life.
Prayer
Open our ears, Lord, to your voice calling us; so that we can rejoice with you at the table of salvation. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
