1st Tuesday of Lent (March 11). NOT THE RIGHTEOUS BUT SINNERS

Prepare to Listen.  My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 5:27-32
27After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’  28And he got up, left everything, and followed him.  29Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them.  30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’  31Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Why do you suppose Jesus chose Levi, from the despised class, to be his disciple?  Would you?  Would your church?
 
When Jesus chose Levi, he departed from local common practice.  Tax collectors were treated as enemy outcasts, despised and ostracized.  Rejecting common practice.  Not only did he call a tax collector to follow him and become his disciple, he also entered Levi’s home, ate with his fellow tax collectors and other sinners, unsettling many.
 
Let’s be honest, we too sometimes despise or ignore people because of minor stuff like their biblical interpretations, political affiliations, gender orientation, religion, race, whatever.  Like the Pharisees, we classify them and label them ‘sinner’.  The trouble is, Jesus doesn’t.  He associates with all sorts, without consulting us.  If we’re committed to following him, willing to risk trusting him, we’ll find ourselves with people we've tried to avoid.
 
When we thwart local custom, there’ll be, as in Jesus’ day, modern day Pharisees and scribes who will protest.  Like the pastor who told Christian leaders their reputation was all that mattered, therefore they shouldn’t compromise themselves by mixing with ‘sinners.’  To all protestors Jesus says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous [the well] but sinners [the sick] to repentance.”  In other words, Jesus “is like a doctor who can’t do his work unless he associates with the sick.”[1]  If we want to follow Jesus, we too must befriend the ‘sick.’
 
Who are ‘the sick’ in your world, the outcasts and ostracized?  How can you be Jesus to them?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, give me a vision of who you are so that I may serve you in greater humility and trust.  May I reach out to ‘sinners’ today so they experience you in me.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Welcome ‘sinners’ as Jesus did.
[1] Wright, N. T.  Luke for Everyone.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.  2001, p. 64.