Room at the Table
Mark 2:13-22
This week we are introduced to two main stories. Jesus has just demonstrated his authority to forgive sins. He was challenged by those who charged him with blasphemy. This week Jesus again faces opposition, this time about his association with sinners.
The Calling of Levi
Echoing his call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John from Mark 1:16-20, Jesus calls Levi to leave everything and follow him. And like those four, Levi gets up and follows Jesus. Who is Levi? Some say that he is Matthew, since Matthew too was a tax collector. There is no evidence that this is the case. It appears is that Levi is a follower of Jesus outside of "the twelve."
What we do know is that Levi was a tax collector. Since the text said that he was sitting at his tollbooth, it appears that he would have been responsible for collecting taxes for Herod Antipas rather than directly for the Roman government. These booths were located along major highways, bridges, and waterways in order to collect money for the local authorities. Even though he did not collect taxes form Rome, Levi would have been considered to be part of an unpatriotic business and not viewed well by Jews in the region of Galilee.
Tax collectors were considered ritually impure due to their regular contact with Gentiles and their goods. Levi's commitment to his work would have made him abandon his own religious community. He would not have been allowed in the Synagogue, and those who came in contact with him would also have become ritually impure.
It's to this man, who was not seeking Jesus or even looking for a way out of his current lot, that Jesus approaches and calls Levi to follow him. In this brief moment, Jesus has just made a radical point, that all are welcome to follow him in his kingdom. If Levi is welcome, all are welcome. The outsider has become an insider to God.
Mark includes this story to tell his readers that all are welcome to follow Jesus. Especially if Mark was written to the Gentile church, who would have been considered outsiders to at least some in the Jewish community, this story reenforces the idea that they too are welcome to follow Jesus.
The Dinner Party
Jesus, Levi, and others move on to dinner. The fact that they were reclining to eat makes this a more formal meal. Think of it as a planned dinner event. The timing suggests that the call to follow Jesus welcomes you not only into a relationship with Christ, but it also invites you into a new community. Jesus reclines and eats with Levi and the others. Some manuscripts include the addition of "and drinking" to the dinner. It appears that later editors wanted to include eating and drinking to hint at a eucharistic dinner. Jesus was not just eating with sinners and tax collectors but was celebrating the Eucharist with them. This message, while anachronistic, was meant to teach Mark's audience that all people were welcome into house churches to celebrate the Lord's supper and be welcomed into the community.
Some Scribes of the Pharisees question Jesus as to why he is eating with sinners and tax collectors. This is not just about moral purity but also about ritual purity. They are unclean. Jesus has dealt with this question before. Jesus responds with a common parable about how it is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy and that he has been called to the sinners rather than the righteous.
As we saw with the man with leprosy, Jesus does not become ritually unclean eating with these people. Rather Jesus' righteousness extends to his community. Jesus welcomes all just as they are. Jesus welcomes us all and makes us clean. The same continues to be true today. Jesus invites all, welcomes all, and cleanses all who come.
I have been struck by a number of recent conversations in which good people question whether "this or that" person is welcome in church, in God's kingdom. While God does expect new life from us, and gives us the grace to grow in faith, all are welcome at Christ's table. Christ calls all sinners to himself and therefore all are welcome in his community, the church.
New and Old
Fasting was assumed in Judaism and later Christianity. Judaism had a national day of fasting on the day of atonement. The Didache 8:1 suggests that the Pharisees fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fasting was not just a sign of mourning but of repentance, especially by those who were calling upon God to intervene in the world. By not fasting Jesus and his disciples were being accused of hampering or delaying God's coming.
Jesus was saying, by calling himself the bridegroom, that God had in fact come. What they had been hoping for, fasting for, was not present with them. It was not a time for fasting but a time for feasting. However, he does, in an early passion prediction, claim that the time would come when the bridegroom would be taken away. The time for fasting would come again.
That was the situation for Mark's audience and us. We live in a world that requires feasting, a party. Christ has come and his kingdom is here. Christ has achieved victory over evil in all of its forms. On the other hand, it is a time for fasting for Christ's reign is not fully realized. The Spirit is with us and yet evil is still present. We long for a time when Christ comes again.
This is the difficult world of "the in-between." This calls is to live in expectation and hope. For God has done something new and we are waiting for it to come. We feast and fast together knowing that one day, our mourning will be over. For God's new kingdom will come.
Questions for Discussion
1. Where were you when God called you to follow him? Do you ever feel unworthy to sit at his table? What does this passage teach you about your place?
2. Are all welcome into your Christian community? Who isn't?
3. Are you in a period of feasting or fasting in your life? Do you have hope?
This week we are introduced to two main stories. Jesus has just demonstrated his authority to forgive sins. He was challenged by those who charged him with blasphemy. This week Jesus again faces opposition, this time about his association with sinners.
The Calling of Levi
Echoing his call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John from Mark 1:16-20, Jesus calls Levi to leave everything and follow him. And like those four, Levi gets up and follows Jesus. Who is Levi? Some say that he is Matthew, since Matthew too was a tax collector. There is no evidence that this is the case. It appears is that Levi is a follower of Jesus outside of "the twelve."
What we do know is that Levi was a tax collector. Since the text said that he was sitting at his tollbooth, it appears that he would have been responsible for collecting taxes for Herod Antipas rather than directly for the Roman government. These booths were located along major highways, bridges, and waterways in order to collect money for the local authorities. Even though he did not collect taxes form Rome, Levi would have been considered to be part of an unpatriotic business and not viewed well by Jews in the region of Galilee.
Tax collectors were considered ritually impure due to their regular contact with Gentiles and their goods. Levi's commitment to his work would have made him abandon his own religious community. He would not have been allowed in the Synagogue, and those who came in contact with him would also have become ritually impure.
It's to this man, who was not seeking Jesus or even looking for a way out of his current lot, that Jesus approaches and calls Levi to follow him. In this brief moment, Jesus has just made a radical point, that all are welcome to follow him in his kingdom. If Levi is welcome, all are welcome. The outsider has become an insider to God.
Mark includes this story to tell his readers that all are welcome to follow Jesus. Especially if Mark was written to the Gentile church, who would have been considered outsiders to at least some in the Jewish community, this story reenforces the idea that they too are welcome to follow Jesus.
The Dinner Party
Jesus, Levi, and others move on to dinner. The fact that they were reclining to eat makes this a more formal meal. Think of it as a planned dinner event. The timing suggests that the call to follow Jesus welcomes you not only into a relationship with Christ, but it also invites you into a new community. Jesus reclines and eats with Levi and the others. Some manuscripts include the addition of "and drinking" to the dinner. It appears that later editors wanted to include eating and drinking to hint at a eucharistic dinner. Jesus was not just eating with sinners and tax collectors but was celebrating the Eucharist with them. This message, while anachronistic, was meant to teach Mark's audience that all people were welcome into house churches to celebrate the Lord's supper and be welcomed into the community.
Some Scribes of the Pharisees question Jesus as to why he is eating with sinners and tax collectors. This is not just about moral purity but also about ritual purity. They are unclean. Jesus has dealt with this question before. Jesus responds with a common parable about how it is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy and that he has been called to the sinners rather than the righteous.
As we saw with the man with leprosy, Jesus does not become ritually unclean eating with these people. Rather Jesus' righteousness extends to his community. Jesus welcomes all just as they are. Jesus welcomes us all and makes us clean. The same continues to be true today. Jesus invites all, welcomes all, and cleanses all who come.
I have been struck by a number of recent conversations in which good people question whether "this or that" person is welcome in church, in God's kingdom. While God does expect new life from us, and gives us the grace to grow in faith, all are welcome at Christ's table. Christ calls all sinners to himself and therefore all are welcome in his community, the church.
New and Old
Fasting was assumed in Judaism and later Christianity. Judaism had a national day of fasting on the day of atonement. The Didache 8:1 suggests that the Pharisees fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fasting was not just a sign of mourning but of repentance, especially by those who were calling upon God to intervene in the world. By not fasting Jesus and his disciples were being accused of hampering or delaying God's coming.
Jesus was saying, by calling himself the bridegroom, that God had in fact come. What they had been hoping for, fasting for, was not present with them. It was not a time for fasting but a time for feasting. However, he does, in an early passion prediction, claim that the time would come when the bridegroom would be taken away. The time for fasting would come again.
That was the situation for Mark's audience and us. We live in a world that requires feasting, a party. Christ has come and his kingdom is here. Christ has achieved victory over evil in all of its forms. On the other hand, it is a time for fasting for Christ's reign is not fully realized. The Spirit is with us and yet evil is still present. We long for a time when Christ comes again.
This is the difficult world of "the in-between." This calls is to live in expectation and hope. For God has done something new and we are waiting for it to come. We feast and fast together knowing that one day, our mourning will be over. For God's new kingdom will come.
Questions for Discussion
1. Where were you when God called you to follow him? Do you ever feel unworthy to sit at his table? What does this passage teach you about your place?
2. Are all welcome into your Christian community? Who isn't?
3. Are you in a period of feasting or fasting in your life? Do you have hope?
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