Passage: Mark 2:13-17
Last week, we saw the start of what would be ongoing and increasing hostility of Jewish religious leaders to Jesus. The trend continues in this morning’s passage which records the call of Levi and the party he threw for Jesus and his friends. Contemporary religious sensibilities argued that a truly spiritual man should have nothing to do with the rabble who had not carefully studied God’s Word and who made no attempt at meticulously observing the religious traditions designed to help one to keep the law. Jesus turned this kind of flawed thinking on its head. He came to save sinners, and while that includes all of us, the ones he would save would be those, and only those, who recognized their need for salvation. Nothing is more dangerous and deceptive than self-righteousness.