March 14, 2014

The Reading: Mark 2:13-17

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.’

Questions for Reflection

In Jesus’s day, tax collectors were despised by most of the common people, for two reasons: they were collaborating with the Roman authorities and they took more than from people than just the designated tax, because that was how they made their living.  A person had to buy a tax collecting position, so most of those who did it were from families with at least some financial standing.  Because of this, few poor people would have anything to do with tax collectors.  The wealthier people who followed the Jewish purity code also shunned the tax collectors, because they handled foreign money, which was unclean.  Who do you think are the tax collectors of our day?

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