Dinner at Levi's

If you want to reach those who need help the most, you probably should go to where they are.

Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As 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. 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. When 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?” When 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.” Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” - Mark 2:13-22

Jesus knew he needed to recruit apostles from among those he wanted to reach, so he went to the tax collector, Levi.

He was criticized for it, but it made sense.  Who are we most likely going to listen to, but someone like us, right?

If you think about it, the whole of God's plan in coming to live among us was to be like those He wanted to reach.  Jesus was not a high priest or from a priestly family.  He was average, like us, from Galilee, where no one is highly respected or educated.

If we want to reach people, we need to go where they live, and if we want them to listen to us, we have to become like them.

So, Jesus chose Levi, to reach others like him.

And it worked.

More to come...