Saturday 15 Jan 2022

January 15: Mark 2:13-17

Key Verse: Mark 2:15
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

Devotion:
If you are like me and are always tempted to go against the rules and what other people think, then you will love this bit of text from the bible. Jesus saw a large crowd of people were following Him, but did not think twice about asking Levi, a tax collector, to follow Him and learn what God wanted him to hear!

It was little wonder when they went to Levi’s house, a whole bunch of tax collectors and sinner gathered. Levi was both tax collector and sinner and mixed with those types of people – so they came round to see what was going on! When the teachers of the law saw what was happening, they were horrified Jesus was mixing with the “wrong crowd!” But Jesus was doing exactly what God was asking Him to do – to give the sinners the same chance at coming to Him as any other person!

Jesus’ response was to remind them it was these very people who most needed to hear about God and most needed to repent and ask for forgiveness. I say that with tongue in cheek because we all are in the same boat. The wages of sin is death, no matter how big or little we think the sin is. So we all need Christ as much as each other!

You could look at this in two ways. You could say it would be easier for someone who only knows sin to be convicted of the wrong doing and accept Christ than for someone who follows all the rules but does not quite accept Christ as Lord. Or you could look at it in the opposite way as sinners being further from God, hence harder to reconcile. Stop judging!

Points to Ponder:
How much of a sinner do you think you are?

How much do you admit God knows of you?