Saturday, January 18, 2003
1st Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Heb 4:12-16
Gospel: Mk 2:13-17

When Jesus went out again beside the lake, a crowd came to him and he taught them. As he walked along, he saw a tax collector sitting in his office. This was Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus said to him, "Follow me." And Levi got up and followed him.

And it so happened that while Jesus was eating in Levi's house, tax collectors and sinners were sitting with him and his disciples for there were indeed many of them. But there were also teachers of the Law of the Pharisees' party, among those who followed Jesus, and when they saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why! He eats with tax collectors and sinners!"

Jesus heard them and answered, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Gospel Commentary

A theologian once remarked that Jesus died because of the way he ate. There is more than a grain of truth in this. His meals were anticipations of the feast of God's mercy that the Kingdom of God is. His meals rewrote boundaries: Jesus treated those who were despised outsiders, the sinners, as honored insiders and guests. He succeeded in threatening those whose sense of identity depended on the clear boundaries of exclusion. Jesus' eating habits continue to be a prophetic protest against any system of human relationship that thrives on exclusion.

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