Passage Read: Mark 1-2
Meditation Verse: 2:15
Thought
Mark points out that the "sinners" and tax collectors who are with Jesus at Matthew's house were followers! While many of Matthew's friends would likely be tax collectors, and when Matthew invited Jesus for dinner, many of those friends may have come out of curiosity, to find out more about Jesus, Mark says that there were already many who followed Jesus. Secretly? At a distance? No one liked them, but they heard of Jesus and likely came to hear Him, and had the financial means to take off work and follow Jesus to hear Him. How many were like Zacchaeus, returning the excess they had gathered? How many had come to John and asked what they must do to show their repentance? Jesus welcomed anyone who wanted to know what repentance looked like or who were already repentant.
Application
Many like to point to this statement and say how Jesus ate with sinful people, but Mark makes it clear that these were not people continuing to live in sin, but people who listened to and obeyed Jesus' teaching. They were followers of Jesus. They had repented. Though those who disdained Jesus' ministry characterized them as "sinners" and tax collectors, to denigrate Jesus and His followers, the truth is these people had accepted Jesus' message and we're eager to learn more. They had left of their sinful practices and we're learning to live God-pleasing lives. They were not continuing to live in sin! While of course I should welcome and meet with anyone who wants to understand the Gospel and its implications to our lives, I'm not expected to go eat with people who know and care nothing about repentance. I must take the Gospel to all kinds of lost people, but that doesn't mean I ignore their sinful lives and behavior. Rather, I must call them to repent, receive forgiveness through Jesus and walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.