“I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2, 13-17) | RCF

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

During that time,
Jesus went out again along the sea;
the whole crowd came to him,
and he taught them.
Passing by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the tax office.
He tells him :
” Follow me. »
The man got up and followed him.
As Jesus was at table in the house of Levi,
many publicans (i.e. tax collectors)
and many sinners
came to sit with Jesus and his disciples,
because many of them followed him.
The scribes of the group of the Pharisees,
seeing that he ate with sinners and publicans,
said to his disciples:
” How ! He eats with publicans and sinners! »
Jesus, who had heard, said to them:
“It’s not the healthy people
who need the doctor,
but the sick.
I did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners. »

Source: AELF

Meditation Pastor Corinne Charriau

As with the first four disciples, Mark recounts with the same great sobriety the call of Levi, son of Alphaeus. At the call of Jesus, Levi leaves his job as a toll collector and follows Jesus. In the next chapter, Mark mentions ” James, son of Alphaeus ” rather than ” Levi, son of Alphaeus in the list of twelve. This opens up the possibility of a circle of disciples larger than the twelve. Levi is called Matthew in the first Gospel.

Levi, son of Alphaeus, is therefore seated at the tax office, it is likely that he is an employee of a tax collector. In a few words, Marc recounts this call from Lévi. Note that Levi says nothing, asks no questions. We could tell ourselves that Levi could obey the word of Jesus like a puppet. However, even if nothing is explained to us, the call of Jesus could join an interior questioning already there in Lévi, join an expectation which is his. But this is not Mark’s draft scripture, which, with few words, rather highlights the decisive moment that this call from Jesus represents for Levi.

However, a few words later, Jesus finds himself at the table, at Levi’s with other tax collectors who are present. They are also at Lévi at Luc that I quote “Then Levi offered him a big meal in his house”

But sobriety remains in order in this account of Lévi’s appeal to Marc. We already mentioned this authority of the word of Jesus a few days ago. Jesus speaks and it happens. The word of Jesus made its way to Levi. The word of God finds its way into the lives of humans. Like Levi, we are also called by Jesus to follow him. There is undoubtedly a decisive moment that we could tell with our words, in our history, a moment when we heard his word at the bottom of our lives. Each and everyone is free to get up and follow him in his daily life.