Mk 2:13-17
13[Jesus] went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. 14As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 15While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. 16Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17Jesus heard this and said to them [that], “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Why does he eat with sinners?: Sometimes our problem with other people is not our difference in age or worldview but our exclusivity and rigidity.
Exclusivity is our being open only to those who agree with us or those we can use. We shut ourselves off from those who are different, as if they were not human beings or had no right to exist. We do not want them to mingle with us or cross our lines.
Rigidity is our holding on stubbornly to what we know as right and proper, our being closed to alternatives. We are afraid of fresh ideas and new ways of doing things. We stick to what we have always known and what we only want to see and believe.
Exclusivity and rigidity characterize many scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ time. They cost the life of Jesus. They will also snuff out the joy and life in us if we remain exclusive and rigid.
Levi: According to Mark and to Luke, the local tax collector in Capernaum is called Levi, named after one of the 12 patriarchs of Israel (Gn 29:34). He was probably working for a chief tax collector who had acquired from Herod the tetrarch the rights to collect taxes in the area in exchange for a lump sum. Tax collectors were generally suspected of various forms of frauds and were scorned by the people.
In Mt 9:9, Levi is identified with Matthew, one of the twelve apostles.