Ord. Wk 1st January 19, 2019
Reflection on the WORD
Jesus - Sinners: In today’s Gospel, Jesus mingles and dines with tax collectors and publicsinners because Jesus says, “I have come to call not the upright, but sinners.” Are we prejudiced against sinners? Do we imitate Jesus byhating the sin, but have compassion for the sinner, as he too is loved as a child of God?
Mk 2:13-17
Jesus went out to the shore of the lake; and all the people came to him, and he taught them. As he was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
When Jesus heard this he said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.’
Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- •Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.”
- •The Pharisees were so preoccupied with observing the minutest detail of the observances of the Judaic laws that they became self-righteous, narrow minded and exclusive in their understanding of the meaning of salvation.
- •Are we in some ways guilty of being “exclusive and self-righteous” in the way we view salvation? Do we shun sinners and those who have stopped practicing their faith, or do we try to reach out to them with compassion?