Last Sunday we returned to our series looking at the life of Jesus through the eyes of Mark's gospel, and in 2:13-22 we find Jesus inviting a guy called Levi to follow him - which he does. And Levi then invites Jesus and the other disciples to his house for a meal with his friends and work-mates.
That might not seem all that amazing until we read the bit about Levi being a tax-collector. An un-popular profession in most cultures but especially so in first century Palestine. As a tax-collector you were working for the occupying army from Rome, you were siding with the enemy, and to top it off you were almost certainly adding a little to every bill - a little that would find it's way straight into your pocket. Levi was certainly not the sort of person you would expect Jesus to ask to follow him - and he was most certainly not the sort of person who you'd go and eat with - at least not unless you wanted to become ceremonially unclean. That's the reason why the Pharisees were so shocked at what they saw Jesus doing.
Yet Jesus is re-defining the whole way they understood the kingdom of God. It was not something you were born into, and you remained in as long as you did the right things and avoided the wrong things. It was not something that those who were inside needed to protect from those who were outside. No, the kingdom of God was something that you entered through repentance (1:15) and once on the inside you were to be looking outward and inviting others in too.
Jesus got invites to spend time with "tax-collectors and sinners", even though we know from examples such as Levi, Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler that he made radical demands on people's lives, demands to repent - to have your whole life turned upside down. But then as these people spent time with Jesus they came to see that what he had to offer was a better way of life.
How can we show that there is a better way this week?
