Mark Reading Plan – W2D2
Week 2 | Day 2 | Mark 2:13-17
Check out all the previous readings here.
Pray
Thank God for something in your life and ask Him to speak to you through your reading and reflection today.
Bible Reading (read these verses three times slowly)
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Reflection & Questions
It’s hard to overestimate the shock of Jesus having dinner with tax collectors. Tax collector’s were Israelites who worked for the Roman occupiers and often stole from their own people. They were regarded as traitors. However, Jesus was willing to sit at the table with them. What’s equally interesting is that they wanted to eat with Jesus. Mark writes that “many” followed Jesus. There was something about Jesus, that even though he was the “holy one of God”, sinners and traitors wanted to be around him.
- What do you think it was about Jesus that attracted tax collectors and sinners?
- Who are the tax collectors of today? Would you be willing to eat with them? Do you think they’d be willing to eat with you? Why or why not?
Pray
Write or say a prayer in response to what Jesus has done.
Worship Song
Praise God today that He is a friend of sinners!
Bible Reading
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Reflection & Questions
It doesn’t seem all that weird that Jesus was having dinner with tax collectors, does it? I mean, let’s be honest, they’re just people, right? But back in Jesus’ time, tax collector’s were considered some of the worst people in the entire nation! They were thought of as traitors, and people who stole from others! But even with people feeling that way about tax collectors, Jesus still went and had dinner with them. Do you know why? Well, if these people really were the ‘worst of the worst’, wouldn’t those be the people who needed Jesus the most? Think about it – if you are sick, where do you go? The doctor, right? But what about when you’re healthy, do you still go to the doctor? Not usually! It’s the people who are sick who need the doctor the most. Just like that, Jesus came to help forgive the sins of EVERYONE, not just the people who were the nicest or the best!
- Jesus loves everyone, even the ones who are considered bad! How can we show Jesus’ love to everyone too?
- Is there anyone at your school or that you know of who is especially hard to show love to, or to forgive? What are some ways that you can show love and forgiveness to that person this week?
Prayer
Say a prayer asking God to help show you how to show His love to everyone around you today.
Bible Reading
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Devo Focus
Mark 2:17 ”On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Question
Ew… you hang out with them?
There’s always people in our lives that we want to label as, “those people.” You know who they are at school. They’re the ones that you always talk about but never talk to. They are the ones that you can’t stand but never know anything real about them.
In Jesus’ day, “those people” were tax collectors and sinners. Tax collects basically were tractors that stole from their people to give to Rome. Sinners were anybody that were not super holy religious people. And man did the religious people not like either of these people. They thought they were literally God’s gift to the world, and that their number one job was to judge others and tell them how they were no good. So what did Jesus think about these people? He sat them all down at a tax collectors house and had a meal with his disciples, tax collectors, sinners and even the Pharisees. These people hated each other but to Jesus, all he saw were people that needed him. They were all sick with sin, and he was their only cure. Instead of hiding from and judging these people, Jesus became friends.
How about you?
- Who do you judge? Who do you think is no good? What are the type of people that you hang out with and do they have the same heart for people different from them that Jesus did? Jesus just wanted to love people and then they needed forgiveness, do you?
- Who is someone that is very different from you that you need to treat better?
- How can you invite people into your friendship circles people who are different than you?
- How does Jesus’ example help us see people in our world that need Jesus more?