who wants to be with us?

Mark 2

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.

14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector's booth.

"Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

So Levi got up and followed him.


15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests,

        along with many tax collectors and other notorious sinners.

        (There were many people of this kind among Jesus' followers.)

16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples,

        "Why does he eat with such scum?"


17 When Jesus heard this, he told them,

        "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do.

        I have come to call not those who think they are righteous,

        but those who know they are sinners."



If anyone reads these blogs of mine very long, they've read what I think about this passage...

There was a quality of Jesus' love & connection with people that even those who were considered "uber-sinners" wanted to be around Him.

And so, in regards to this passage, my question has always been the same...

Is there a quality in our lives,

     a singleness of acceptance,

     a thoroughly guilelessness to our love for people,

     in general, & in specific,

      that people just want to be around us?

Jesus REALLY loved people & connected with them.

Is that what people think of each of us who say we follow Jesus?

Are we so hooked up with Jesus that His love for people & His caring about them come out of us?

And where would each of us be if those who loved & connected with us while pointing us to Him had been more like us & our unwillingness to love & connect with even "notorious" sinners?