27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”
31 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
To me, this passage has always been such an indictment.
In a day of middle class infused Christianity, how many of us are willing to intentionally hang out with people who are not followers of Jesus?
I'm talking about people who are not just not followers, but who find the whole Jesus thing contemptible or laughable, or of no consequence.
I mean people who might be more than just a little confrontational about what we think & believe.
Or are we more likely to hang with safe like minded people of our same socio/economic level in safe little coffee shops, sipping heavily flavored lattes, & talking about how good God is?
And consider this - where would any of us be if the people who influenced us to follow Jesus had been as smug & egocentric as we are?
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