Then Levi (a tax collector) held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:29-32
Context is everything
Jesus calling his first disciples and healing people - a man from paralysis and another of leprosy. The big question had been: “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” and now the key question, a complaint, a controversy, in fact, is “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”. This becomes a chief argument for discrediting Jesus’s claims to represent, to be God. Clearly he’s rocking the boat, reversing perceptions. Who are you? (God!) and What are you like/about? (for sinners!) These are no idle claims, but explicit actions, putting faith into action at the heart of community.
I scratch around looking for a synonym for sinner. So much baggage here. What did the word ‘sinner’ mean to Jesus? We are always merely ‘sinners-in-the-process-of-conversion’, time and again taking our place in turning our human finiteness - Paul calls it ‘flesh’ - toward the grace of God, says the Cistercian monk Andre Louf.
I am still a beginner; I had barely started my conversion - Abba Poemen, on his deathbed
In this meal, and those that follow, I note a call to repentence, but the context is a meal, within community, and that makes quite a difference! It’s not within a tub thumping sermon or a critical voice in the head but in a convivial accepting setting. Just be with me, hang out with me, watch me says Jesus. Let’s clear some cobwebs, even start again for some. It’s an inclusive call to take my place, turning my finiteness (which is true and continued) toward the grace of God, which is readily, heartily and open handedly extended.
And so today is a day sacred to the Lord, with its own ebbs and flows, hustle and bustle. We, in the words of John O’Donohue, may ‘trust the shape the day takes’, with its gentle call to receive the ever present grace of God. This is given within and as I go about my day, whilst eating and drinking.
Question
Where is today’s grace?