Mark 2:13-14

Passage

Once more Jesus goes out to the sea to preach.  Once more the crowd comes near to Him.  Once more Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them.  As Jesus is going along, he comes across Levi (also called Matthew) and tells Levi to follow Him.  Levi rose up and followed Jesus.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus went out into the open air to teach.  More and more the synagogues were becoming dangerous.  Thus, Jesus does what any good rabbi would do – He teaches as He walks!  This is actually a really neat symbol.  It shows us that no time is a bad time to teach and to learn.  Just because travel is happening doesn’t mean a person cannot learn from God.  Just because a person happens to be walking from one place to another doesn’t mean they cannot be accompanied by a teacher and taught.  All of life is our classroom in God’s hands, not just the “holy spaces.”

How often does God come among your “ordinary time” and teach you?  How often do you find yourself learning from God in places that you wouldn’t expect?

Second Thought:

The crowd continues to follow Jesus.  Yet, what is really interesting is that nobody in the crowd becomes a “disciple.”  The crowd is simply there to follow Jesus, see what He does, observe, etc.  But they really don’t seem to be there to commit to Jesus.  Levi, on the other hand, does.

Does it seem strange to you that there is no mention of anyone in the “crowd” following Jesus with respect to being a disciple of Jesus – especially when they see the example of Levi?  What might this say about the difficulty of truly following Jesus when we really just want to be part of the crowd?  What could this passage teach us about how we think when we are an individual versus how we think when we are part of the crowd?

Third Thought:

Jesus calls a tax collector.  Of all the people in the crowd, Jesus pulls out someone who is “in league with the Romans.”  Tax collectors were the people who collected dues for the Roman government.  Tax collectors were the people who collect money to pay for the Roman soldiers and all the other things the Romans brought with them.  As such, tax collectors were also known for charging a little extra so that they could keep some for themselves, too.  The point in all of this?  Jesus takes one of “those kind of people” and tells him to follow Him.

What does this passage tell us about God’s willingness to use us regardless of our past?  What does this passage tell us about God’s willingness to forgive?  How does this passage speak about how God really looks upon who we are as a person?

Passage for Tomorrow: Mark 2:15-17