Luke 5:27-32
Chapter 5
27
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office. He said to him, “Follow me!”
28
So Levi, leaving everything behind, got up and followed Jesus.
29
Levi hosted a big feast for Jesus, and many tax collectors came to his house and took their places at the table with the other guests.
30
Then the Pharisees and their followers complained to Jesus’ disciples, “How is it, that you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31
But Jesus replied, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do.
32
I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Commentaries
Calls Levi: Shares the Table with Sinners.
While Jesus ‘loses points’ with official Judaism, he nonetheless ‘gains’ in establishing the kingdom of God; although he loses his life to those who can kill the body (Mt 10:28), he gains life every time people like those who are with him at the table are converted and open themselves to this new event, which is the presence of the “bridegroom” (34f), of the kingdom that upends the established order maintained by the legalism of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.