Gospel of 20 February 2021
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus comes not to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance
Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything he got up and followed him.
In his honour Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’
Reflexion
Have you ever experienced an insult that was actually a compliment? Seems like strange irony but it is actually quite common. Usually those who know us well and not just superficially, are able to deliver a compliment in the guise of an insult. For example, when someone says that I’m predictable, I take that as a compliment, although others would treat it as an insult, suggesting that I’m not very creative and in fact, quite boring. But being predictable for me is not such a bad thing. In fact, being predictable is one of my strongest qualities. People who work with me know what to expect.
Our Lord calling Levi, and subsequently going to the house of Levi upon his invitation, seems like the greatest honour paid to Levi. Yet, as our Lord explains at the end of the passage, He does so not because He finds Levi to be a good righteous man who deserves such honour, but precisely because Levi is a sinner. Levi is called and Levi’s invitation is accepted because Levi is a sick man - he is sick with sin. As our Lord explains His motivation: “‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick.”
How about the Pharisees and the scribes? They wonder why the Lord does not call them to follow Him as disciples, or why He does not compliment them for their faithful adherence to the Law. They take that as an insult. They would have been more insulted if they understood our Lord’s insinuation that they too were sinners like the rest of the crowd.
In fact, our Lord is not concerned with their outward devotion. He is calling them to the same healing, the same contrition of heart, to which He calls all people. The Pharisees and the scribes can actually be grouped together with Levi and his friends. They are all spiritually sick. They are all sinners in need of healing and forgiveness. The only difference is that some are aware of it and some are not. Those who remain ignorant of their condition lack humility. Levi recognised that he was a sinner, he was sick and in need of a doctor. The Pharisees and scribes couldn’t see this in themselves. Unlike Levi, they were too proud to admit that they had failed to live up to God’s expectations.
It is a false and mistaken disparity to think that some of us are healthy and others are sick. Let’s be honest, all of us are sick, all of us are sinners in need of the Divine Physician. As St Paul reminds us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There is no harm in admitting this and we should not take it as an insult if someone were to remind us that we are sinners. Because it is in acknowledging the truth about ourselves that we know that our Lord has come to die for us. For He has said, “It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.”