A Reflection for Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Find today’s readings here.
“The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Lk 5:30)
This story of the call of Levi has many layers and ultimately reveals Jesus’ pastoral mission of merciful inclusion. Jesus operates out of the assumption that mercifully engaging those who are marginalized, even if their marginalization is self-inflicted or the result of what the community understands to be a sin, opens in people a special capacity for loving. In other words, when human beings are defined, not by their mistakes or sins, but by their inherent dignity and potential, love can abound. A scripture scholar I read years ago argued that that might be why Jesus hung around with so many sinners like Levi. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by loving people? We can easily miss the fact that Levi’s first act as a Christian was to throw an inclusive party for others.
The other striking layer to this story is a bit more nuanced. It’s about the dynamic at play between Jesus and the Pharisees. We need to be careful not to generalize about the Pharisees and scribes, as they were not a homogeneous group of religious authorities thwarting Jesus’ ministry at every turn. In most cases, they were faithful followers and teachers of the Law. In this story, Luke clearly identifies a group of individuals who complain about Jesus’ pastoral approach. What’s striking is how Luke portrays it: These individuals do not complain directly to Jesus, they complain to his disciples. But the disciples don’t respond to them, Jesus does. It’s quite dramatic.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we tend to complain in exactly the same way. For whatever reason, we’re judgmental of another person. But we vent privately to people who probably won’t challenge us because it’s safer that way. Our self-righteousness remains intact. This is a profoundly human tendency. But it’s one reason why the Gospels are so liberating. In reading them, we learn that Jesus already knows we have this problem. There is no safe place to vent our judgement. Luckily for us, Jesus doesn’t define us by our tendency towards judgement, but by our capacity for love.
