Today's Scripture
TODAY’S READING SCHEDULE: 2 Chronicles 4-6; Luke 5:17-39
For every Sinner – Luke 5:27-32
27 Afterward, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
28 Levi got up, left everything behind, and followed him. 29 Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them. 30 The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 32 I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.”
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Jesus came for everyone willing to ‘Follow him.’ Everyone who had the desire to follow was invited to ‘sit down and eat with him.’ It reminds us of the promise in Revelation 3:20, where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me.” When we open up the doors of our lives, with the desire to follow, we see Jesus dwelling with us.
Jesus came to this world for sinners like us. Did you hear it? Sinners like us! So often we can think that the others are the sinners, but Jesus says, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.” The moment we think we are righteous can be the moment we see our desire to follow disappear. And when we do not see that desire to follow Jesus, how can we see the presence of our Lord in our lives?
That is why, in many prayers, they acknowledge our sins. It’s not to put us in guilt, but to remind us of our desire to follow and see the presence of God in our lives.
Prayer
” Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy” and “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us (Jesus Prayer by the Ancient Fathers).
In Christ Name we pray, AMEN.
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