Jesus sat down to eat at Levis house. Many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples. Indeed, many of them had become his followers.

When some of the legal experts from among the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, 

"Why is he eating with sinners and tax collectors?"

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, 

"Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn't come to call righteous people, but sinners."

Mark 2:15-17 CEB

These experts in the law just couldn't understand what Jesus was about. They knew all the intricacies of God's law, but had missed the heart behind it all. 

Tim Keller used a phrase  our "self salvation project" - where getting right with God is tied up in keeping all the rules - and only if you're good enough at that all the time.

Jesus is saying by his actions it's about relationship - it's a heart thing - between people and our God who wants to be close, to come close.

Our God who would choose to sit down to dinner with us rather than anything else. Who asks us to put down the weight of the rules and start again in friendship, sharing a meal, getting to know one another.

What are you & I being asked to put down today?

And invited to step towards?

#gospelofMark #GoodNews 

#invitation