Many Had Become Followers

Belonging that leads to healing.

Mark tells us, almost in passing, that many had become followers. Tax collectors and sinners. The point is to draw a stark picture between what was expected and what actually was. The legal experts clearly did not approve. It’s not immediately apparent to us - 2000~ years later - who would have been acceptable to the religious leaders. But we can imagine. And we know it wasn’t these tax collectors. Not Levi (Matthew).

Jesus called to him - someone whose livelihood was likely bound up with compromise and the resentment of those he took advantage of. And then Jesus went to eat at Levi’s table. It’s precisely there, in that space, that Jesus chooses to be seen. Not just a business associate, but someone he’d sit down and eat with.

The objection of the religious legal experts is swift and clear. Why associate so closely with people whose lives so clearly miss the mark?

Jesus’ answer reframes the whole scene. There’s no denial of the problem. He does not pretend that desire is harmless or that brokenness is illusion. This is actually often a key disconnect today between those who are considered “accepting” and those who are not. But what Jesus is doing is to insist that healing requires proximity. Calling requires presence. And the kind of belonging that involves associating with someone as close as sitting down to a meal with them is at the heart of God’s kingdom. Following begins not with moral sorting, but with invitation.

James helps us see the deeper layer at work. Desire itself is not neutral, he says. Left unattended, it grows, shapes us, and eventually gives birth to destructive patterns. But James also refuses to blame God for that process. The work of God is not temptation, but restoration.

Read together, Mark and James tell a consistent story: Jesus calls people where they are, and he is not afraid to go there, but his intention is that people will not remain there. And “there” can be found in religious moralism as much as it is in cheating and lying itself. Following him insists on relationship toward healing. Following him means allowing our desires to be named, exposed, and re-formed. Many might say they want to become followers. But we are not his followers unless we allow him on his terms.

That work often begins at a table.

Mark 2:13-17

Jesus went out beside the lake again. The whole crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he continued along, he saw Levi, Alphaeus’ son, sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him.

Jesus sat down to eat at Levi’s 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.”

James 1:13-15

No one who is tested should say, “God is tempting me!” This is because God is not tempted by any form of evil, nor does he tempt anyone. Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them. Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin; and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death.

Prayer

God,

You call us where we are, not afraid to meet us there. And you sit at tables we might otherwise avoid. Give us the courage to let you come close and to be the ones as willing as you are to do it. Free us from the comfort of moral distance and from the illusion that belonging means approval. Form in us a faith that trusts your nearness and submits to your restoring work.

Teach us what it means to follow you on your terms, to be gathered into your people, and to live as witnesses of your kingdom.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.