The gospel for Saturday after Ash Wednesday is taken from Luke 5th chapter 27 to the 32nd verse. Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, follow me. And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus said to them, reply, those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners. This story is a beautiful story about the clarity of who Jesus was. Compared to the leaders of the temple. They saw evil as something that should be avoided at all times. You don’t get near it, you don’t get around it, and that would make you holier.

And it’s so interesting that they didn’t seem to care for those who were in the pain of sin. And Jesus comes to turn that upside down. The Pharisees and scribes were not to be models of perfection, but they were to be healers. And Jesus pointed this out so clearly when he simply reminds them that the God who created them, the God who is, came into the world as a healer, not an example of perfection. Please pause and reflect upon these images and then I will close with a prayer. The closing prayer.

Father, we know that evil is a powerful force. But you’ve taught us that you are so much more powerful. And when you are within us, when we are counting on your strength, not our own, to overcome evil, we will always succeed. So bless us with this confidence. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.