Love Everyone

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

LOVE EVERYONE

Mark 2:13-14

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

NIV

Well Levi was not the most liked person in town, that is for sure. We are not sure is this is true about Levi, but it has been recorded that many, if not most, and more than likely all the tax collectors were a little crooked. If the Roman Government decreed a, say a five dollar tax, the collectors would impose a six dollar tax on everyone, saying of course the was the Roman tax needed. These tax collectors would then pocket the difference becoming rather wealthy in the process. This surely lead to the tax collectors being almost hated by all the people in town. Yet here comes Jesus and simply calls Levi to follow him. We would think Jesus would pick people who others would like, making his group very palatable to everyone, but that is not the case. Jesus does not show favoritism. The scripture does say there is no respect of persons with God, or God does not show favoritism. What we have to see here is that we do show favoritism. We do actually say to the ones who have all the money and fine clothes come sit down here, and you with the rags find a place on the floor over there. Oh we don’t do it obviously, like that, but we do it far more subtle than that. We have special ways to demonstrate our favoritism toward certain people. We become fixated on certain parameters of either personality types, body types, educational levels, spiritual maturity levels, financial capabilities or stability, position in society and even general overall appearances in our endeavor to either like or dislike individuals or whole groups of people. If we are to be like Jesus we need to rid ourselves of all preconceived notions of who we think other people are or their value to the Kingdom of God. Jesus called a tax collector to follow him. We will see even more about this in the next narrative, but for now we should consider how we either befriend or not befriend people and what we base that choice on. Who do we like and why, and who do we dislike and why? More importantly is why do we even consider why? Should we not be like Jesus and love everyone?