Hi everyone. Welcome again to our podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you're really enjoying this way of

looking at the Bible and looking at the lectionary, I think it's always so important

to start with the literal sense of the text.

And that's what we do in this podcast.

So let's jump into today's reading, which is Luke chapter 5, verses 27 to 32.

Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, follow me.

And leaving everything, he got up and followed him.

In his honour, Levi held a great reception in his house and with them at table was a large gathering of tax

collectors and sinners. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said,

Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus said to them in reply,

it is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick.

I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.

So let's start by asking what's the context, what has just been happening in Luke?

So at this point Jesus is walking around the villages of the Sea of Galilee, preaching.

He's becoming more and more popular.

And we introduced, or Jesus notices someone sitting by the sea who is a tax collector.

So what are tax collectors?

These were Jews who essentially worked for the Romans.

They were hired by the Romans to collect

taxes from the Jews. And the Jews didn't like tax collectors for three reasons. So they worked

for the Romans. That automatically makes them an enemy of the Jews. They take people's money and no one

likes that. And thirdly, they had a habit of corrupting

...