GOSPEL READING
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
THE CALL OF THE TAX COLLECTOR: Mk 2,13-17
Look at this second episode and see how it divides into two parts. What is their connection?
Where has Jesus gone in verse 13? Whom is he with (see 2,4) and what is he doing (see 2,2)?
Compare verse 14 with 1,16-20, the call of the first disciples. What is similar and what is different? Levi's task as a tax collector would have been tax farming. What does that involve?
Where is Jesus in verse 15 and who is present with him? What group make their first appearance here (see 2,16.18.23)?
For Levi, look at Mt 9,9 and also 3,18. What can we conclude?
Where is the banquet in verse 15? (Look at NABRE and not NRSV).
How do Jesus'opponents in verse 16 differ from those in verse 6? How do their comments differ from the earlier episode? What might be unexpected about there appearance here?
How does the saying of Jesus in verse 17 form the climax of this whole episode? For the saying, see Sirach 38,1-5 and also Hosea 14,4; Jeremiah 13,22.
Now have a look at my response.
The Sunday Gospel
This second incident in the sequence, the call of Levi, is not read in the Sunday cycle B. This may be because the call of the tax collector is read from Matthew's Gospel in cycle A (10th Sunday).
With few exceptions, the lectionary does not repeat the same incident from the Gospels in the other Sunday cycles even though, as in this instance, the stories are being used by the evangelists for different purposes.
It is time now to move on to the third episode, 2,18-22, which is the central one in this sequence of five.