When Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven” (2:5), we don’t know what sins the man committed. But in the very next story, we are told about the sins of a man named Levi. He had a priest’s name, but he was a tax collector! What’s wrong with that? No one likes to pay taxes (money for the government), and Levi was the one who collected them. But he did more than that. He overcharged people. He squeezed his own people (the Jews) for money, gave some to the Romans, and kept the rest for himself. Because of this, the Jews hated tax collectors like Levi more than anyone.

But Jesus didn’t! He called Levi to leave behind his sinful life and follow him. And—miracle of miracles—he accepted Jesus’s invitation. More than that, he invited all his sinful friends to meet Jesus so they too could be loved and forgiven. When the Pharisees heard about this, they didn’t understand why Jesus would get together with such terrible people. They forgot what Jesus taught when he healed the paralyzed man. That he “came to call not those who think they are good but those who know they need a Savior” (see 2:17). Jesus came to forgive sinners–that’s the point. To experience the good news that Jesus has the power to forgive all sins, we must first recognize how much sinners like us need him.