Doing Lunch with the Real Jesus

Mark 2:13-23

1. What would you have done if you had been Levi in 2:13–14? Why?
   
2. See 2:15–16. The Pharisees were correct in saying that Jewish people should not eat with people like the tax collectors before Messiah came (in order to preserve the people through whom the Messiah would come). Why do you think that it became acceptable for Jesus to eat with them?
   
3. What is the significance of Jesus' words in 2:17? Who are the "righteous"?
   
4. Jesus joined with the tax collectors in their eating but not in their sinning. What does that say to us about how we relate to an unbelieving world?
   
5. See vv. 18–20. One of the main reasons for fasting in the Old Testament was to mourn for the fact that sin seemed to be ruling lives in our world. Why would Jesus' disciples refrain from that while he was present?
   
6. What is the significance of vv. 21–22?
   
7. What do you hope to apply to your life from this passage of God's Word?
   

2012 Study Series • Copyright © 2012, Lake Avenue Church