[Jesus] went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to Him, and He was teaching them. And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed Him. And as He reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:13-17
When I was in the Army, there was a fraternisation policy that prohibited officers from mingling with lower and senior enlisted personnel, as well as NCOs from mingling with the lower enlisted. The purpose is to prevent senior personnel from developing inappropriate romantic relationships with their subordinates, lest it creates a power struggle and/or abusive relationship, furthermore causing company disunity. It’s also intended to prevent the senior and lower enlisted personnel from getting too close to each other lest it creates unprofessionalism. There is good reason for this policy, but it didn’t stop most of us from developing friendships with our NCOs and even officers out of uniform. Once the uniforms were back on, however, the chain of command remained respected.
Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, the Holy One of Israel, fraternized with lowly tax collectors and sinners. His fraternisation policy was quite different. He sought out lowly people like sinners and tax collectors to heal them, to call them to follow Him, to repentance, and to dine with them. “Let us ever walk with Jesus, / Follow His example pure,” we sing (LSB #685, stz. 1). But do we follow His example? What fraternisation policies have we legislated for ourselves? What people do we consider too lowly for us to mingle with—in our congregation, in our community, at our school, at our job? When someone is eating alone, do we sit with them? When somebody is alone for Christmas, do we invite them into our home? When someone doesn’t have any friends—whether they’re the new kid at school, or they’re bullied, or they’re “weird”—do we extend the arm of Christ’s grace and befriend them?
Jesus, the Physician of our souls, fraternised with people extremely below Him—sinners. That includes you and me. Your pastor imitates Christ when he visits people in their homes and the hospital when they’re too ill and physically inept to walk into the Lord’s house. That may be you some day, when you are in need of your pastor to recline at table with you to be Christ for you. When you are at your lowest, you are never too low for Christ to walk down to you, which He sends His pastors to do through His Word and Sacraments.
The Lutheran Column 