Luke 5:27 After this, Jesus went out, and noticing a tax collector named Levi, sitting in the tax-office, he said to him, “Follow me!” 28 So Levi, leaving everything, got up and followed Jesus.
29 Levi gave a great feast for Jesus, and many tax collectors came to his house, and took their places at the table with the other people. 30 Then the Pharisees and their followers complained to Jesus’ disciples, “How is it, that you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 But Jesus spoke up, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 32 I have not come to call the just, but sinners, to a change of heart.”
33 Some people asked him, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it, that your disciples eat and drink?” Then Jesus said to them, 34 “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. 35 But later, the bridegroom will be taken from them; and they will fast in those days.”
36 Jesus also told them this parable: “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new coat will be torn, and the piece taken from the new coat will not match the old coat. 37 No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed as well. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh skins. 39 Yet, no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”
What's the lesson? Jesus chose to associate with people considered lowly by the powerful and religious and to call these lowly people to repentance. He called them to a change of heart and to follow him. They were not passive nor to be passive and even in the matter of fasting, which they did not do while he was with them, he called them to fast when the time came. None of this points to passivity on the part of the faithful. Those called by God are called to good works and faith.
