Levi was sitting in his tax booth making sure people payed their taxes as Jesus traveled around teaching and healing. Levi could not leave that tax booth unless he was called to leave it. “Jesus, call me too!” It is all about the Caller – the one we are called to follow. And it is all about Matthew and you and me. It is not so much about who and what we were or even who we are. It is about who Jesus is calling us to become. “Jesus, call me too!” Call me to become the person you created me to be. The person who will live his life with you and spend eternity in your home.

One of the great stories of healing is the paralyzed man who is brought to Jesus by his friends through the roof. But what Jesus to that man, he says to all of us. "Your sins are forgiven, take up your bed and walk." This isn't just about a paralyzed man, though of course it is about that, this is about the heart of the good news for all of us. Guilt paralyzes, forgiveness makes us walk and makes us run. But forgiveness is so unbelievably hard. Which is why truly who can forgive sins but God alone.

Mark is laying a lot of foundation stones here in chapter 1: Jesus as the long-awaited one, greater than the new Elijah; Jesus as the one blessed by the father and led by the Spirit; the call of Jesus to leave all and follow him; and now the primacy of life lived in devotion to God and what comes out of that. Here, at the end of chapter 1, we have two short stories, both beginning with prayer and leading to the proclamation of what God is doing in Christ.