GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 2:16
Etiquette for Dummies
As I stood in line to check out, at eye level in the rack of books, was one entitled “Etiquette for Dummies.” The English word “etiquette” derives from the French word “etiquette,” meaning label or ticket. Guests at the king’s table were given a small card or ticket on which was printed instructions for how to behave properly at court. So, as I waited, I thumbed through the “Dummies” book. There were instructions for how to set a table, how to address envelopes, how to write thank-you notes, etc. I wondered if someone actually monitored such activities.
St. Mark said that Levi the tax collector gave a banquet for Jesus and his disciples, following his commitment to discipleship. Levi invited his friends, so it was a large affair. There were other tax collectors and “sinners,” ordinary people within Levi’s circle of friends. “And when the scribes and some of Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (2:16) How the guardians of orthodoxy came to see Levi’s guests is not explained. The scribes and Pharisees would not associate with “sinners and tax collectors,” and to be in the same room with such people would defile them.
For these paragons of etiquette, or orthodoxy, the issue was not a matter of correct reclining, the order of food service, the type of food served, or the manner of eating. No, they focused on the quality of the guests, “sinners and tax collectors.” These guardians of orthodoxy had their own “Etiquette for Dummies’: The Torah, the Tradition of the Elders (Oral Law), Halakhah (Legal Interpretations), rabbinic authority, etc.
Proper etiquette is important, but when it becomes a stumbling block, as it did for these scribes and Pharisees, the emphasis is on the wrong thing. Jesus focused on the hearts of his friends, still a good practice.
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