Welcome the unwelcome
Saturday, February 21, 2026
“A large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharasees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, ‘What do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’”
Normally I would have saved this one for April 15th, but alas, tax day does not fall during Lent this year. This Gospel makes me chuckle, because our disdain for taxes apparently stretches back millenia. But I digress…
Jesus’s message in today’s gospel is clear: Nobody is unwelcome at Christ’s table.
Two ways you can take this. Pick one and talk to the Lord about it:
- Are there tables at which I feel unwelcome? How can I take that frustration to God?
- Who have I been less-than-welcoming to? Discuss this with Jesus. Ask him if he would sit at a table and eat with that person, or those people?