Follow #6 -- Mark 2:13-17 -- Friend Of Sinners
Introduction
A Question About The Kingdom
Today we are going to ask a question: What kind of people enter into God's kingdom?
We are going to ask this because the first time Jesus spoke in Mark's gospel, he said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). So Jesus came. The time is fulfilled. And, with him came the kingdom of God. It is at hand. Repentance and faith in the good news get you into the kingdom. This gives us a clue about who gets to enter the kingdom.
And, by this point in Mark, we have received many clues about the kingdom of God Jesus said was at hand.
First, when he selected his first disciples, we learned the kingdom centers around Jesus. They were to be with Jesus, imitate Jesus, and eventually be launched out into the world to do what Jesus did. He would make them into fishers of men.
Second, when he delivered a demon-possessed man in the Capernaum synagogue, we learned his kingdom collides with the unseen forces of evil that permeate our planet. He is stronger than that realm of darkness, and he came to set us free from its shackles.
Third, when he healed Peter's mother-in-law, and many, many others, we learned his kingdom would confront all the natural brokenness produced by sin. His cross and resurrection paved the way for all human illness and injury and death to be resurrected, made new.
Fourth, when he cleansed the leper, we learned his kingdom is one where spiritual uncleanness can be replaced with personal righteousness. Jesus makes way for humanity to find inner wholeness. He deposits his cleanness into his people.
Fifth, when he forgave and then healed the paralyzed man, we learned his kingdom is one that begins with forgiveness. Forgiveness is found in Jesus!
All these early snapshots of Jesus' life help prepare us for the answer to our question. He came and interacted with demon-possessed, physically unhealthy, and spiritually unclean, sinners who were in need of forgiveness.
But the passage before us today put it bluntly. Jesus came for sinners. He will say, in our passage, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (17).
Yay! This is where we all get to come into the story. Sinners of all stripes are loved by Jesus.
But, there's a catch. To get into the kingdom, we have to know we're sinners. As long as we self-justify, self-excuse, and self approve, we are like the Pharisees, outside the kingdom. We're going to see this play out in the episode before us.
Let's learn from this passage:
1. Jesus Calls People Like Levi (13-14).
13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 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.
Jesus Went Out Again
The episode begins with Jesus going out again beside the sea (13). Why does Mark say Jesus went out again?
Well, remember the last time Jesus was at Peter's house doing amazing things? He began his time there by healing Peter's mother-in-law but ended the day with massive crowds coming to him after sundown. He served tons of people that day, healing and delivering until late into the night. Then, Mark tells us, the next morning, Jesus arose early, a great while before daylight, and went out alone to the wilderness for prayer (Mark 1:35).
So when Mark says Jesus went out again beside the sea, it is a repeat of that first scenario. It's a practice Jesus followed. He went to Peter's house again. Everyone came from far and wide. He taught them the word. It was crowded. Then Jesus forgave and healed the paralytic. They were all amazed. Then, Jesus went out again for solitude and prayer with his Father.
This is a great pattern for life. Get alone with God to be recharged. Serve others. Then withdraw to be alone with God again. Serve others. Repeat.
Levi The Tax Collector
But, as Jesus sought his Father, the crowd was coming to him (13). As they accumulated around Jesus, he was teaching them, continuing his earlier practice (13). It appears this teaching was given while he walked because Mark says as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth (14).
Who is Levi?
First, we know he was a tax collector (14, Luke 5:27). Since he worked in Capernaum, a city at a major crossroads with the surrounding territories, he might've been involved in the taxation of various travelers using the Roman roads of that region. -- sort of a toll collector. But he also would've been involved in the taxation of the local economy, especially transported goods.
And, as much as we might chafe against our own tax system, we really shouldn't think of an IRS agent when thinking of Levi. Taxmen in that era made their living by gouging the people and charging more than Rome required, and many of them became quite wealthy in the process. It was sanctioned theft, backed by the full force of Rome.
And, because they were viewed as traitors in step with Rome, the Jewish community was unforgiving in their attitude towards tax collectors. They were expelled from the synagogues. Their presence could render a house unclean. Some rabbis even taught you could lie to a tax collector without guilt. So Levi was a social outcast.
The name we know him by is Matthew, which is perhaps an alternative name for Levi. It's also possible Jesus renamed Levi with the name Matthew. My guess, and this is speculation on my part, is that Matthew changed his own name.
Why would he do that? Well, he had an unsavory past, for one. But, secondly, the original Levi was one of Israel's twelve sons, so an entire tribe was named after him. And when the people of Israel came out of their Egyptian slavery through the death of the firstborn, God said all the firstborns in Israel would belong to him. Then, as a way to satisfy that firstborn requirement, God said he would instead take an entire tribe, the Levites. They would serve by running the tabernacle and temple worship systems. They were set apart for God's service.
I wonder if Matthew, all during the years he was called Levi, thought to himself, I am not really living up to my namesake. I'm named after Levi, a gift to God, but I am serving myself. I am doing my own thing. When Jesus caught ahold of his life, I wonder if he began thinking, now I can truly be a gift to God. This is what the name Matthew means: "gift of God." After years of running from God, Levi was now a gift of God. Jesus had given him a new chance at life.
Jesus' Call / Levi's Response
But backup to this first day. As he walked by the sea, Jesus saw Levi. He said to him, "Follow me" (14). There was something Jesus saw in this man.
What would Levi do? Would he go? Would he resist Jesus? Mark says: And he rose and followed him (14). There was something in Jesus Levi wanted.
Now, when the four fishermen left their business to follow Jesus, they could (and did, temporarily) return to that work. But when Levi left his trade, he could never return. Tax collecting in that time and place was a dishonest profession. Because it required usury and theft to make a living, it was inconducive to Christianity. When Levi left it, he left it for good.
Some careers are incompatible with the faith. Others are totally compatible. And, probably the most difficult of all are those careers that require great tact, discernment, and wisdom to operate in as a believer. If you are in one of those fields, my prayers are with you. I cannot imagine the challenges you face.
But it was clear for Levi. He could not continue as a tax collector and follow Jesus. Like Elisha, who sacrificed the oxen he plowed his fields with before following Elijah, Levi left it all and never looked back.
The Best Life
And this was the best decision of his life. I mean, let me put it this way. What would you rather be -- a corrupt tax official no one remembers or one of the most widely read authors in history? That's what Levi became. The book he wrote, the gospel of Matthew, might be the most widely read Bible book of all time. His life, formerly spent on Rome's kingdom and his own self-serving interests, became an exciting part of God's kingdom.
This is what Jesus does. He gives hope to the hopeless. He calls out to the outcast. He gives meaning to the meaningless. He includes the unincludable.
Don't be afraid to follow Jesus. It is the best life you could live.
One example of this in Scripture comes from the life of Esther. Through God's sovereign hand, she became the queen of Persia (Esther 2). Hers was a life of power and prestige, festivals and fandom. But, though hardly anyone in the kingdom knew it, she was a Jew. When an anti-Semitic attitude began corrupting her empire, she became the spokesperson God wanted to use to spare the Jewish people from Persian persecution.
As she considered whether she was up to the task, she finally concluded, "If I perish, I perish " (Esther 4:16). She became convinced there was nothing better than to live for God, even if it meant dying for God. And, through her actions, Jewish lives were saved, and she became something much more meaningful than the mere queen of Persia. She became Esther, the heroine of God's people. It was the best life she could live.
Like Levi, there are sure to be things we must leave behind so we can follow Jesus. It might be a career. It might be a relationship, a desire, or an attitude. It might be a sin. But if Levi (Matthew) were here today, he would say, "It is worth it! Follow Jesus!" He's so much better than anyone or anything out there. He is the only one who can fulfill us.
2. Jesus' Kingdom Is For Sinners (15).
15 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.
A Going-Away Party
Now, the day of salvation in your life should be a day of celebration, and that's how Levi saw things. He invited Jesus to his house and invited his friends, many tax collectors and sinners (15). They gathered around the table and, as was their custom, reclined as they feasted together (15). It was a celebration, but also a farewell party. Levi had a new life, calling, and adventure in front of him.
Sinners
And, just in case someone thought Jesus' call of a tax collector was a temporary oversight, an exception rather than the rule, he went into the house and ate with Levi's friends. They are called tax collectors and sinners (15). For the religious leaders, it was offensive enough that Jesus called Levi, but now Jesus' offense metastasizes.
This is now policy: Jesus came to sinners. He makes zero effort to avoid them and seems to pursue and even prefer them.
But who are these sinners? Why does Mark -- and Jesus -- give them this title?
It is possible these were the ruffians and outcasts of town. One would expect an unsavory sort of people to connect with the tax collectors, so perhaps Levi's friends all lived on the fringes of society. So maybe we should envision something like the "Mos-Eisley spaceport, where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" (Obi-Wan Kenobi).
It is also possible these were "sinners" according to the religious leaders' definition, people who did not abide by rigid pharisaic standards. In other words, common people. For them, the rules were just too tough, so they gave up. The Pharisees then referred to them as sinners, people living outside the strict standards set by their traditions. This is the more common view of the identity of these "sinners."
It is likely a mix of both types, however. People living in open rebellion, but also people who couldn't keep up with the legalistic codes of their leaders -- common people, non-Pharisees, all gathered together in Levi's home. This meant they lived sinfully rather than religiously. They didn't care what the religious community thought of them.
Old Testament Foreshadowing
This table is one of the most beautiful portraits of Jesus we have. There he is. No pretension. No judgment. Eating and drinking with the outcasts of society, the tax collectors and sinners. And, since Mark is presenting Jesus as the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah-Christ, this episode is meant to shock the reader.
But should we be shocked? All through the Old Testament, God dispensed grace to the sinner. He chose Noah, a man who succumbed to the debauchery of drunkenness after the flood. He chose Abraham, a man who often gave into fear and half-obedience to God. He chose Isaac, a passive man who resisted God's plans. He chose Jacob, a conniver and deceiver who spent the first half of his life manipulating everyone to his advantage. He chose David, a man who committed adultery and murder when seated on the throne of Israel.
This is the same God who chose Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, to become an ancestor of Jesus and a hero in Israel. This is the same God who chose to bless a widow in pagan Zarephath and a leprous commander of the evil Syrian army. This is the same God who chose to forgive the citizens of the barbaric city of Ninevah after their wholesale repentance after Jonah's preaching.
He even gave grace to Ahab, the most wicked king of Israel's history. After page after page recording the terrors of Ahab's life, when Ahab finally repented, God gave him grace (1 Kings 21:29).
Over and over again, God is presented as ready to forgive the sinner. He even says it's part of his name!
The Lord passed before (Moses) and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6–7, ESV).
The Church Age
And after Jesus ascended, God's reach to the tax collectors and sinners continued. For the first ten years, the church remained predominantly Jewish, but it reached the regular folks of Israel. Then, after a decade, the Spirit unleashed them upon the nations. The whole world began to hear the hope of the gospel message.
And that world was far different from the one the exclusively Jewish church had grown up in. The Roman world was a bastion of all sorts of sins. But that didn't stop the church-- and the gospel -- from going to the highways and hedges (Luke 14:23). They compelled people to come, preaching the love of Christ so that God's house could be filled.
And it worked! People began placing their faith in Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners submitted themselves to Christ. In places like Rome, Ephesus, and Corinth, the church was established. There's a little line from 1 Corinthians I love so much. After recounting various sins incompatible with God's kingdom, Paul said:
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11, ESV).
Notice that phrase: and such were some of you. Paul knew the Corinthian church members had been saved from darkness. They each had a past. The image is that of a new humanity started by Jesus!
The Messianic Banquet
But all that is a mere foreshadowing of the great marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). The song of heaven says to Jesus:
"You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God..." (Revelation 5:9–10, ESV).
As I said earlier, we've already learned quite a bit about Jesus' kingdom at this point in Mark. But now we learn Jesus' kingdom is for sinners.
For this, we rejoice. Why? Because we are sinners!
3. Jesus Calls Sinners (16-17).
16 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?" 17 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."
Pharisees
Somehow, some scribes of the Pharisees saw what Jesus was doing (16). We've already seen scribes in Mark's gospel; they were in the house when Jesus forgave the paralyzed man (2:6-7). This new group of scribes was of the sect of the Pharisees. But who were the Pharisees?
The name Pharisee means separate ones, and to separate was their mission. They were pious Jews who rigorously followed the law of Moses while separating themselves from Greek and Roman influence. They had gotten their start in the intertestamental period, a few hundred years before Jesus' arrival. By the time of Christ, they had atrophied into a highly legalistic group whose goal was to "build a fence" around the Torah so as to avoid any possible violation of God's will.
The Sadducees, a far more liberal group who denied Scripture and embraced Rome, were more powerful than the Pharisees during Jesus' day. But the Pharisees and their teachings bore more impact upon the regular people of Israel at that time.
It is worth noting, Jesus barely dealt with the more liberal Sadducees, but spent considerable energy combatting the Pharisees. Theologically, Jesus and the Sadducees were miles apart, but the Pharisees were much closer to Jesus' positions. It was their interpretations and applications which distanced them from Jesus.
So, this group of Pharisees, when they saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, were appalled (16). They were about separation. To them, Jesus was not. They asked his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (16).
The Great Physician
Jesus heard their question (17). He responded with a well-known and widely received proverb from their time: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (17).
This is a profound statement from Jesus. A doctor treats those who are unhealthy. A doctor would never expect a patient to seek treatment for health. No, people seek treatment for sickness and injury. It is a lack of health that drives one to the doctor.
This is how Jesus felt, that he was like a doctor serving those who were sick. And this statement from Jesus said a lot about how he viewed himself, but also how he viewed the Pharisees and the people he ate with that day.
Jesus, The True Pharisee
First, his statement shows that he was actually the truest Pharisee who ever lived. You see, the Pharisees strove to be separate from sin. But all they really did was invent new sin, the error of hypocrisy and legalism and pretension before God and man.
Jesus, though, saw separation entirely differently. He would come as the Great Physician. And he could not distance himself from patients who needed his care.
And, as he doctored sinners, he never engaged in their sin. The sickness of his patients never became his sickness. Though he immersed himself with us, he never rebelled with us. Though he was tempted like us, he never sinned like us. Though he died for our sins, he never participated in our sins.
Because of this, he showed everyone what real separation looks like.
Jesus dined with sinners, but he didn't sin with sinners. Jesus lived in the world, but he didn't live like the world. This is the Jesus paradox. -- Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, loc. 145. Kindle Edition
We often struggle with this. On the one hand, when we try to be holy, we often become rigid and isolated, like the Pharisees. On the other hand, when we try to reach out to others, we often become influenced, metamorphized to the very society we would love to reach. Too easily, we unlovingly separate from, or we unwisely become like society.
The Bible says, "Bad company ruins good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33). But bad company cannot ruin Jesus. He perfected loving outreach mixed with personal holiness. The most separate person who ever lived was also the friend of sinners.
Sinners, The True Patient
But, Jesus' statement also said much about sinners. Recall it. He said: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (17).
Don't miss what Jesus is doing. Jesus said he was like a doctor going to sick. He did not come for righteous people, but sinners. What did he mean? Was he trying to say the Pharisees were righteous, without sin, and not in need of his help?
Not at all! Some of the Pharisees became Christians, champions of the gospel. Paul, the Apostle, had been a Pharisee before he realized his need for Christ. Pharisees were sinners in need of Jesus' forgiveness.
But Jesus was saying he could not help the Pharisees as long as they thought they were healthy. They didn't know they were sick. They couldn't see their sin.
And, as long as someone thinks they have no sin, Jesus cannot help them. Just as someone who thinks they have no sickness will not pursue medical attention, so someone who thinks they're righteous will not turn to Jesus.
You see, in Jesus' estimation, we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. The problem with this label today is that most will object. I'm not broken! I'm not a sinner! I don't need to be well! But those who've received the gospel had to first say, I am a sinner! I need grace! I am broken! So are you! And this offends.
Us Sinners
But this is who we are, Calvary Monterey. Sinners seated around the table with Christ. We need him. We need his grace, forgiveness, and cleansing. We need the great doctor to come and heal us. And to keep on healing us! No matter who we are or what our background or what our temptations, we need Jesus. Our broken minds and wills and feelings and souls and bodies are all in need of his constant attention. Sin has plagued us, and Jesus is our only answer!