Message preached Sunday, November 9, 2014 from Mark 2:13-17
Theme: Because Jesus made it His mission to reach out to sinners, we who are His followers need to reach out to them as He did
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We come once again to our study of the Gospel of Mark—and to a passage that we have looked at once before. But I have found that my revisit to this passage has convicted me in a fresh way. It has been taking me out of my comfort zone, and is continuing to challenge me in some areas of obedience to the Lord that I don’t feel entirely ready for. I am not where I should be yet with respect to what I am learning; but I hope I am growing.
But then, that happens often when you follow where Jesus goes; doesn’t it?
It’s a passage that tells the story of how the Lord Jesus did something that was though of as improper by the ‘righteous’ and ‘religious’ people who saw it. In fact, what He did struck them as terribly offensive and shocking.
The Bible tells us, in Mark 2:13-17;
Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:13-17).
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To set our thinking about this passage this morning, I’d like to begin by asking a rhetorical question. It’s a dangerous one to ask; and if we’re not careful, it can quickly inflate our hearts in pride, or it can cause us to degenerate into all kinds of condemnation and judgment of others. But let me ask it.
Here it is. What in your mind would be the worse kind of sinner you can imagine? Do you have a category in mind? It could be that it is the type of person who would be a tyrant—someone who uses and oppresses other people. Perhaps it’s the type of person who is given over to gross sexual immorality; and who flaunts their passions before others, and victimizes innocent people in order to gratify their lusts. Perhaps you think of the type of person who is a racist—filled with irrational hatred for their fellow man. Or a chronic liar—someone who is constantly deceiving people. Or a thief—someone who takes away from others what belongs to them and that they need in order to live and be happy. Or a notorious religious hypocrite—using the sacred things of God in order to advance their own agenda or to line their own pockets. Perhaps it’s the kind of person who has destroyed his or her family with addictions to drugs or alcohol—someone who has made a shambles of the lives of people around them, and who selfishly bends everything around to the service of their addictions. Maybe you can’t choose. Maybe it’s all of the above.
Do you see why that’s a dangerous question? And now, here’s a follow-up question—in certain respects even more dangerous than the first one. Can you put a real face to such categories of sin? Did a particular type of notorious sinner stand out to you because there is someone you know personally?—someone in your life who embodies that sin? Are you thinking of someone like that who disgusts you?—someone that rises deep and painful emotions in you whenever you see them?—someone who, when you discover them in a public place, you duck and hide from out of the embarrassment of even been caught in the same plot of ground as them?
Well; here’s the fascinating thing about this morning’s passage. Many people living in the regions of Capernaum in Jesus’ day would have thought that way of the man in this morning’s story. There could hardly have been a more notorious, dark-hearted, and hopeless sinner, in the minds of most of the pious and faithful Jewish people of Jesus’ day, than Levi—otherwise known to us in Scripture by the name Matthew the tax collector.
You see; this man—as his name Levi would suggest to us—was a Jew. And yet, as a tax collector or ‘publican’, he was someone who had made a living out of collecting taxes from his own people for King Herod Antipas—a king who was basically a puppet king for the Roman empire. Levi made his livelihood by collected taxes from his own people for a foreign Gentile oppressor. He would have been considered a traitor to his people at the deepest level, and a violator of the covenant that God made with them. And not only this, but because he would have collected taxes and customs on the goods that passed through the region, he made his living by collecting more than the required amount as profit. His line of work would have been characterized by a great deal of graft and corruption and extortion.
You may have noticed from our passage that tax collectors like Levi were placed alongside “sinners”. But they were considered to be such great sinners that they were put in a category all their own—“tax collectors and sinners”. No one would have thought of this man Levi as anything but a hopeless, irredeemable sinner—and had he would probably be thought that way least of all by himself! And yet, this is the very man that Jesus went to, and called, and made into one of His most devoted followers—someone whose friends and colleagues Jesus even allowed to gather around Him, and with whom He ate a meal of fellowship.
Even I—twenty-one centuries later—am a little uncomfortable with this story. But I can’t deny what a wonderful picture of our Lord’s grace it is! If He would call someone like Levi to Himself—and if He would even welcome to Himself the kind of people that would hang around Levi—then truly no one is so bad a sinner that they can’t be saved by Jesus. This story declares good news to sinners; and there’s something in me that wishes that that was the only lesson to be learned by it. But I am convicted that it has an even bigger lesson for people like me—people who, I’m sorry to say, would look down on someone like Levi and his friends. It teaches me that if Jesus made it His mission to graciously go to notorious sinners and called them to Himself, than we who are His followers—and specifically I—must also reach out beyond my comfort zone to such sinners in love as He Himself did.
A pretty challenging idea, isn’t it? But think of it, brothers and sisters in Christ. We, as Jesus’ followers, bear the greatest, most life-transforming message in the world. It’s the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. It’s as if we are walking around in this world as ‘containers’ of this glorious, saving message. And the thing that opens the container up, and makes the life-transforming message of the gospel flow out to those who most need to hear it is ‘relationship’. If we don’t allow the Lord Jesus to lead us by the hand, with Himself, to the desperately fallen sinners in our midst who most need that message; and if we don’t allow ourselves to enter into a relationship of genuine love with them—just as Jesus did—then they cannot hear that message and be saved by it.
So; I have been trying to allow this passage to challenge my attitude toward people in this world that I’d much rather stay away from. I’m trying to allow it to teach me to be more like Jesus. And I hope you’ll join me in that effort, as we look at this morning’s passage together.
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Now; let’s begin by considering . . .
1. THE CONTEXT OF THIS STORY (v. 13).
Mark tells us, “Then He went out again by the sea . . .” The ‘sea’, of course, is the Sea of Galilee—where much of Jesus’ preaching ministry had been occurring. And the fact that we’re told that He went out “again” suggests that He was returning to some of the very same spots that He had already preached. That is very important to our story this morning. It would mean that when the Lord Jesus met up with Levi along the way, Levi had probably already heard much about Him—and had possibly already even heard Him preach.
In fact, I can’t help thinking it must have been so. Mark goes on to tell us, “and all the multitude came to Him . . .” As news would go out that Jesus was coming into some of the towns in Galilee for a return visit, the crowds would go out to Him. Everywhere that Jesus went, the crowds would come—some to bring more of their sick for healing, some to hear again a message of the kingdom, some to catch another glimpse of the miracle worker who had great authority over unclean spirits. And how could Levi—a tax collector who had to have his finger on the pulse of whatever might have been going on in town at the time—not have heard about this Jesus that everyone was flocking to?
And with respect to these crowds that came to Jesus, Mark goes on to tell us, “and He taught them.” That too, I believe, is important to our story. When the crowds came to Jesus, He didn’t discriminate among them. He welcomed to Himself whoever it may be that came, and gave to each of them whatever they needed from Him. He welcomed every one of them to Himself—the high and the lowly; the worthy and the unworthy.
If I may, that reminds me of what it says at the end of 1 Corinthians 1;
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
That’s the way the Lord Jesus works. He calls people from all classes to Himself. All who sincerely wish to come are loved by Him and welcome to Him.
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And that leads us, very specifically, to . . .
2. THE CALL OF THE MAN NAMED LEVI (v. 14).
Mark goes on to tell us; “As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office.” It’s interesting that Mark stresses the name ‘Levi’. The Gospel writer Luke does this also. That’s a very ‘Jewish’ name. It was the name of one of the great tribes of Israel—the priestly tribe. In fact, as if to stress Levi’s Jewish pedigree, Mark even tells us whose son he was. I have often wondered why Mark and Luke use the name ‘Levi’. I suspect it might have been to distance the writer of the first Gospel from his sinful past. But when he himself wrote that first Gospel, Levi didn’t shy away from it. He used his name “Matthew”– so that everyone could see that he was a sinner that Jesus had saved.
Now think about Matthew—or Levi—sitting at his tax office when Jesus came by. Levi was a notorious sinner. He was a betrayer of his people. He had made a profitable living out of collecting taxes from his own people—the covenant people of God—on behalf of a foreign oppressor. In the minds of most people, there would have been no hope for such a man. And perhaps, he would have felt the same way. Perhaps he had been drawn to the message of Jesus—to whatever degree he had heard it. Perhaps he had a secret longing that his heart could be made clean of his wickedness and greed. But no. He had made a life of sin for himself; and now he must live in it. Perhaps he chose to simply abandon all the devotion to God that he, as a Jew, had been raised to have; hardened his heart, collected his money, lived his life of luxury; and bided his time until he died and went to hell. If Jesus came by, he could hardly expect that the Lord would want to do anything but turn His holy head away from him and ignore him.
But what a shock it must have been to him that, when Jesus came by, He looked upon him. What a greater shock it must have been when He made His way toward him. And what an even greater shock it must have been—to Levi, and to everyone who saw it—when Jesus put forth His hand to him and said, “Follow Me.”
And let’s not hurry past that picture. Think of it! It wasn’t as if Levi heard the news that Jesus was passing by, and then hurriedly hid his tax records and money boxes. Levi didn’t try to reform his behavior in any way. He was in the midst of his hard-hearted, sinful activities of collecting money for the pagan Romans when Jesus came up to him. And especially note that Jesus didn’t stand off to the side and wait for Levi to come to him. Levi never would have done that. Instead, Jesus took the daring initiative of love, and went right up to a man that most ‘decent’ people would have avoided. Jesus didn’t force Levi into anything. He simply gave him the invitation to become one of His followers. What love!
And look at what Levi did. We’re told simply, “So he arose and followed Him.” Do you realize the significance of that? For Levi to ‘rise up’ from his tax office meant that he left it all completely—and never returned to it. In the Bible, we read of how some of the disciples of Jesus had left their fishing business, but later returned to their business for a while. But for Levi—a collector of taxes for the Roman government—there would have been no ‘coming back’ later. To rise up and leave it meant a decisive act to leave it once and for all. And that’s what he did.
I hope you’ll pardon me if I share another passage about Jesus that this brings to mind. In Luke 18, we’re told;
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).
Could it be that, when Jesus told this parable, He had some of the struggles of Levi’s heart somewhere in the back of His mind? I suspect that a sense of sorrow for sin and a deep longing for mercy had already been going on in Levi’s heart before Jesus came by.
When we follow the path of the Lord Jesus, and He brings us up to some hardened sinner and tells us, “Love that sinner for Me”, we don’t know what may have already been going on in that sinner’s heart before we got there. It may be that they have already beaten their breast as it were, and cried out to God for mercy. What a privilege it is then, at such times, to be the ambassador of that mercy!
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Jesus was merciful toward Levi. He took the initiative of love with him. And this leads us next to consider . . .
3. THE COMMUNION WITH SINNERS (v. 15).
We’re told, “Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.”
In the Gospel of Luke, we’re told that what was happening here was that Levi was putting on a big feast in Jesus’ honor. Levi, of course, would have had a lot of money; and he would have had the means of putting on a very large dinner. And it seems that he invited all of his friends and colleagues from the tax collecting world—a large number, in fact—to come to the dinner. I wonder if what had happened was that, now that he was leaving the business, he wanted to invite all the people from his circle of relationships together and tell them about the transformation that Jesus had made in his life. And obviously, everyone would have wanted to come and hear about that!
And to you notice the nature of the crowd that came? We’re told that “many tax collectors and sinners” came. What kind of people would have been there? It’s almost scary to guess! I’m pretty sure it would have been a crowd of people that you and I would not have been very comfortable around. I even suspect that Jesus’ disciples were looking around nervously. But they all came and sat together with Jesus. And do you notice what it says?—“and they followed Him”? Perhaps there was something of a revival that occurred amongst the ‘riff-raff’ of Galilee—with Jesus in the middle, enjoying fellowship with them all!
Before we depart from that picture, let me ask a question. Why is it that the sinful people of our world today prefer to stay away from Christians like us, and churches like ours; and yet, the sinful people of Jesus’ day seemed drawn to be with Him? They don’t often feel very comfortable around us; but they seem to have felt very comfortable around Jesus. Why? Could it be that they knew they were loved by Him because He took the initiative first to draw closer to them?
I’m going to get a bit daring here. What do you suppose would happen, dear brothers and sisters, if we—as followers of Jesus—got on a bus, saw a man dressed up like a woman, and deliberately chose to walk up, smile, and sit down next to them? What if you saw a college student at a coffee shop reading a copy of the latest Christian-bashing book on atheism? Would you be willing to bring your coffee, sit at the table next to them, and ask them what they believe about what they’re reading? Wouldn’t Jesus go to such people? What would it say to them about His love for them if we did so?
May God change us; so that the sin-damaged people of this world—the people who most need to hear of Jesus’ love—will be made to feel comfortable enough around us, and loved enough by us, to hear of Jesus’ love for them!
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If that seems like a really uncomfortable idea to you, please know that it seems like one to me too. And it was shocking to the people of Jesus’ day. Mark tells us next of . . .
4. THE CONTROVERSY WITH THE SCRIBES (v. 16).
Mark write, “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, ‘How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?’” (v. 16). The scribes and Pharisees were the religious elites of the day—the ‘super-saints’. And what a scandal Jesus’ behavior was to them! In the original language, it’s put in such a way as to be not so much be a question, but rather a statement of stunned shock—as if they simply said with a gasp, “He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners—!!” And do you notice that they don’t even say this to Jesus Himself? Rather, they say it to His disciples. It’s like they can’t even bring themselves to speak to Him about it directly—as if they thought He had utterly defiled Himself by entering into fellowship with such people.
By the way; if we behave like Jesus does in this passage—if we take the initiative of love and draw close to the broken, needy, sinners of this world; the folks that the ‘religiously righteous’ people won’t go near—then we can expect to be a shock to religiously righteous people too.
Well; Jesus’ disciples didn’t have a chance to answer the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus Himself overheard it and gave His own answer. Note . . .
5. THE CORRECTION FROM OUR LORD (v. 17).
They had thought that, if someone was truly ‘righteous’, they wouldn’t let unrighteous people into their sphere. But they were mistaken. Mark tells us, “When Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’” Could you imagine going to a physician and asking him or her why they always hang around sick people? How silly! Of course they are always with sick people! It’s sick people that need to see them the most! A physician would be irresponsible if they only made sure they hung around with healthy people.
And where else would we expect to see the Savior of sinners but up close and near to the kind of sinners that most need to be saved by Him? Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”
That’s our Lord’s priority. He drew near to sinners who most need to be saved by Him. He went to where they were. He didn’t worry that He might become ‘contaminated’ by their sin. He didn’t fear that others would consider Him ‘guilty by association’. He didn’t overlook their sin either, of course. He came to them and called them to repentance. But He did so by showing genuine love to them, touching their lives in a personal way, and inviting them to rise up and follow Him.
And they did.
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Now; do you remember the sins I asked you to think of at the beginning of our time together? And do you remember that, as you did so, you might have thought of a particular person?
Here’s the challenge for you and me. Let’s ask God, by His grace, to make us more like Jesus to that person. Let’s ask God the Holy Spirit to empower us to begin the process of drawing close to the kind of person that we are ordinarily repulsed by, and that we would much rather avoid. Let’s ask God to help us show genuine love and interest in those He has placed in our lives that most need to hear of His love and His saving grace.
Be careful, though! Don’t treat them like they are your personal project! They wont feel loved if you do that. Just love them, draw close to them, and live the life of Jesus right next to them for a while. Go to where they are; because that’s where Jesus goes. Invite them to come and get to know Him—just as they are. He’ll change them.
Just look what He did for Levi! Just remember what He did for you and me!