WHY DOES HE EAT AND DRINK WITH PUBLICANS AND SINNERS?
Text: Mark 2:13 – 22
Introduction:
• How would you feel if we put a sign outside of our church that said “Homosexuals welcome”?
• What about if Jim took the bus and brought back 5 drunks next Sunday morning?
• What if we announced that we were going to have a special service and dinner for drug addicts?
• In some congregations, the majority of the members would stop going.
• We sometimes feel that church is only for people just like us, and everyone else should stay away.
• In this short story about the conversion of Levi, we find a group of people that felt that way.
• Let’s look at what happened with each of the characters in this story.
I. Levi
• Changed his name to Matthew after his conversion (means “gift of God”).
• Was a publican, or tax collector.
• Capernaum was on a major trade route, Levi was collecting import and export taxes for Herod.
• Levi was a hated man – tax collectors extracted as much money as they could get and lined their pockets with the surplus.
• We are not told if Levi was guilty of this, but he was guilty by association according to the Jews.
• Tax collectors were considered extortionists and traitors because they worked for the Roman government.
A. Levi had probably heard Jesus teach and preach many times. (v. 13)
• Notice “again”.
• Maybe had heard the message given when Simon, Andrew, James, and John had been called.
• Maybe in the crowds that came to Jesus in Capernaum for healing and expelling of demons.
• Maybe in the crowd when the man sick of the palsy had been healed.
• Rabbis in Jesus’ day had a habit of teaching while they walked from place to place; their disciples would walk along and listen.
B. Levi left everything to follow Jesus. (v. 14)
• Levi gave up the most out of all the apostles.
• Simon, Andrew, James, and John could always go back to fishing.
• Once Levi walked away from his office, he could never get his job back.
• Levi decided right then and there that he was going to follow Jesus. (Find out why in a few minutes.)
• What are you asked to leave behind in order to follow Jesus?
• Friends, a job, a habit?
C. Levi created an opportunity to introduce his friends to Jesus. (v. 15)
• Thomas Long, Shepherd and Bathrobes – staying in a motel in a large city, found a note posted on elevator door: “Party tonight! Room 210. 8:00 pm. Everyone invited!”
• He imagined odd assortment of people who might show up – tired salesmen, bored vacationers, weary travelers, curious people; all looking for a break in their day and a little festivity, not wanting to be left out of something exciting. The sign was a hoax – no party.
• “For a brief moment, those of us staying at the motel were tantalized by the possibility that there just might be a party going on somewhere to which we were all invited – a party where it didn’t make much difference who we were when we walked in the door, or what motivated us to come; a party we could come to out of boredom, loneliness, curiosity, responsibility, eagerness to be in fellowship, or simply out of a desire to come and see what was happening; a party where it didn’t matter nearly as much what got us in the door, as what would happen to us after we arrived.”
• Matthew doesn’t wait to invite his friends to the synagogue on the Sabbath; he throws a party so that his old friends could rub elbows with his new friends.
• This is why we do things like Praise at the Park, the Singing on the Deck, the Ladies’ Tea, and the Fall Festival, so that our unsaved friends can meet our saved friends in a non-threatening way.
• The result? They all followed Jesus, just like Levi.
II. The Scribes and Pharisees.
A. The scribes and Pharisees were too religious to care about the needs of others. (v. 16)
• Scribes were professional interpreters of the OT.
• Pharisees were an extremely strict and ritualistic religious party, concerned more with the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law.
• Pharisees taught that it was forbidden to have anything to do with publicans and sinners; not allowed in synagogue; must not talk to them or go on a journey with them; avoid doing business with them if at all possible; marrying a daughter to one of them was like giving her over to a wild beast; must not accept hospitality from them.
• One of their rabbis, “Let not a man associate with sinners even to bring them near to the Torah.”
• “Sinners” were anyone that did not agree with the Pharisees interpretation of scripture and did not practice their rituals.
• Sinners would include adulterers, thieves, murderers, and also Jews that ate pork or didn’t wash their hands the required number of times before eating.
• Imagine the disdain and arrogance as they said “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
• They thought that Jesus should agree with their position that they were too good to eat with these people.
• Someone once said, “One cannot win people with whom one is not willing to eat.”
• Sadly there are “Christian” people today that won’t go to church if there are people there that are African American, poor, divorced, tattooed, or out of work.
• Some refuse to fellowship with other Christians because they don’t “follow our doctrine.”
B. The scribes and Pharisees were too focused on their rituals to enjoy fellowship with Jesus. (v. 18)
• Fasting was required only one day a year, on the day of atonement.
• Pharisees fasted for 12 hours twice a week, on Monday and on Thursday because they thought it would gain God’s favor, and it showed everyone else how “religious” they were.
• Imagine going to a birthday party and not eating cake and ice cream, or associating with the guest of honor.
• Jesus points out that someone has just decided to follow Him; it is a time of celebration, not a time of mourning. (vv. 19, 20)
• Jesus reminds them that John had called him the bridegroom (John 3:29) and points out the Pharisee’s own teaching: “All in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observances which would lessen their joy.”
• Some people get too hung up on the type of music, the version of the Bible, the style of preaching, or the order of the service.
• Cowboy comes to church one Sunday morning. His clothes are clean, but he wore jeans, a flannel shirt, and boots that were worn out and ragged. He carried a worn out hat and a worn out Bible.
• Pastor, “Next time ask God what you should wear to this church.”
• Next Sunday, wears the same thing.
• Pastor, “I thought I told you to ask God what you should wear to this church?”
• Cowboy, “I did, but He said He didn’t know. He’s never been in this church.”
C. The scribes and Pharisees were unwilling to change their ways in order to follow Jesus. (vv. 21 – 22)
• If you put new (unshrunk) cloth on an old garment, the patch will ruin the clothing when it gets wet and shrinks.
• New wineskins have elasticity, but used wineskins have stretched as far as they can. If you put unfermented wine in an old skin, it will rip open the skin as it ferments and expands.
• Jesus was saying that He was not coming to fix the problems of the Pharisees religion, He was coming to replace it with something better.
• Change is not always bad, nor is it always good.
• We need to be willing to change when it is time.
• “We’ve never done it that way before!”
• The Pharisees needed to trade in their self-righteous religion based on works and repent and believe in Christ.
III. Jesus.
A. Jesus saw something in Levi worth cultivating. (v. 14)
• Pharisees saw a sinner; other Jews saw a traitor; but Jesus saw a disciple.
• Jesus saw that Levi had talents and abilities that he could use for God.
• He was an accurate record keeper; would come in handy years later as he wrote the Gospel according to Matthew.
• After following Jesus faithfully for many years, he evangelized in Ethiopia and Egypt, where he was martyred by being run through with a spear.
• Someone once said that when Jesus looks at you, He doesn’t see you as you are, but as what you can become.
• What about you? Are you willing to let Jesus make you into someone useful in His kingdom?
B. Jesus graciously accepted all would come to him. (v. 15)
• He still accepts all who will come.
• John 3:16
• 2 Peter 3:9
• Romans 10:13
• If Jesus accepts anyone who comes, we should too.
• Don’t condone the sin; but reach out to the sinner, because we were all there once.
C. Jesus taught that his followers should be characterized by joy. (vv. 19, 20)
• I know a man who is an officer in church; mean, grouchy, legalistic, closed minded, arrogant, always complaining, never smiles
• We’ve been forgiven, we are filled with the Spirit, we enjoy all that God gives us, He protects our family and our nation, He listens to our prayers, and He’s promised us a home in Heaven that will last forever – what do we have to be grumpy about?
• Galatians 5:22, 23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance:”
• 1 Peter 1:8 “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:”
• Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”
Conclusion:
• We should be like Jesus and reach out to everyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.
• We should be like Levi and be willing to give up everything for Jesus.
• We should be like Levi and make opportunities for our friends to meet Jesus.
• We should not be self-righteous, ritualistic, and unwilling to change like the Pharisees.
