#11 Who, Me? — Jesus Loves Tax Collectors and Sinners Too
Series: Gospel of Mark
Chuck Sligh
March 1, 2020
NOTE: PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
A few illustrations and ideas adapted from David Dykes’ sermon on the same text.
TEXT: Turn in your Bibles to Mark 2:13-17 – “And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? 17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – How would you feel if we put a sign outside our church that said, “Hookers Welcome?” What if Brother Terry went out early next Sunday morning here on Alte Amberger Str. and found 5 drunks and brought them to church? What would your response be if a gay couple came to church one Sunday morning?
In some congregations, the majority of members would stop going. Some feel that church is only for “good” people, and everyone else should stay away. In today’s text of the calling of Levi, we find a group of people who felt that way about a Levi and his friends. But Jesus didn’t feel that way.
Notice three things Jesus did in our text as we look at what happened…
I. NOTE FIRST OF ALL, THAT JESUS CALLS THE UNQUALIFIED – Verses 13-14 – “And he went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to him, and he taught them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-collector’s booth, and said unto him, ‘Follow me.’ And he arose and followed him.”
This passage begins with a common theme in Mark. He went out again by the sea, that is, to a deserted place outside the city. One reason we know He did this was to have solitary, quiet time with the Father.
But I suspect there was another reason that seems to be intimated in the text.
Because the paralyzed man failed to obey and not spread abroad his healing by Jesus, Jesus could no longer go into the cities for long because crowds of people came to Jesus only interested in a magic show. The Bible doesn’t say it specifically, but it seems to me that Jesus went outside of town to test the devotion of those who followed. Verse 13 says they went out by the sea and the multitudes came to him, and HE TAUGHT THEM. No miracles are mentioned. As we’ve seen, miracles had an important validation role of Jesus’ deity, but to Him, the message was always more important than the miracles.
Verse 14 introduces us to this man named Levi. Levi was a tax-collector. He was what we would call today an IRS agent.
If my neighbor were a tax-collector, I wouldn’t necessarily dislike him because of his profession; that was definitely NOT the case with tax-collectors in Jesus’ days. Tax-collectors were regarded as outcasts and traitors. People never knew just how much they had to pay in taxes, so tax-collectors extracted from their poor victims as much as they possibly could and anything above the actual tax that they received was used to line their pockets.
Worse yet, they were aligned with a despised regime. Levi may have been a Roman tax-collector and being aligned directly with the Roman government stigmatized him even more. Because Capernaum was on the frontier of the area controlled by Herold Antipas, more probably Levi collected taxes for Herod instead of directly for the Romans. But Herod was just a Roman puppet, and was almost as rapacious as the Romans, so the stigma as a tax-collector was just as bad.
On his way back to Capernaum, Jesus approached the tax booth where Levi was working. I can just imagine the people thinking, “Good for Him. He’s going to give that tax-collector a piece of His mind. He’s going to let him have it with both barrels.” But to everyone’s surprise, Jesus walked up and said two words, “Follow me.”
I’m not a great art connoisseur, but in preparing this message, I saw a famous painting by the German master, Hendrick der Bruggen, who painted an iconic picture of this scene titled Calling of St Matthew. There’s a dark room with a table littered with coins. There are a couple of young tax-collectors, maybe like IRS interns or something. And there’s a crusty old miser who might have been Levi’s boss. The think I like about the picture is Levi’s look of surprise. He’s pointing to himself as if to say, “Who, me? Are you sure you’ve got the right guy?”
Surprised or not, the Bible says Levi got up and followed Jesus. The tense of the verb indicates that He did it instantly. He didn’t say, “Well, let me think about it. I need to tie up some loose ends.” He left everything and followed Jesus, a wonderful example of instant obedience.
Well, let me backtrack a moment on that because we know he didn’t leave everything. He took something with him. He took his pen, for tax-collectors had to be able to read and write, and Levi, who was, remember, also called Matthew, took his pen and wrote perhaps the most detailed of the four gospel accounts.
There must have been something missing in Levi’s sad heart when Jesus walked up and called Levi to follow Him.
He must have heard Jesus preaching somewhere, maybe several times.
Perhaps some of the disciples had told him about Jesus.
Everything Jesus stood for was the opposite to the greed and avarice that drove people like him to become tax collectors.
When Jesus chose His twelve disciples, you discover they were an eclectic group.
Jesus had some fishermen and farmers.
He also had a disciple called Simon the Zealot.
A more literal translation would be “Simon the Terrorist.”
He had been part of a group of insurgents called Zealots who carried out random acts of violence against the Romans.
So, He had Levi, a Roman agent, and Simon the Terrorist on the same team.
That would be like having Michael Bloomberg and President Trump on the same team!
In addition, Jesus chose Judas, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
On paper, Levi, Simon and Judas would seem very unqualified.
But that’s the wonderful thing about Jesus.
He doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
Jesus calls you and me to follow Him.
Your immediate reaction might be, “Who, me?”
Paul talks about how God calls the seemingly unqualified in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 – “For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men according the flesh, not many mighty, not many of noble birth, are called: 27 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; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, even things which are not, to bring to nothing things that are: 29 That no one should boast in his presence.”
Illus. – Pastor David Dykes, a pastor in Tyler, TX tells of having the honor of being the main speaker at the National FCA camp in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Coach Tom Landy was there and so was NFL pass rusher Reggit White.
Dykes says that during the week, hundreds of young athletes came forward to make various decisions for Christ and rededication of lives to Jesus. One night Dykes was counseling with a young athlete who put His faith in Jesus. Dykes asked him on which night God had spoken to his heart He said it was the night Reggie White gave his testimony. Dykes asked him was it was that Reggie had said that so touched him.
He said, “Oh, it wasn’t Reggie White. It was the quadriplegic who got a spinal injury playing football. When he talked about how much God had blessed him, I figured that if he could feel that way, I wanted to know that kind of God.”
That story almost brought tears to my eyes. It wasn’t the big All-Pro NFL star who had touched his heart; it was the paralyzed guy! But that’s the way God works.
He delights in using ordinary and unqualified people!
You think you’re unqualified?—Great!—You’re JUST the kind of person God’s looking for.
II. NOTICE SECOND THAT JESUS COMINGLES WITH SINNERS. – Verse 15 – “And it happened that as Jesus was eating in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many who followed him.”
The first thing Levi did was to invite Jesus to a meal at his house with what Mark refers to as “tax-collectors and sinners.” Now note that these people may not have all necessarily been profligate people. The fact is that we’re all sinners, and even the scribes and Pharisees knew this.
“Tax-collectors and sinners” was a collective term for a class of people the scribes and Pharisees referred to as “the people of the land” or what we might call “common people” who, because they found it hard to find the time or had no desire or inclination to regulate their lives by the Pharisees’ standards, they were looked down upon, marginalized and shunned. The term “sinners” meant more the idea of “outcasts,” and could include a mix of people—deep sinners like harlots and murderers, but also shepherds and people who ate pork.
The problem with the scribes and the Pharisees was not their adherence to God’s laws, but their rabbinic traditions added to God’s Law. Though well intentioned, they held these traditions on an even par with God’s Law. And people who did not meet their exacting and meticulous rules based upon these traditions added on top of God’s Law were considered outcasts to be shunned.
But Jesus felt more at home sitting at a table with a bunch of outcasts than he did at a table with a bunch of religious snobs who couldn’t be pleased. In Luke 7:33-34, Jesus points out that John the Baptizer was criticized as demonic because he was an ascetic, fasted often and because He was had taken a Nazarite vow, He did not drink alcohol. Then they criticized Jesus because He was just the opposite: He did not often fast, He drank alcohol in moderation, and He loved to hang out with misfits, and eat with them.
Which was a BIG no-no to a Pharisee. You did not eat with tax-collectors and sinners—EVER. The problem with them was their self-righteousness and separatist position. Rather than love these people and try to reach them, they shunned them. But Jesus loved them and accepted them and showed respect to them.
The orthodox Pharisee was afraid of the contagion of the sinner, that somehow they would be infected with sin if they in any way associated with these outcasts. They were like doctors who would refuse to attend to a case of infectious illness lest they contracted it themselves.
The great late-19th century missionary to Africa, C.T. Studd, wrote this little ditty that expresses how we should see sinners:
Some want to live within the sound
Of church of chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop
Within a yard of hell.
How do you feel when people who don’t look like a “Christian” comes to church? Do you shun them, or do you welcome them? To eat with someone in the Bible was a sign of warmth and acceptance. Do you reach out to the outcasts in our community that way?—The drug addicts, the abused, alcoholics, homosexuals? I’m not saying you accept their sins; but can you accept THEM;? can you love THEM?; will you reach out to THEM?
Illus. – A cowboy came to church one Sunday morning. All he had on were jeans, a flannel shirt and boots that were worn and ragged. He carried a worn-out hat and a worn-out Bible. After church, the pastor said, “Next time, ask God what you should wear to church.”
The next Sunday, he wore the same thing. The pastor said, “I thought I told you to ask God what you should wear to this church.”
The cowboy responded, “I did, but he said H e didn’t know. He’s never been to this church.”
I wonder if Jesus is in some of our holier-than-thou, self-righteous, self-serving churches. Listen, Jesus goes to where sinners are, and He welcomes and loves sinners. May we have that same loving, welcoming spirit.
III. NOTICE LAST HOW JESUS CONFRONTS THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS. – Verse 16-17 – “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with tax-collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
The Pharisees were just waiting to crash Levi’s party. Jesus is mingling with outcasts and sinners and loving them and showing respect to them, and right outside the door is a posse of religious snobs. They’re the self-appointed righteousness police who have been following Jesus around, looking at how they can criticize him. You can just hear them sneering outside, “He’s with tax-collectors and sinners! He’s EATING with them instead of shunning them. He’s treating them with respect and kindness. How DARE Him!”
So they voice their concerns with Jesus’ disciples. Now I suspect this was breaking new territory for the disciples too and it must have been awkward at first sitting down with these type of people, so they were probably a little flummoxed about what to say. So before they could blurt out an inadequate reply, Jesus took the floor and drew a simple but obvious parallel, namely that it’s not healthy people who need a doctor, but sick people, and therefore, it’s not good people who need a Savior, but bad people.
The Lord’s critics thought of themselves to be the “good” people in Jesus’s proverb, and they classified tax-collectors and harlots and the like as bad people. They brought into focus one great fact of the Gospel—no one is too bad for the Lord Jesus to save, but many people think themselves to be too good to need salvation. People who imagine themselves to be too good to need to be saved judge themselves and others on a scale of relative values. They put sin in various categories and grade them according to differing degrees.
Illus. – The great 19th century preacher D.L. Moody had an assistant who visited a man in prison. He was sharing the Gospel with the prisoner who had murdered a man. The assistant shared with him that the Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.”
But he took exception to the assistant’s assertion of his sinfulness. He said, “I’m not so bad.
There’s a man down in cell 18 who has killed 7 men and I’ve only killed one. Now THAT man is what I call a SINNER!”
This man did what most people do: they judge their sins in comparison to the sins of others and they can always see somebody worse than them and therefore conclude, “Well, I’m not THAT bad.”
But God has a different scale—His own absolute goodness; His on perfectly just holiness. That leaves EVERYONE in the same category. We are ALL lost sinners in need of a Savior.
The reality was that the scribes and Pharisees were sinners just like those they shunned. Their sinfulness was just a matter of degree. They may not have committed as many gross sins as others, but their pride was a sin and an affront to God. James tells us that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And elsewhere James also tells us that if we transgress even ONE of God’s commandments, we are guilty of the WHOLE law.
The Pharisees saw themselves as “good” in Jesus’ proverb but Jesus was speaking ironically. In reality, He was saying that until we realize our need and humble ourselves, we cannot be saved.
Until we see ourselves as sinners like tax-collectors and harlots and murderers and thieves and liars, just not as depraved or deprived as they, we cannot be saved.
God only saves those who will humble themselves and see themselves as creatures who have fallen short of God’s glory and holiness.
Illus. – Vance Havner told the story of a lady who came forward during the invitation at the end of the service in one of his meetings to be saved. She was a very sophisticated and refined woman. She had a graduate’s degree and was very articulate and bright.
When she came forward during the invitation, Dr. Havner asked her, “Why have you come forward?”
She said, “I want to be saved.”
Havner abruptly replied, “Ma’am, do you realize that you are a hell-bound sinner worthy only of God’s judgment?”
Looking at him in shocked disbelief, she said, “Why no. I’ve been good all my life.”
He said, “Well, in that case ma’am, you cannot go to heaven. Have a seat over there please, because you cannot be saved.”
Bewildered, she went to one of the front row seats.
On the next verse of the song of invitation, she came forward again and said, “Sir, I would like to be saved.”
He said, “Ma’am, to be saved is to be saved FROM something. To be saved is to be saved from SIN. Jesus said, ‘…I came not to call the righteous, but SINNERS to repentance.’”
Suddenly it was as if he saw a light go off in her head. “Ma’am, do you realize that you’re a poor, lost sinner in need of God’s grace and unable to add to His work on Calvary through any works or goodness of your own?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks as the shame of sin overcame her. “Yes! I do,” she said.
When she said that, she was in a place where God could save her, and Havner was able to lead her to Christ.
CONCLUSION
Let me wrap this sermon up by bringing it down to our hearts personally this morning.
Let me ask you two questions before we go home:
First, if you are believer in Jesus Christ, have you become so cloistered with running around with saints of God, that you’re no longer reaching out to those without Christ.
Illus. – History records that when Oliver Cromwell ruled England, the nation experienced a crisis: They ran out of silver and could not mint any coins. Cromwell sent his soldiers to the Cathedral to see if any silver was available. They reported back that the only silver was the statues of the saints, to which Cromwell replied, “Melt down the saints and get them back into circulation.”
We too need to be in circulation among sinners. If we get opportunities to share our faith, we must take those opportunities because they’re sick with the malady of sin and unless Jesus, the Great Physician heals them, they are doomed to face God’s judgment and hell. God help us to introduce people to Dr. Jesus.
And I have a word to you if you have not come to Jesus for salvation: You are a sinner who will face God’s judgment and hell I just mentioned if you do not realize your sinfulness before God and turn to Dr. Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.
You might be a “good” sinner in your own eyes, but you’re a sinner, nevertheless. Sin is transgressing God’s laws, and with God, there is no difference between a light sinner and a heavy sinner. If you have ever taken God’s name in vain, or not observed the Lord’s Day, or stolen anything or coveted something or someone, or hated someone, which Jesus says is equal to murder in God’s eyes, or ever told a lie…you stand condemned before a holy God who will punish sin.
But there’s an answer to your dilemma. Dr. Jesus loves you, no matter how deep your sin. He wants to be with you; He wants you to be His child. If you will turn from sin and recognize that Jesus died for you and trust in Him as your Savior, He will cleanse you of all your sins, come into your life, give you eternal life and change you from the inside out. I encourage you to turn from your sins to Jesus and be saved today.
