[Reading Mark 2:13-17] In today’s passage out of the book of Mark, we don’t find Jesus throwing a birthday party for a prostitute, but we do find him hanging out with some unsavory characters called tax collectors and other sinners because that is really what Jesus would do and that is what Jesus did do. We are continuing the series called The Story. It is God’s story as told through the people, places, and events of the Bible. We stared in October and we are in the part where we are looking into Jesus’ ministry and his miracles. If you were with us last week, we began to look at his miracles. We looked at his very first miracle in Cana where he changed water into wine. You may recall that that probably was something that was a little bit upsetting to the Jewish people because Jesus didn’t use the empty wine bottles. He actually used the ceremonial jars; the ones they reserve for ceremonial washing. He used these to make the wine. So that was a little bit upsetting for the Jews. But we find that Jesus is one to not worry about upsetting people. Jesus was the one who would continue to push the envelope of what would be considered acceptable religious behavior. There is no exception as we see in today’s passage which is the story of the calling of one of the first disciples, Levi. A couple weeks ago, we looked at the calling of the early disciples. The four disciples that were fisherman. In today’s story, we see a calling of somebody from a different occupation. A guy that goes by the name of Levi, also known as Matthew. Calling out of a less than savory occupation called tax collecting. It opens by saying “Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him , and he began to teach. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collectors booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him. And Levi got up and followed him.” So here we have a situation where Jesus is beginning to get very popular and very well known. He is known as a teacher. He has these large groups of people following him. As the story goes, the Rabbi would often walk around. They would sit and teach and then get up and walk some more. Apparently, as he is walking along, he comes across this tax collector’s booth and meets this guy named Levi. They believe Levi is also the same guy that is referred to as Matthew in another gospel.
A little bit of background on this idea of a tax collector. We know that Levi was a tax collector. Back then, tax collecting was a little bit different than today. Today, when we think of tax collector, we think of the IRS. I imagine that when some of you think of the IRS you really don’t have fond imagery of the IRS. That is because the IRS tries to take away your money. As much as we don’t like the IRS today, they really didn’t like the tax collectors back then. The tax collectors really were in some sense considered thieves and in another sense actually considered traitors. Back in the first century, the Roman government actually had their hands in everybody’s pockets. They found their way to tax just about everything. They taxed animals, livestock, crops, imports, exports, any sales. Always finding ways to tax people so they could support the Roman Empire. Because the tax system was so large, the Roman government was forced to hire local tax representatives to farm out the job of collecting the taxes. This was a pretty good job. So much so that people would actually bid on the right to be a tax collector for the Roman government. The reason being is that not only would they collect the taxes for the Roman government. The tax collectors would be able to add on additional fees that they would be able to keep for themselves. Over time, some of these guys were really dishonest and they would tack on these enormous extra fees so they could line their pockets. Most of these tax collectors were pretty wealthy people. They weren’t liked the peasants because they were really considered thieves. They really weren’t liked by the Jews either because when the peasants were heavily taxed that meant more money was going to the Roman infrastructure and less money was going to maintain the Jewish temple. The Jewish people really didn’t like the tax collectors. Often times, these tax collectors were actually Jews by birth. The fact that these tax collectors were punching in the Roman clock, so to speak, they were considered traitors by the Jewish people. That is why we often see that tax collectors often get lumped in with sinners. Even though they are of Jewish birth, they are pretty much despicable in the eyes of the Jews. They are lumped in with the common sinner.
Having said that, we still know that for some reason Jesus decided to pick Levi as one of the twelve disciples. As I said a few weeks ago, being picked by a famous Rabbi was a very, very big deal. It was a big thing to be picked by a famous Rabbi. The disciples really didn’t know what they were going to be learning by this Rabbi, but they did know that they would establish this relationship of teacher and apprentice or teacher and disciple. It was a very big deal. It was also a high cost to become a disciple especially for Levi. Unlike the fisherman who could, if things didn’t work out, return back to their fishing occupation, someone like Levi who had a good tax collecting business, if the thing didn’t work out with Jesus, he is probably not going to get his old job back. That means he is probably not going to get other jobs because people thought he was a thief. He was probably going to be excluded from the Jewish community because they considered him a traitor. Levi, or Matthew, was also taking a big risk to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. For whatever reason, just like the other disciples, he dropped everything and got up and followed Jesus. That is the beginning of the story.
The next scene we find is that there is this big party going on. The passage goes on to say “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples for there were many who followed him.” I think some of the other passages actually speak about this as really a big banquet. You have this banquet going on. We don’t know what prompted the party. Some suggest maybe it was a farewell party for Matthew. Some suggest it was just a party where Matthew could get his friends introduced to Jesus. We really don’t know. What we do know is at this party there were a bunch of tax collectors and many other sinners. Right in the middle of this party, Jesus seems to plop himself down and seems to be very comfortable sitting in the midst of all these unsavory characters. We already talked about what a tax collector would be and why he would be considered someone unsavory. But what about sinners? We don’t use the term sinners at least in the culture too much. When we do use it, it tends to be watered down. It is kind of like this idea of someone who makes a bad choice. We really don’t use the word sinner that often. For the Jews, the term sinner meant someone who was a law breaker; someone who broke the Jewish law. Someone who broke the laws that were handed down from God to Moses to the people. As I have said before, these laws were originally designed for good. They were designed to be a help for people. To help them be able to live the lives that God intended for them. They were supposed to be helpful in the sense that they would provide freedom. The Jewish people figured out a way to use them as instruments of control to be able to take control over people’s lives. To be able to inflict some sort of guilt on them so they could get what they wanted. What happened is these laws, in following and becoming a Jew, really became a performance-based system. If you follow the laws, then God loves you and then you can stay in our community. If you break the laws, God doesn’t love you anymore and you are excluded from community. There is a word for that. That is called legalism. That is a heavy burden for the people to follow. So heavy that is really what Jesus came in to try and dismantle. To try to really change. He did that. When Jesus came into the situation, he did not add the burden to them by simply going in and saying you sinners need to clean up your act if you want me to hang with you. He plopped himself right in the middle of the whole group and said I accept you as you are. Right now, I accept you as you are. You are not a bunch of lowlifes. I am going to be friends with you. I am going to hang out with you. As he hung out with them, they would begin to listen to him. They would hear his teaching about the kingdom and then, over time, he would introduce them into a better way of life. Really a kingdom way of life that would move them away from all sorts of destructive patterns. The people had already heard that they were sinners. They heard over and over. They probably heard it since they were little kids that they were sinners. They didn’t need to hear that they were sinners again. They needed to hear a new type of message. That is what Jesus brought them. He brought them a very new type of message. A message of love. A message of forgiveness. A message with the idea that God loves you where you are, but he loves you so much that he is not going to leave you where you are. He wants the best for you. This is a radical shift in the way people would be thinking.
It was especially radical for the Jewish people. So radical that it goes on to say “When the teachers of the law (those were the Pharisees) saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” They are talking to the disciples here. What is wrong with this guy? He is supposed to be this respected Jew. He is supposed to be this respected teacher, yet he is eating with the tax collectors and sinners. What is up with that? Apparently, even though they were talking to the disciples, somehow Jesus got wind of that and then he responded. The passage goes on to say “On hearing this, Jesus said to him, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.’” In the first reading of this, it is easy to think he is paying the Pharisees a little bit of a compliment. He is implying that they are righteous, which is basically a fancy churchy term that means right relation with God. It sounds like he is paying them a compliment. Really the opposite is true. He is not paying them a compliment. He is actually being a little bit sarcastic. I like the way that the New Living Translation puts it. It says “When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous but those who know they are sinners.’” The Jewish people really thought they were righteous. They did. They had this idea that they were living the right life because they were able to check off their list all the performance standards. They were able to do the things of the law and keep it meticulous. Jesus was really saying I have nothing to offer you. You already think you have your act together, so I have nothing to offer you. Instead, I am going to go to the people who understand and have enough self-awareness that they are sinners. If they are sinners, they know that there is something not right inside of them. In other words, they know there is something unhealthy about them. What Jesus would do after he spends a certain amount of time with them, he would begin to lead them towards the kingdom and away from the negative and destructive lifestyle that they may be living. This whole thing is a pretty short passage. I was wondering if I would get enough material out of it. I decided this is good and I will leave it there.
I will leave you with a couple thoughts on this. The first thought is that I think most would acknowledge sometimes the church sends off a negative message to the culture. I would say a performance-based message. If you do good, God loves you, and then you can hang with us. If you do bad, God doesn’t love you, and we want nothing to do with you. If you drink and smoke and chew, we want nothing to do with you people. That is really the message we send to culture. We are all about getting in people’s face and telling them what they should be doing. Telling them how they should be acting. Basically, what we are adopting is a performance-based mentality. We are promoting it to the people. We are saying, you follow the law, God loves you and will hang with you. If you mess up, God doesn’t love you anymore, and we want nothing to do with you. That is really the message we are sending to culture. That is a false narrative. That is a pharisaical narrative that is just totally wrong because it is performance-based. What happens is people tend to not only reject God because they think I can never live up to his standards, but they begin to reject the church. They say I want nothing to do with the church because the church is a bunch of hypocrites. You say you follow all these rules, but I see your lives. I see what you do. It turns them away from God and it turns them away from the church. What I think the story tells us as Christians what we need to learn to do is to help the culture change their narrative and change their thinking that they have about God. We need to give them a new story and a new narrative. Not a narrative that is performance based but a narrative that is love based. We need to be able to tell them that God loves them. Why? Because they are his children. They are made in the image of God. Because God loves them just like we love our own children, we want the best for them. We need to start with that message. Not legalism but love. In order to do that, we need to be out with the people. We need to be out there with the tax collectors and the sinners, however we want to classify them nowadays. In other words, we can’t just try to bring people to Jesus. We have to learn to bring Jesus to the people. That is risky. For some people, I wouldn’t recommend it because some people are not mature enough to be able to go back into those settings with the tax collectors and sinners because you haven’t matured to the level where you can handle it. You haven’t matured to the level that is going to keep you from being sucked back into your old ways. Do you understand what I am saying? If you are one of those people, if you tend to be drawn down when you are around your old friends or the tax collectors and the sinners, I would say for the short-term it is probably better to surround yourself with healthy, Christian relationships. If you are a mature Christian, I know there are a lot of mature Christians here, then you need to get out of your little Christian circles. That is the hard thing. I am guilty of it too. Once you become a Christian, most of your friends are Christian, so we just hang around with Christians. We never really reach the world. We like to bring people to Jesus, but we don’t like to bring Jesus to people. As this story reminds us, Jesus needs to be with the people. He needs to be in the various settings. He needs to be in the workplace. He needs to be in the social settings. He needs to be in the schools. You need to bring them there. You need to come in and help promote this new narrative because people are used to the false narrative that says God only loves me if I do good. The narrative you have to bring is that God loves you whether you do good or not. God loves you. That is the message. You bring that into the situation, you get people’s ears. You demonstrate that love by listening to them. When you listen to them, they listen to you. If they listen long enough and you hang around, pretty soon you may find yourself leading them towards the kingdom way of life and away from the destructive way of life. That is really as simple as it gets.
In order to do this, what occurred to me is that you have to believe something first. You have to believe that God loves you no matter how much you mess up. Speaking for myself, I know that I get into a performance-based mentality. I was thinking if I think this, I would imagine other people think this. If I read my Bible and I pray and I serve the homeless and I go to church, God is going to love me. In my case, I would say if I produce a good sermon, God is going to love me. If I do my homework, God is going to love me. All these things. But if I don’t do that, if I go through the entire day and don’t crack my Bible, don’t even pray, don’t do anything but self-serving stuff, God doesn’t love me anymore. Do you ever think that? If you are honest, raise your hand. I think it all the time. You know what? You end up becoming very, very anxious. Your Christian life lacks any joy because every day you are wondering does God really, really love me. Something is wrong with that. And we wonder why we send that same message out to the culture. It is because most of us are living it.
The answer is quite simple. We first and foremost have to realize that we are all sinners. We are all sinners. Every day should be an act of repentance on our part because every day we are doing something that is outside the kingdom way of living by thought, word, or deed. It reminded me of a passage where Paul, one of the greatest Christians that ever lived, says to Timothy in 1 Timothy “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” Next to Jesus, this is the guy we hold up as probably the holiest. But he says “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” The message we are trying to take to the people is the same message we have to accept. We are sinners. We are saved, but we are sinners. Every day I imagine we all mess up. Okay. Accept that. But also accept the fact that God does not love you based on your performance. God loves you simply because you are his creation. You are a child of God. God loves you so much that he sent his son and whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. We have to understand that. We have to be reminded of that. We have to be reminded of this verse again. Jesus came “to call not those who think they are righteous but those who know they are sinners.” Let us pray.
