Opening illustration: Health clubs offer many different programs for those who want to lose weight and stay healthy. One fitness center caters only to those who want to lose at least 50 pounds and develop a healthy lifestyle. One member says that she quit her previous fitness club because she felt the slim and fit people were staring at her and judging her out-of-shape body. She now works out 5 days a week and is achieving healthy weight loss in a positive and welcoming environment. [Marvin Williams, ODB, 03/31]
Introduction: Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to call the spiritually unfit to follow Him. Levi was one such person. Jesus saw him sitting in his tax collector’s booth and said, “Follow me” (Mark 2:14). His words captured Levi’s heart, and he followed Jesus. Tax collectors were often greedy and dishonest in their dealings and were considered religiously unclean. When the religious leaders saw Jesus having dinner at Levi’s house with other tax collectors, they asked, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (2:16). Jesus replied, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (2:17).
Have you ever wondered if you were good enough for God? There are a lot of people who stay away from God because they figure they are just not good enough for him. And if you are thinking in terms of performance, you are absolutely right. God is perfect. God is holy. None of us measures up to his standards. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory.
But Jesus came to save sinners, which includes all of us. He loves us, welcomes us into His presence, and calls us to follow Him. As we walk with Him, we grow more and more spiritually fit.
Who and Why did Jesus call?
1. Called the UNLIKELY (vs. 13-14)
In the Old Testament, God had given the Promised Land to his people, the Israelites. He told them if they obeyed him, they would prosper and be blessed. But if they disobeyed him, they would be judged and cursed. As it happened, their history was largely one of disobedience and judgment. God judged them by placing them under foreign nations as he had promised. In Jesus’ day, that foreign rule was the Roman Empire. And as all foreign occupations in the Ancient Near East, they wanted some sort of tribute from the conquered peoples under them. The Romans did this through taxes.
The Romans would hire Jewish tax collectors, and would actually give the tax collection rights for a district to the highest bidder. This tax collector would pay the taxes to Rome in advance, and would make his living bringing in the tolls and customs for the area. As you can probably imagine, this system gave a lot of opportunity for dishonesty, abuse, and fraud. As someone traveled through the district, the tax collector had the authority to stop him, assess the value of the goods, and demand what he deemed to be an appropriate portion.
Tax collectors were some of the most despised people in Jesus’ day. They were despised by the religious leaders because their dishonesty meant that they disregarded the Law of God, even though they were Jews. Some people placed them in the same category as robbers, and rabbis of Jesus’ day considered any house entered by a tax collector to be unclean.
But apart from their dishonesty, commoners would despise tax collectors because they were seen as working for the enemy. They were agents of Rome, and every time they demanded a toll or customs tax it was a painful reminder to their Jewish brothers that they had been conquered by a foreign power. Certain people known as zealots considered such submission to the Roman authority to be an act of treason toward God. It is not insignificant that Jesus would call both Levi and Simon the zealot as two of his twelve disciples. Needless to say, tax collectors were despised by the Jewish people, and this is the situation of Levi.
But Levi seems to be even more of an unlikely candidate for a disciple at first glance than the other four men. You can respect fishermen as hard workers making a living. But Levi probably has set up his tax booth beside the sea so that he can collect money both from people on the road and in boats. He has a different position in society than the fishermen; he’s the one getting rich off of all the hard-working people toiling in their trades. And in that sense he may have had more to leave behind when he followed Jesus: his job was secure, and prosperous, and he had guaranteed income. But he responds in the same way as the other four we have seen called. Mark tells us that “he rose and followed him.” Here again we see a picture of discipleship. Discipleship is following Jesus by faith.
Here is an example of Jesus calling a notorious sinner to be his own. And he will do it again many times. Consider Paul, whom Jesus called from a life dedicated to persecuting the church and made him to be the missionary to the Gentiles. God’s grace overcomes the worst forms of human depravity. As Christ Community Church grows, take a look around and learn each other’s stories. You might be surprised at how many unlikely candidates are recipients of God’s grace. And the beautiful thing in this Gospel is that Mark does not stop simply with Jesus calling one tax collector. He tells the rest of the story and shows us that this far-reaching grace is normal for Jesus. Verse 15 says that there were many tax collectors and sinners who followed Jesus. To review, this first truth is that God’s grace calls the unlikely, and this is the normal way of his grace.
2. Called the UNLIKELY to fellowship with Him (vs. 15-16)
Isn’t Jesus’ whole message to repent and believe? Don’t they have to clean up their lives before he receives them? The answer to this is, perhaps surprisingly, “no.” Jesus receives them as they are. But this does not mean that his message of repentance is gone to the wind: Their radically changed lives provide the necessary evidence that God has graciously worked repentance and faith in their hearts. But the changed lives are not a prerequisite to Jesus accepting them; they are the fruit.
Now if the thought of the Christ, the Holy One of God, eating with all of these unclean sinners is scandalous, Jesus is about to make it much worse as soon as he opens his mouth. He says 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” (v. 17). This is even more scandalous because these scribes are not eating with Jesus; they are standing outside looking in. And Jesus is saying to them, “I am God’s Messiah. This meal I am enjoying right now is a preview of my messianic banquet in my kingdom. Sinners such as these eating with me are those who will dine with me in my kingdom. And those who have dedicated their lives to obtaining the righteousness of God by obeying the law like you, are going to be excluded.” Jesus is saying that they have missed it entirely: The Messiah did not come for them.
Do you see why this is so scandalous? Those who are trying to obey God’s law are actually on the broad road to hell, while those who have lived outside the law are being welcomed in by Jesus.
What in the world is going on here? Has Jesus lost his mind? Well, there are a couple of things we need to say to understand this. The first thing we need to say is that Jesus is showing his authority over the Old Testament law. The scribes of the Pharisees are trying to obey every commandment of the law, but tax collectors and sinners are coming to Jesus. What is happening is that something greater than the law has come, and if these scribes—or anyone else—put their hope in the law when the perfect law-keeping Christ has come, then they are headed for destruction (see Romans 9:30-10:4). So Jesus is showing his authority over the law. Therefore, we see him fellowshipping and having communion with the sinners of the day.
3. Called the UNLIKELY to transformation (v. 17)
God does require righteousness—perfect righteousness—for entrance into his kingdom. But the damnable—and I use that word intentionally—problem with these scribes is that they think they are righteous apart from Jesus. They think their law-keeping is going to be good enough to please God. But they are wrong, and if they don’t turn away from this pursuit and come after Jesus, it will cost them their lives.
When Jesus compares himself to a physician he is not saying, “Only a certain group of people are sick, and that is who I came for.” What he is saying, along with the rest of the Bible is that “the whole world is sick with the deadly disease of sin. I am the physician. I have the only cure for your disease. But I have come only for those who realize they are sick and will come to me in faith. A good doctor doesn’t leave someone in their illness. If he can cure them, he will cure them. That is his job. In the same way, Jesus loves you too much to leave you in your sin. Jesus calls sinners not to stay in their sin but to leave their sin and to follow him. These tax collectors and sinners know that they need a Savior. You scribes of the Pharisees think you don’t need me. The physician did not come for those who don’t think they are sick.” God’s grace is never without scandal because it only comes to those who know they deserve his judgment instead of grace.
When Jesus says he “came” not to call the righteous, but sinners,” he is not just giving a clever illustration. He is telling us his mission. We have seen this language of mission before. Remember Jesus’ response in Mark 1:38 to Peter when he goes to bring Jesus to the awaiting crowds: “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” He was telling us his mission there. And now we are getting some more detail. Here he tells us that he is coming to cure people who are sick with sin, people who recognize their sin and plight before God, turn from it, and come to Jesus in faith. But what is the remedy that Jesus offers?
We saw it Mark 2:1-12: The remedy is the forgiveness of sins. And this cure will only come by Jesus completing his mission as he tells it in Mark 10:45. There he says that he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus was going to give up his perfect life and die in the place of sinners, taking God’s judgment we deserve so that he could give us his righteousness. It is an exchange: our sin for his righteousness. But it is only for people who heed Jesus’ message by leaving behind a life of sin and following him by faith.
Application: Who do you identify yourself with? Jesus’ arms of welcome are always open. Anyone who followed Jesus genuinely, eventually ceased to be a sinner.
