The Sick and Sinners
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Introduction
Introduction
In the military, there is a certain activity that one must do before taking a vehicle off the lot. It was called PMCS—Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services. There was an entire check-list of things that needed to be checked every time a humvee or a deuce and a half or whatever else was being taken. Headlights, tail lights, oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, tire pressure, etc. If it could break on the vehicle, it had to be checked. If something was wrong, there was no checking it out. It either got fixed immediately or another vehicle was assigned and another PMCS was performed.
It was so tempting and so easy just to pretend to do the PMCS. I’m sure at some point, everyone fudged a little…or a lot! on their checklists. After all, what’s the likelihood that this thing is going to break down? It didn’t look broken. It didn’t smell broken. It didn’t sound broken. It’s all good. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. What are we? Mechanics? No! We’re infantry. We’re airborne. We’re Chaplain Assistants! If the humvee drives, then it doesn’t need a mechanic. Isn’t that how we treat our cars? Flat tires need air. Dead batteries need a jump. Low oil needs a change. But so long as no lights come on and it cranks in the morning, we don’t PMCS our cars.
But we don’t just treat our cars this way. We treat ourselves this way also. Rarely, if ever, do people—Christians included—check to see if they are doing okay. So long as we wake up in the morning, that’s good enough for us. Most people are concerned about looking okay than being okay. Put on some decent clothes, brush the teeth, put on deodorant, maybe some cologne or perfume, and maybe do the makeup and hair. It’s like washing and waxing the body of a car without actually checking the engine to make sure it is good to go.
Have you ever heard a car before you saw it? When it drove by, it was all shiny and cool looking, but it needed a tune-up!
This morning, as we open up Luke, we see Jesus calling Levi to follow him. As we do, I want us to see this in three acts—kind of like a play, but obviously not a fictitious one. We’ll call Act I: The Beheld. Act II is The Banquet. Act III: The Broken.
The Befriended
The Banquet
The Broken
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The Befriended
The Befriended
Act I starts off with Jesus on the move. He has just healed the paralytic in the middle of a conference involving the Pharisees, Scribes, and law-teachers. We don’t actually know how long it was between the healing and the calling of Levi, aka Matthew. It could have been a few minutes; it could have been a few days. We just get the words, “After this...”
What we do know is that Jesus was on a mission. We’ve already seen Jesus calling Simon Peter. Now we get the story of Jesus calling Levi Matthew. It was common for Jews to have a Hebrew/Aramaic name as well as a Greek name. Simon was Hebrew, Peter was Greek. Saul was Hebrew, Paul was Greek. Levi was Hebrew, Matthew was Greek. Jesus was on a mission that involved calling Levi to follow him.
All we get about Levi, at first, is that he is a tax-collector. Being that he was in a booth indicates that he was a middle-man. He worked for a higher ranking tax-collector. As we all know, no one likes the tax-man; especially the Jews in the first century who knew that their tax-money was going to the Romans who occupied their land. After all, how do you get out from occupation, when all your tax dollars are going to keep the occupiers supplied with weapons and food so they can continue to occupy your land!?
So here is Levi, the tax collector in his tax booth, just doing his job. You can imagine it can’t you? This little table with a canopy over the top just outside of town. It’s probably some time in the mid to late afternoon. There’s a line of disgruntled tax-payers. Every single one of them giving Levi the stink-eye. Some may be a bit more polite than others, but none of them like him or want to be around him. Many of them call him a traitor to the Jewish people. Some show their disrespect by spitting at his feet. None of that is found in the Bible, mind you, but it was a typical response to those who aligned themselves with Rome. Rabbis saw and taught that tax-collectors were hired thieves and they were considered to be committing divine treason. It was, according to a Jewish ruling, legal to lie to tax collectors. The religious leaders like the Pharisees and Scribes saw them as unclean and unfit for any religious duties. Like shepherds, they couldn’t give testimony in court, and they were considered more unclean than lepers since lepers didn’t choose to be lepers but tax collectors chose to be tax collectors. In other words, everyone looked at Levi with suspicion, hatred, and disgust.
Everyone except Jesus. Luke wrote that Jesus saw him. The normal Greek word for “saw” would be orao or blepo. These just mean to see with the eyes. But there are other words to use. This word that Luke used is theaomai. This is actually an emphatic term that is not often used. So when it is used, it should give us pause. Orao is used 350 times and blepo is used 133 times in the New Testament. Theaomai is used only 22. When Paul wanted to stop in Rome on his way to Spain, he said it was so he could see them, but clearly it wasn’t just to wave at them from a distance, but to visit with them. The same goes for the writer of Hebrews, when he informs them that he plans to see them with Timothy. His intention was not just to look upon them with his eyes, but to spend time with them.
So when we read that Jesus saw Levi, we need to understand that it wasn’t simply that Levi caught Jesus’s eye as he was walking by. Rather that Jesus intentionally went out to see Levi—to spend time with him, to visit with him. His attention was fixed upon Levi. This man who no one liked and no one wanted to be around for longer than was necessary to pay taxes—and maybe spit on or degrade—was wanted by Jesus.
What toll does it take upon a person who knows that no one wants to be around them? No one wants to befriend them. No one invites them over for dinner. No one wants to hang out. They go, do their job, go home. Maybe they have friends or acquaintances that make up the “no body wants us around” club. They see them every once in a while. But what happens when that person is befriended by the most popular person in the nation? At this point, Levi doesn’t know Jesus is the Son of God. All he knows is that everyone loves to be around Jesus. Everyone wants to be Jesus’s friend. Everyone flocks to Jesus. But here is Jesus loving Levi. Here is Jesus befriending Levi. Here is Jesus flocking to Levi. Is it any wonder that when Jesus said, “Follow me,” that Levi left everything and followed him?
Incidentally, the word “leaving” is in the aorist tense while the word “followed” is in the imperfect. Aorist tends to give us a snapshot of a whole. In other words, it was something that happened. There was no vacillating. He didn’t leave and then go back and then leave and go back. He got up, and left it all. Imperfect means that it was something that was continuous without indication of an ending. Thus, when Levi began following Jesus, he kept on going.
It is hard to remember that when Jesus started his ministry, he did not have any disciples. He had to go out and choose them and call them. He chose fishermen. If you’ve ever been around professional fisherman, you may want to bring some earplugs. And here he chose a tax-collector. These were the people Jesus sought—befriended—as his disciples. Do you see what I’m saying? He intentionally picked these men and women to be his friends and followers. I cannot say that intentionally seeking the outcast describes me. Would you say that it describes you?
The Banquet
The Banquet
As we move into Act II, the scene changes. Rather than being just outside of town, Jesus is now at Levi’s house. It’s a nice house, as tax collectors tended to be well-paid. He was probably not as wealthy as Zacchaeus a chief-tax collector, but he did alright for himself. If it were today, he’d probably live in a decent sized house, with a two car garage. It’d be no mansion, but it would certainly be comfortable living. A party is going on. Those people that he may have hung out with—those of ill-repute—were the only ones to come.
Luke wrote there was a large number of tax collectors and “others.” Later, he clarifies by quoting the Pharisees and Scribes that these “others” were “sinners.” And of course, Jesus was there too. So we picture this nice house, with lots of food out on various tables. Maybe some hired servants going around with trays and wine. And there is Jesus reclining, elbow up on a table, legs out, relaxed and enjoying the company. Levi wanted to make much of Jesus and so he had invited as many as would come. There was Jesus, surrounded by tax-collectors and others of ill-repute. And he wasn’t uncomfortable. There he was rubbing elbows with the “unclean” literally! He was fellowshipping, communing with them. And not just him, but he led his disciples into the party too! We know that because of what the Pharisees and Scribes said later to the disciples: “Why do you… as in you all, eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners.” So Jesus wasn’t alone in being at the party. The disciples were there too!
We’ll get to the Pharisees and Scribes in a moment, but it is clear that they saw what Jesus and his disciples doing as wrong. If tax-collecting was treasonous against God, then surely communion with tax-collectors was something akin to aiding and abetting the enemy. If a tax collector touched or entered someone’s home, it was considered unclean. How much worse would it be for someone to enter into a tax collector’s home? But Jesus wasn’t ashamed. He wasn’t nervous about what others would think.
And if this is the case, that Jesus was at an unclean tax collector’s unclean home with his unclean associates, and it was not wrong, sinful, or even unclean for him to be so, then it just might mean that we need to rethink certain verses of the Bible. Verses like
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
and 1 Thess 5:22
Abstain from every form of evil.
We have been taught that if we keep bad company—like those of tax collectors and “sinners” then we ourselves would be corrupted. And we have been taught that we are to abstain from every appearance of evil—whether it was evil or not, so long as it had the appearance of evil—we are to stay far, far away. And yet, Jesus was among bad company quite often and here and other places, it certainly came across as an appearance of evil. So then, what do these verses really mean? Well, as always, context is key to understanding.
In the context of 1 Corinthians 15:33, Paul was in the middle of defending the resurrection of the dead by pointing to the resurrection of Christ and how there were some in the church denying these truths. Thus, these within the church were “bad company,” and if the rest were not careful about hanging out with these false-teachers, their lives—their actions and morals—would be corrupted themselves. Why? Because the resurrection is our hope.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
And if we read just a verse before Paul’s caution about bad company, we see that those who had no concept of the resurrection were indeed living without hope for the future, but hope in this life only.
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Thus, to hang out with these religious, church-going, resurrection deniers will lead you into sin! So don’t be fooled, wake up from your drunken stupor.
And the context of abstaining from every form of evil, is similar.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophecies,
but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Within the church, we are not to quench the Spirit as he moves. We are not to turn our nose up and reject the proclamation of God’s Word. Instead, we are to test everything. We are to be like the Bereans who went back to Scripture and make sure that what was said is true and accurate. And if so, then hold fast to it as it is good. But if it is false, if it is wrong, if it is evil, then certainly turn from it. Abstain from following after it. So we test everything, hold fast to the good, and abstain from the evil in all its forms. This is within the church, not outside the church.
Remember what Paul told the Corinthians about judging?
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
So am I saying, go to the parties? Sure, if your intention is to make much of Jesus at them and not to participate as if the hope of this life was your only hope. And I will explain why.
The Broken
The Broken
Because it has to do with Act III. The first act was The Befriended. The second was The Banquet. Now, the final act is The Broken.
And it is really this act that is the climatic act. This is where the disciples who had gone to the banquet get confronted by the Pharisees and Scribes.
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
I used to find the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Scribes surprising. They could see the sins of others, but not of themselves. But that’s just human nature. Think about it just a moment. I found the hypocrisy surprising. Yet, I am a hypocrite myself at times. So then my finding their hypocrisy surprising is an act of hypocrisy itself!
Jesus answer is fantastic though.
And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The Pharisees and Scribes saw the tax collectors and “sinners” the same way that Jesus saw them. They were sick. They were sinners. The problem was that they did not see themselves the same way. Everyone else was broken. Not them though. They had it all together. They were taught the right things. They believed the right things. They lived the right way. Everyone saw them as upstanding, holy, and righteous. They weren’t broken. So long as they did not see themselves as broken, they did not see their need for a healer, a physician. So long as they saw themselves differently than the sinner, they need not repent.
I’m not sure if we truly get how Paul had changed 180 degrees.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Paul, a former Pharisee had done a 180, that he not only admitted his sin, but confessed and saw himself as the foremost of sinners! Worse than the tax collector or prostitute or adulterer or drunkard. He saw how broken he was.
Beloved, many Christians are Pharisaical, not because they are too strict about the law, but because they are too proud to admit their brokenness. We’ve washed the outside of the cup and dish and are filthy inside. We have whitewashed the tombs but still have deadness inside.
Look in this narrative. Who is with Jesus? It’s the broken. It’s the sick. It’s the sinner. Look who Jesus gravitates to. The broken, sick, and sinner. These are the ones to whom Jesus came. These are the ones whom Jesus befriended. Do we not see that if we cannot embrace our brokenness, we will always be like the Pharisees—standing on the outside looking in and never truly understanding who Jesus is and why he came? Let me say that again: If we cannot embrace our brokenness, we will always be standing on the outside looking in and never truly understanding who Jesus is and why he came.
To be sure, there are many who think themselves too broken for Jesus. This passage shows that to be utterly false! But on the flip side of the coin, there are many who do not see themselves as broken enough! They’re doing just fine. They’ve got it all figured out. They kind of see Jesus as Brylcreem. Do you remember Brylcreem? I used to use it when I had hair. It’s slogan was, “A little dab’ll do ya.” Just a little dab of Jesus will do me and then let me put in the hard work and I’m good to go.
Many of us are familiar with The Narnia Series by C. S. Lewis. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was required reading when I was a kid. But Peter Scazzero pointed out another scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that is powerful. A boy by the name of Eustace has turned into a dragon because of selfishness, stubbornness, and unbelief. In time, a pain developed in his leg, and he wanted to go back to being a boy, but he couldn’t. Aslan, the Jesus figure in The Chronicles, takes him to a large well to bathe, and Eustace believed that if he could just get in, the pain in his leg would go away. But he’s a dragon and can’t enter. He has to undress; he had to shed his skin. He knew he could do it, so he took off a layer of skin, but still couldn’t fit. So he did another. And then another. He had barely scratched the surface.
Then C. S. Lewis wrote
“Then the lion said—but I don’t know if it spoke--’You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know—if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy—oh but it is such fun to see it coming away. . .
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt—and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me—I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on—and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. (108-109)
Most of us know we’re dragons. We’ve even confessed we’re dragons. Most of us have probably even shed a few layers of our dragonness. But we’ve never truly have seen or admitted how dragon we are; we just want the pain to go away.
We hide our brokenness by denying it, just like the Pharisees. We see what we’re not
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
And we see what we do
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
We cloak our brokenness. And so we don’t see Jesus for all he is and is about. A teacher? Sure. An example? Absolutely. A forgiver. No problem. But a physician? I don’t need a physician. I’m not broken. I’m not sick.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus loves the broken. He befriends and banquets with the broken. He sees and visits the broken.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
That word “labor” in verse 28 is the same word Simon used when he told the Lord that they had worked—toiled exhaustively—all night and had caught nothing. That’s why some translations use the word “weary” because that’s who we are when we finally come to Jesus.
David wrote
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
A broken heart that comes from the admission of a broken life. It was only after David was confronted by Nathan about his adultery and murder that he saw himself as he really was.
There are some in here who may have never seen themselves to be broken. Sure, we all have our problems, but not broken. We’ve put on band aids and maybe a bit of ointment, but never even thought we needed the Physician. But he came to bring you healing. He came to call you to repentance—that your sins and your guilt and your shame could be removed. Would you come to Jesus now? He will befriend you. He will banquet with you.
There are some who are like Eustace. You’ve confessed and acknowledged the brokenness, but have self-shed the outer layers, but have not let Jesus cut the deeper layers and undress you to cleanse you. Will you come to Jesus, again?
One of the most famous verses in the church is often misused. It is used as a salvation verse most times, but it was written to the church and not to the lost. It is Rev. 3:20. But I want to read it in its context and so I close with it:
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.