Healthy and the Sick

If you have a Bible with you, we are scaling back the number of verses tonight and we will just be looking at Mark 2:14-17. If I were to ask you, what the most hated profession or job was that you could think of, what would you say? Not what job would you hate to have but is there a particular occupation that when you think of it, it tends to be absolutely hated by people. It’s not just the job that people hate, it seems to be the person that has the job that they hate. Some people think of politicians and if you say that you are a politician, people have the tendency to dislike you. One half of the country usually loves you and the other hates you. Sometimes people think of doctors and just assume that all doctors are bad doctors. Sometimes people hear that you are a lawyer or a cop or a judge and as soon as they find that out about you, they almost instinctively start to not like you. Even pastors tend to be disliked by people and sometimes people within their own church tend to not like them. Look, I know from experience if you ever want to make a group of comfortable people that you have just met uncomfortable, tell them your a pastor. Chances are you will never hear the conversation sucked out of a room faster in your life. One of my favorite examples of this was a few years ago a good friend of Lora and I, actually the kids godfather, him and I are both huge fans of a band called Dave Matthews Band, and if you don’t know them which I assume none of you do, just ask your parents they might know them, Dan and I went to go see the band play down in Raleigh. Dave Matthews Band fans are known for being this tightly knit community/family which is probably just a way of saying that they are just a bunch of stoners and Dan and I were out sitting on the lawn before the show started and we got talking to the people around us and Dan is the type of guy that could make small talk with a brick wall and still have a lively conversation so I’m following his lead and the people next to us ask me what it is that I do and I say I’m a pastor. And I tell you, that was the fastest that I have ever heard someone respond to something that was said with a dead panned, “Oh...” A couple awkward seconds later the only other thing the guy said to me was, “Well what is a pastor doing at a Dave concert man?” Now would he have given me that response if I said I was a plumber or a teacher or a musician? Probably not! But there was just this association in his mind as to what a pastor is like and I did not fit the mold as to what he was hoping. Why do I tell you all this? Because tonight we are going to be introduced to a guy named Levi who also goes by the name Matthew and Levi was employed as a tax collector. Now when you get older, you are probably going to hate tax season but back in the 1st century, I challenge you to find someone that was as hated in society as a tax collector. We will go through why this was so in just a few minutes but in the calling of Levi or Matthew as we are going to read in just a minute, we are going to see one of the clearest examples of the extent of God’s grace. We are going to see what I believe is exactly what the Christian life is supposed to look like because we will see that all Christians are called, all Christians are followers or disciples, and all Christians are to share the grace and mercy that they they have been shown to others. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will dive into Mark 2:14-17.

Mark 2:14–17 NASB95

As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

What Does the Bible and 1st Century Think of Tax Collectors?

Before we dive in too much, do you guys know anything about tax collectors during the time of Christ? Why do you think they were so heavily disliked? What was the responsibilities of a tax collector? At the most basic level, tax collectors came and took your money. They didn’t just take your money and fund good projects or even things that helped you out but it pretty much all went straight back to the Roman empire and some money even went straight into the pocket of the emperor. If you are a first century Jew that is living under the oppressive thumb of the Roman empire, how would you feel about giving money to them? You wouldn’t like it right? The Roman empire and the emperor could practically tax you on anything that they wanted so if you were traveling or exporting things, they could tax you based on what they saw. Your land was taxed, your goods were tasked, and every female over 12 and every male over 14 was taxed. So there were a lot of opportunities for people to be taxed. Now this itself is a problem but the biggest problem came from the fact that these tax collectors would practically just give a number to someone, send the prescribed amount back to the empire, and they could pretty much keep for them self what was left over. The empire would have different levels of tax collectors and the top tier one’s would hire people from the various nations that they were in to work as these lesser tax collectors and that is why we see Levi or Matthew, who is a Jewish man working in this tax booth. Now to many Jewish men and women, there was hardly anything worse than seeing your own flesh and blood, your own kinsmen, working for the Roman empire as a crooked tax collector. It stands to reason that Levi was seen as a traitor and hated by his own people. To double down on just how much these people were hated by the Jews in the 1st century, we only need to look at how the New Testament speaks of them. Think about the parable that Jesus told about the pharisee and the tax collector. The pharisee goes into the temple and he is gloating to the Lord about his own self-righteousness while the tax collector goes in to pray and he has such a sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness that he doesn’t even look up to Heaven to pray and all he can say is, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Why do you guys think that it is that Jesus contrasts the pharisee and the tax collector? Because in the minds of many, there was no one more righteous than the pharisee and no one more wicked and sinful than the tax collector. That parable would have done more than just surprise Christ’s audience, it would have put their jaws on the floor! Because there is absolutely no way that this tax collector could receive the grace of God right? But that is what happens! The pharisees said that Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners as a way of insulting Him because those were the worst people that they could think of. So, how does all of this relate to our friend Levi or Matthew?

The Gospel to the outcast, the despised, and the unacceptable

You see, it is in the calling of Levi where we see who the Gospel is truly for. The Gospel is good news but one could say that it is even greater news to the outcast, the despised, and the unacceptable. So, who is the Gospel for? Who is it that Jesus came to save? It is sinners! What does Jesus say in Mark 2:17 “And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Now I know that we usually go for annual check ups at the doctor just to make sure that everything is running smoothly but what Jesus says makes perfect sense. If you are in absolutely pitch perfect health, why would you need a doctor? If you were to be perfectly healthy and go to the doctor, what would the doctor say to you? “Why are you here and what do you need me for? Go home.” What Jesus is saying here is that as long as man holds on to his own sense of righteousness and the feeling that he or she is above the need of grace and mercy, the Gospel is of no use to them. Jesus is saying that He has come for those that are broken, cast out, despised, and unacceptable; not those that are righteous. Now this begs the question then, who is it that is righteous? Because what do we read in Romans 3:10 “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one.” I believe what Jesus is doing in this passage is that He is showing these scribes that they are more closely connected to the sinner and the tax collector than they might think. In their minds they were the righteous, they were the holy, they were the moral elites, but were they truly righteous? Maybe in their own eyes, but not in the eyes of God. The pharisees did on the surface, a lot of good things and taught good things, Jesus would admit this in Matthew 23:2–4 where Jesus says: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.” In these verses and in the verses we read in Mark 2, Jesus is telling the pharisees, “Look, for people that stress holiness to such a degree that you do, how is it that you are so greatly missing the mark? Should you not desire to see the sinful become sinless and the unrighteous become righteous?” Jesus is also calling out a false holiness that the pharisees held onto. Sinclair Ferguson put it like this, “If their so called holiness expressed itself only in criticism of sinners and not in caring for them, it was not the kind which God wanted, nor the type that Jesus exhibited.” This is a good stopping point for us to go back to the question of, “Who is it that the Gospel is for? And what does it accomplish?” What is it that Jesus does in our salvation? What you need to understand is this: The Gospel does not exist solely to make you better, it exists to make you brand new. If all the Gospel does is make you a morally better person but it does not address the spiritual state of the person, it is a failed gospel. We sort of talked about this last week remember? What Jesus is telling us and telling the pharisees is that He does not come to make someone better, He comes to make them brand new. He does not come to make the righteous more righteous, He comes to make sinners, the outcast, the rejected, the separated from God righteous, brought in, loved, and restored. None of these things happen just based on someone staying exactly as they are, they need to be born again! This is what we see happen in the calling of Levi! This is a picture of what every saved person looks like! John Calvin said, “In the choice of Matthew out of that place, not only to be admitted into the family of Christ, but even to be called to the office of Apostle, we have a striking instance of the grace of God. It was the intention of Christ to choose simple and ignorant persons to that rank, in order to cast down the wisdom of the world, But this publican, who followed an occupation little esteemed and involved in many abuses, was selected for additional reasons, that he might be an example of Christ’s undeserved goodness, and might show in his person that the calling of all of us depends, not on the merits of our own righteousness, but on his pure kindness.” The important question for all of us is not are you righteous? The important question is are you a sinner that has been saved by grace? The pharisees thought that because they had all the marks of religion that they had the key to righteousness. They thought because they knew the stuff and talked the talk that they were more worthy of heaven than anyone else but we know that this was not the case. But there are a lot of people that claim to be Christian that live with this same mindset? Let me tell you an example of what this looks like, there was a pastor who was struggling with preaching. He knew he was struggling, the church knew he was struggling, his wife knew he was struggling so the thought came to his mind, “Am I really saved? Am I really a Christian?” One night he asked his wife, “Honey, are you really saved?” And she answered him like this, “Well dear, you know that I’ve been confirmed in the church, that I am a member of the church, that I’ve been baptised.” And her husband says to her, “Yes and you’ve been vaccinated too but are you saved?” Do you get what he is saying to her there? He is saying, honey you are associating so much external with what has to be an internal change in order to be saved. You can go to church and not be a Christian, you can give money and not be a Christian, you can be vaccinated and not be a Christian, so what is it that makes a Christian a Christian? What is it that saves? How do we know that we are saved? The internal change will show itself in external action. How do we know this? We see it happen in the life of Levi.

The Christian in Action in the life of Levi

In the conversion of Levi, we see three things take place and I believe that these three things are marks of true conversion. The first thing that we see is that there is a call from Jesus to Matthew or Levi. What is it that Jesus says to Levi in Mark 2:14? It’s two words and they are the same words that Jesus says to Andrew and Peter back in Mark 1: Follow Me. The true Christian is the one that has heard the call of Christ, the call to follow Him, and has responded positively towards it. We see this happen with Levi, don’t we? Jesus says to him, “Follow me” and what does Levi do? He gets up and follows Him! And it seems that this is an immediate response. Levi doesn’t seem to say, “Sure I’ll do it, just let me close up shop here and I’ll be on my way.” No, Levi gets up and he follows! There was so great of an impact in this call from Jesus that Levi could not help but get up and follow him. All true saving faith is a following faith. It isn’t stagnant. Saving faith does not leave you where you were so to speak. Instead, saving faith will reflect in the actions that we do. An inactive faith is not real faith. This is what James means in James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” Now I know that this can be confusing especially when we think of what Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we are saved by grace through faith, not a result of works so that no man can boast. There is really no contradiction in what Paul and James are saying. What do you think James means then when he says that faith without works is dead? I think we actually get the answer back in James 2:17–18 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”” That last part of the verse is so crucial. James says, “I will show you my faith BY my works.” He does not say that he will be saved by his works, he only says that it is through his works that the fulness of his faith will be seen. Faith in Christ drives our works and our works reflect our faith. The Christian is saved FOR good works not BY good works. What James is saying and what the rest of the Bible will testify to is that our faith is so closely connected to the things that we do, that if we fail to do them, it is a sign that our faith was never present to begin with. Does that make sense? Anyone have any questions on that or need some more clarification? If not, we will move on to the second mark of true conversion that we see in Levi. The second mark is one that we talked about when we talked about Peter, Andrew, James, and John in Mark 1. Levi leaves everything to follow Jesus. He leaves his security, he leaves his job, he leaves his way of life, he leaves his sense of comfort because he recognized the surpassing worth of following Jesus. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to be willing to leave behind everything. James Montgomery Boice put it like this, “Nothing is ever allowed to stand in the way of one who is a genuine disciple. Truly converted people leave houses, land, family, and everything else to follow Jesus.” The third mark of conversion is that Levi arranges for other to meet Jesus. In verse 15 we see that Jesus is having dinner at Levi’s house and there were many tax collectors and sinners that were dining with them. Levi is doing what he can to make sure that those close to him know the Jesus that has called him. It should be completely natural for those that Jesus has saved to want to introduce the Savior to others. So, here is one last question that I want us to go over: Are we introducing our friends to Jesus? If Jesus has made a difference in your life, would others be able to tell? One last quote from James Montgomery Boice that I want us to reflect on. Boice said, “We cannot make people Christians; it is something only God can do. But we must do everything possible to tell them about Jesus and have them meet Him.” So are you doing this in your life? And perhaps even before we get to that point, have you met Jesus in your own life? Have you heard the call to follow Him and have you responded? We can’t truly introduce people to the real Jesus if we have not met Him ourselves. We can not show the surpassing glory of following Jesus if we are still sitting at the tax collector booth in our own lives. Sure, you go to church, sure you know some verses, sure you answer some questions here and there, but do you know Jesus? Have you been saved and have you followed Him? Because remember true saving faith will show itself in our actions and our actions will be a sign that we have been saved through faith. Let’s pray.