Jesus, Friend of Sinners

Introduction

Last Week:

We saw Jesus’s encounter with the paralytic man and his friends

We saw him expose the deeper need behind this man’s problems

How Jesus has come to heal humanities deepest problem—sin

And we saw Jesus’s authority to forgive this man’s sins

And today, we’ll see how Jesus takes this a step further

He has not only come to solve the problem of sin

Like we said last week, sin isn’t this abstract ~evil~

Sin is deeply relational

And Jesus comes to heal this broken relationship between God and humanity

He has come to welcome and befriend sinners

He eats with and associates with sinners

Scripture Reading:

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:13–17 CSB

Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. While he was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him. When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Here we see a new movement in Jesus’s ministry towards the sinners and morally compromised

Outline:

A New Disciple

A New Community

A New Mission

A New Disciple

The first thing we read here, is that Jesus calls a new disciple

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:13–14 CSB

Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him.

Previously in Mark’s gospel, we saw Jesus call 4 disciples

All were fishermen (Simon, Andrew, James, and John)

These were pretty ordinary men

God himself became human, and he didn’t choose the religious elite, or the powerful to follow him

But he chose the everyday, ordinary fishermen to become ‘fishers of men’

And here, in Jesus’s next selection of a disciple, he again defies our expectations

We see that not only does Jesus chase the ordinary

But he chases the sinner

Before we saw that he healed the physically unclean

Those who were sick, oppressed, and had disease

But now we see him draw near to the morally unclean

Those whose lives are tainted by sin

You see, Levi was a tax collector

To some of us that are familiar with the times of Jesus we know the implications

But to some of us it might be a little confusing

We know no one likes paying taxes but you wouldn’t say that someone who works at the IRS is a morally bad person

But in Jesus’s time—a tax collector was someone who was despised

At this point in Israel’s history:

They had returned from the exile in Babylon

But the Romans came and conquered their land

They were living under Roman rule in their own homeland (the promised land!)

Not very many Jews were happy with living like this

Many tried starting revolts and revolutions

Even the religious thought that the messiah would come to destroy the Romans and bring freedom

And Levi was a Jewish man, that worked as a representative of the Roman Government

Collecting taxes from the Jewish people to send to the Romans

Levi was a traitor to the people of God

(ex. Russia/China)

And not only that, but being a tax collector was a lucrative business to be in

Often times tax collectors would overcharge people and pocket the difference

They were seen as sell-outs

They could live lavishly on the side of the oppressor while the rest of God’s people were suffering in poverty

And this man, Jesus looks in the eye, and invites him to follow him

Imagine what is going on in Matthew’s mind

He heard of all of the news and miracles of Jesus no doubt—but surely this prophet from God would not want anything to do with a tax collector like himself

He also knows that the way he is living his life goes against what God desires

But when Jesus says “Follow me”

He drops everything to follow him

And this man’s life is changed forever

Levi is also known as Matthew, the author of the first gospel

Jesus pursued this sinner and changed his life

And we see that Matthew was the not alone, his friends were also sinners and tax collectors

And Jesus sought to reach them too

A New Community

Secondly, we see a New Community that forms around Jesus

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:15–16 CSB

While he was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him. When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Last week we saw Jesus claim to have authority to forgive sins

But here we see Jesus forgiving sinners

Again, not just abstract forgiveness

But relationally—Jesus is befriending those who are morally flawed

We get the first insight at the type of people that were following Jesus:

“many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him”

Jesus’s entourage was full of broken, messed up people

And it wasn’t just that Jesus allowed them to follow him, he associated himself with them

It’s interesting how much the Pharisees emphasize the fact that he is eating with them

In this culture who you eat meals with—is who you associate with—who you consider family

It would be one thing for Jesus to talk to sinners

But it is a completely different thing for him to be eating with these people

In a sense he’s saying “We’re family, everything is okay between us”

To people who are known to be sinners, and people who are aligned with the Romans

Here we see Jesus forming a new community, not people that are perfect—but people who are aware of their shortcomings

Not people that think they deserve to be close to God

But those who are shocked by the grace and love despite their brokenness

And Jesus is the same today

If Jesus came in our world, who do you think he would be hanging out with?

It probably wouldn’t be the pastors and world leaders—the people with power

He would be found with the ordinary—people working paycheck to paycheck

He would be associated with sinners—people that we would think are far from God

The LGBTQ community

The prostitutes

The drug addicts

The ‘failures’

The Pharisee’s have a word for these people:

In NLT:

(SLIDES)

New Living Translation Chapter 2

16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with

Jesus hangs out with the scum

Does that make us uncomfortable?

We are called to do the same

Whatever the ‘scum’ is to you...

Are you willing to associate with them for the sake of Christ?

Are you willing to humanize and dignify those that are morally flawed?

Not treating them as a project, but as an image bearer of God

Being a living example of God’s love towards them

You see so many Christians make 1 of 2 mistakes

They isolate themselves in a Christian bubble

They compromise with the world

What if there was a middle road?

Where we can hang out with morally questionable people without compromising our character

If we want to follow in Jesus’s way we have to invest in the lives of the lost and broken

And this means that church will be a lot messier than we would like

We tend to want to be a part of a church where everyone is like us and everyone is put together

But that isn’t the sort of community Jesus had in mind

Think of the tension that existed in his group of disciples

The four fishermen most likely had to pay taxes to Levi—and hated him for it

Later we see Jesus calls a man Simon the Zealot

A Jew that was involved in a violent revolution against the Romans

He probably would’ve killed Levi if it wasn’t for Jesus

But Jesus is forming a new community and everyone is welcomed

No one deserves their own spot—but they have all received personal invitations from Jesus himself

Which means it is a messy community with tension

But they all have one thing in common—Jesus

Jesus invited them to follow him

And the same is true today:

“The Church is a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the saints”

Finally we see a new mission

A New Mission

This isn’t a new mission—in the sense that it has no continuity with what Jesus was doing

But it is new in its revelation—the mission of Jesus is slowly being unveiled

Before Jesus revealed that his reason for coming was to preach the good news

But now he reveals who he has come to preach this to

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:16–17 CSB

When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Now I don’t think Jesus is saying that the righteous don’t need him

That they are ‘well’ and don’t need a doctor

But they don’t recognize their need for him

We talked about this last week, but sin is like a cancer

It goes unnoticed, it multiplies, it slowly destroys and kills

It comes in different forms:

Some people get lung cancer, some brain cancer, some get leukemia—cancer in the blood cells

And cancer doesn’t care if you know that you have it or not—it will destroy you

But if you do have cancer—if you want any chance of beating it—you need a doctor

And cancer treatment is often painful and difficult but often it can be cured if caught early enough

And sin is like cancer, except we all have it

And it comes in different forms:

Anger, Envy, Violence, Gossip, Sexual Immorality, Unbelief, Pride, etc.

And you might not be aware of it to its fullest extent, but it doesn’t care—it will destroy you

And these Pharisees are infected—but they are ignorant of it—and they aren’t seeking treatment

They think they are healthy and in no need of a doctor

Jesus has come for those who recognize their need for a cure

They recognize the destruction that sin causes in their lives

They need a doctor

And Jesus comes onto the scene saying that just like a doctor’s job is to heal and care for the sick, his mission is to heal and care for the sinner

Up until this point, Jesus’s ministry was mostly towards the sick, diseased, and demon possessed

But now he’s revealing that his real ministry is for every human—He has come to deal with the problem of sin

(SLIDES)

“Given that mission, it is as senseless of Jesus to shun tax collectors and sinners as for a doctor to shun the sick.”

James R. Edwards

This is why he is here

And in his mission there is only one thing that can stand in the way—we see it here, throughout the gospels, in the epistles…

pride; self-righteousness

Jesus has this story to tell in the Gospel of Luke:

(SLIDES)

Luke 18:9–14 CSB

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Must recognize that we are sick so that we can go to the doctor—and not just physically sick—morally sick…

If I told you that you were infected with a poison that would kill you and that I had the antidote

You would have to trust me and take the antidote

You would have to admit that you are poisoned and things aren’t going well

But pride will tell us that the problem isn’t that bad, I don’t really need a cure—it’s not that serious

And this mindset will destroy us

Jesus came with a mission to solve the problem of sin

But the problem is that the problem isn’t abstract

WE are the problem

Therefore humility is neccesary if we want to defeat sin

We have to recognize that WE are part of the problem

The first step to solving a problem is diagnosis

If we are unwilling to admit our need for forgiveness—we are blind to the real problem at the root of our lives

And the moment we think the problem is simply ‘out there’ and not ‘in us’—we are at the greatest danger

With humility we must face our own brokenness

Tim Keller has this to say:

(SLIDES)

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

Conclusion

So this is what we see here

Are we ready to admit our sickness and go to the doctor?

Jesus has come to call sinners

He has come for the broken and flawed people

Like you and me

Will you accept his call?

Will you receive love and forgiveness?

I just want to end with this quote and a few words:

(SLIDES)

“The scandal of this story is that Jesus does not make moral repentance a precondition of his love and acceptance. Rather, Jesus loves and accepts tax collectors and sinners as they are.

If they forsake their evil and amend their lives, they do so, as did Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), not in order to gain Jesus’ favor but because Jesus has loved them as sinners.”

James R. Edwards

Jesus loves you exactly like you are—with flaws and all

But he doesn’t want to keep you that way

He is inviting you into a journey with ups and downs

With him right by your side—that you might become more like him

This is Jesus’s mission—to reconcile God to sinners

Reflection Questions

(SLIDES)

Who in your life do you look down on? How do you think God views these people?

2. How does pride keep you from Jesus?