The Doctor Is In

Mark 2:13-17

INTRODUCTION

Imagine for a moment that you rush someone you love to the emergency room.

Your heart is pounding. The waiting room is full. Nurses are moving quickly. Doctors are busy. You’re relieved help is there.

You see a guy with a paper cut over his eye and you would think he is about to meet Jesus the way he’s acting.

But then, as you sit down, you overhear a doctor at the desk say loudly:

“I can’t believe how many sick people we’re dealing with today. Why are so many unhealthy people coming in here? This is getting ridiculous.”

Or imagine walking into your family physician’s office, and the receptionist sighs and says:

“We are just overwhelmed with patients. I don’t know why so many sick people think they need to come here.”

You would be stunned.

You might even say, “Well… isn’t that the point?”

Hospitals are for the hurting. Clinics are for the sick. Doctors exist because disease exists.

...and churches exist for sinners.

Now here’s the moral of that story:

In Mark chapter 2, we will read in just a moment that the religious leaders are essentially standing in the emergency room of grace — and complaining about the kind of patients Jesus is seeing.

They are offended that He is surrounded by sinners. They are disturbed that He eats with the morally corrupt and they are questioning why He associates with the spiritually diseased.

And Jesus answers them with one of the clearest mission statements in the Gospels:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Let me provide us a roadmap as to where we travel this morning:

Mark’s objective is not to merely tell us that Levi (Matthew) the tax collector received salvation. Mark is really revealing the heart of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

Jesus did not come for the self-satisfied. He came for the spiritually sick.

And that means two important truths for us this morning:

There is hope for every sinner in this room.

And there is a warning for every self-righteous pious heart in this room.

We will look at in our text:

The Savior who calls the unlikely.

The Savior who dines with the unclean.

And the Savior who heals the sick.

Before we walk through it together, turn into your Bibles to Mark 2:13-17. Let’s stand for the hearing of the Word of the Lord.

Mark 2:13-17

Mark 2:13–17 NKJV

13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. 15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Prayer

Message

Now with that picture in our minds — a physician surrounded by the sick — Mark shows us exactly what that looks like in real life.

Jesus is not standing in a hospital. He is walking past a tax booth.

And that’s where we meet the first evidence of His mission.

I. The Savior Who Calls the Unlikely (vv. 13–14)

Mark 2:13–14 “13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.”

Jesus is teaching by the sea.

I remind you as we have gone through this study of Mark that Jesus is about teaching people.

Remember Mark 1:15 “15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.””

Mark 1:38 “38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.””

Jesus has cast out a demon that had possessed a man in the synagogue. Jesus’ healed Peter’s mother in law.

We learn of many Jesus healed, many who were demon possessed.

Mark 1:34 “34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.”

-He healed the leper and he healed the paralytic brought by four men that we studied last Sunday.

Why do I emphasize this truth this morning?

Firstly, if we keep that at the forefront of the church’s mission our church will be a healthy church that reaches the lost.

Furthermore, all of these teachings we read come around the many miracles of healing Jesus has already performed.

All of these stories of the miraculous hand of Jesus have a deeper purpose in them being shared. We understand who Jesus is. What does Jesus value. Who does Jesus stand for.

Please write this down but hear what I am going to say in context:

Jesus Is More Concerned about Your Soul Security than Your State of Struggle.

Now don’t you pop off and say Brother Luke said that all Jesus cares about is saving me and doesn’t care at all about the tribulation in my life.

That is not what I am saying at all. Jesus prioritizes our eternal need over the temporal needs of this life.

Now we would not have read of these many healings and touches of Jesus if He didn’t love you or we wouldn’t have all those stories. The fact that Jesus wept, or the fact that Jesus had compassion for people.

Matthew 6:33 “33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

I am saying as a church and as a people that are followers of Jesus Christ, if we spend all of our time helping the sick, the destitute, we are benevolent, we give water to the hurting and we do not firstly confront their spiritual soul security founded in Christ we have missed the boat of what our Savior is all about.

And so.....

And as He passes by, He sees Levi sitting at the tax booth. You also know Levi as Matthew. He is referred to as Matthew in Matthew 9:9 & Levi in Luke 5:27 where this story is told in those two gospels as well.

Why two names? Peter if you remember had three names. Peter, Simon, and Cephas.

The name Levi is an important name because it identifies his Jewish heritage. The name Matthew is important because Matthew means Gift of Jehovah. Oh yes, this despised tax collector was a gift of God and you are too. Regardless of your past.

The name Levi simply means that Matthew was a Jew, specifically he was from the tribe of Levi, which was the priestly tribe. If there were rank and file within the tribes of Israel, Matthew was a blue blood because he was of the priestly line. Do you remember that Aaron was of the tribe of Levi and he was the priest.

Levi chooses to be a tax collector.

Now let’s pause there.

Levi is not simply employed. He is despised by his own people. I imagine Matthew’s parents even despised his choice of profession.

Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government. They were private subcontractors of the government to collect the taxes. Levi was in Capernaum and he bided for the location to collect taxes. He would bid what he thought he could raise in taxes in the given region or location they were bidding for and that became a mandate to bring at least that amount to Herod Antipas along with the Roman government.

When Jesus runs into Levi he is at his tax office working. Now let me define a tax office of that day. It would be like a little booth or like the little spaces with some walls around it that we had at the Community Fair. I imagine about the size of a box deer stand today. I believe the reason it was small and almost portable is that he would locate on strategic thoroughfares of travel to stop people to pay the taxes on fish caught or whatever the wares of that day were in the region of Capernaum.

They collected what Rome demanded and more. They performed that duty for profit and it became corrupt and greed got the best of them. The fact that tax collectors were dishonest was assumed.

They were traitors to their own nation. They were spiritually unclean. They were socially rejected.

In Rabbinic tradition, they were lumped together with robbers, thieves, murders, prostitutes and sinners. There witness was unreliable and their testimony in court was inadmissible. If you were a Jew and associated with tax collectors that would bring a social and religious stigma.

If a Pharisee walked down the street and saw Levi, he would cross to the other side. Very similar to the story of the Good Samaritan.

Ill. Pawnbroker to a preacher. I’m not justifying my actions. Only God can do that.

But Jesus walks toward him.

Do you walk toward the Levi’s and Matthews of this world? Or do you avoid them?

And He says two words: “Follow Me.”

Jesus did not call him with any probation period. He didn’t have to attend spiritual rehab classes. Jesus made no demands of cleaning himself up, He simply said “follow me.” And He makes that same call today. You will never be clean enough or good enough to approach Jesus. We accept Jesus and He makes us clean in His righteousness. Amen.

Just a call.

And Levi rises and follows.

That’s grace.

This mirrors what we saw last week with the paralytic.

The paralytic couldn’t walk. Levi couldn’t worship. Both were helpless. Both were called.

You see the pattern in Mark’s Gospel? Jesus forgives. Jesus heals. Jesus calls.

And He calls unlikely people.

Think of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Another tax collector. Another despised man. Jesus stops under a tree and says, “Zacchaeus, come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

And what happened? Salvation came to that house.

Think of the Samaritan woman in John 4 — immoral history, five husbands. Jesus engages her, not to shame her but to save her.

Think of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9 — persecutor of the church. And yet Christ calls him on the Damascus road.

Do you know that Jesus specializes in the most unlikely candidates for conversion?

Some of you grew up believing church was for polished people. You thought you had to get better before you could come.

But Jesus does not say, “Reform yourself.” He says, “Follow Me.”

And notice something — Levi doesn’t negotiate. He rises and follows.

Grace demands response.

II. The Savior Who Dines with the Unclean (vv. 15–16)

Mark 2:15–16 “15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?””

Levi throws a banquet. He is so enamored with Jesus he wants all his friends to come to meet Jesus. You have heard that birds of a feather flock together. This group of publicans and sinners lived in an environment of religious dominance. They could not associate with the majority of the people of the region so they pulled to each other for the need of socializing that we all have. Matthew or Luke’s gospel states they were reclining at the table which means that it was a formal meal. Levi had pulled out all the stops. Levi either wanted all his friends to meet Jesus to be saved or he wanted to say his farewells as he was dropping his former life to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus. I imagine he was accomplishing both objectives. Levi wanted his friends to feel the freedom and liberality of being saved from their past. Levi never looked back.

I want you to think for a moment about Lev’s decision. He walked away from his tax office. He gave up his territory and the fact he may never get that opportunity again. Peter, Andrew and others could go back to fishing. It would be waiting there for them. Not the tax office. Levi walked away from it all to follow Jesus.

Mark says many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus.

In that culture, reclining at the table meant genuine fellowship with your guests, the people they associated with was a form of identification as to who they were and what they believed in. Reclining at the table represented sharing life together.

Meals were not casual. They were covenantal. They were experiences with people you cared about and wanted to be with and associate with.

To eat with someone meant acceptance.

And here is the scandal: Jesus is not merely preaching to sinners. He is eating with sinners.

The Pharisees see it and say to the disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Now let’s understand the religious climate.

The Pharisees were not priests. They were lay reformers devoted to preserving holiness of the former Israel before the deportation and all the false gods that had infiltrated the people. They understood well that Israel’s exile came about because Israel was disobedient to the law. So they built “fences around the Law.”

There were 613 commands in the Torah. Then layers of oral traditions interpreting those commands. Ritual washings. Sabbath expansions. Food purity regulations.

If you did not observe their meticulous standards, you were labeled a “sinner.”

Not necessarily immoral — just non-conforming.

Holiness had become isolation. They had become separatist.

Ill. R. C. Sproul Presbyterian Preacher, theologian of yesteryear

R.C. Sproul recounts taking a man to Heathrow Country Club in Orlando, Fl.

The Friend's Rebuke: After the round, Sproul sat in the men's grill with his regular friends—many of whom were unbelievers at the time. The man he had treated for his birthday later "condoned" (rebuked) him, questioning how a minister of the Gospel could associate with such "pagan" and "ungodly" people.

Sproul’s Response: Sproul used the interaction to highlight the "Pharisaical" tendency toward segregation and the false belief that sanctity is maintained by avoiding contact with sinners.

The Outcome: He noted that several of those "unbelieving" friends from the golf club eventually became members of his congregation, Saint Andrew's Chapel, after they were reached through those very friendships. 

Jesus was not as far off with the Pharisees as you might think.

In no way did Jesus condone the fact the Pharisees attempted to live moral lives. He admired that fact.

Matthew 5:20 “20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus struggled with the fact they lived lives of self righteous isolated lives. Oh listen, we were never intended to be monks that live in monasteries to avoid getting the stains of the world on us.

They were spiritually prideful and their system excluded association with sinners.

Oh dear brother or sister if you have been guilty of that action you will not enter the Kingdom of God by performance (by being good enough) because James says that if you have broken one commandment you have broken them all. No, we enter the kingdom of God by repentance of sin and trusting Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is His righteousness that saves us, not our own.

The Pharisee’s model was: Holiness by distance.

But Jesus shows: Holiness in proximity. Oh listen dearly beloved, regardless of your past, your sin, your failures, your choices-your holiness is found by Christ in you and in me.

Jesus invites us to sit at the table with Levi today not because of moral superiority, but because of His great mercy for us.

Jesus did not become sinful simply by being at the table. Jesus’ holiness permeated, transformed the table of those with Him.

Now let’s be careful here.

Jesus did not participate in sin. He did not affirm their wrongdoing. He did not compromise truth.

But He did not retreat from sinners either.

He lived John 17 before John 17 was prayed: “In the world, but not of the world.”

Churches can fall into two extremes:

Isolation — we withdraw, fearful of contamination. In other words all you ever associate with is fellow Christians and you segregate from the lost. Accommodation — we blend in, losing distinctiveness. The mud of the world rubs off and no one can distinguish you as a Christian. You become a Chameleon Christian.

Jesus demonstrates incarnation — presence without compromise.

Insulation-We are to insulate our lives in Christ so that we can be the light and salt of the earth.

Ill.

A flashlight does not fear darkness. It exists for darkness.

Salt does not avoid meat. It preserves meat.

If the church withdraws from the world entirely, who will carry the light?

And here’s a question for us:

Do lost people feel comfortable enough around us to ask spiritual questions?

The lost must feel accepted around us so they will open up to us.

Or are we known more for what we avoid than for whom we love?

III. The Savior Who Heals the Sick (v. 17)

Mark 2:17 “17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.””

Now this is the heartbeat of the passage.

Jesus hears the whispering. He knows the criticism. And He doesn’t defend Himself with a long speech. He gives them a picture.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

You can almost see Him saying it calmly — maybe even with a touch of sadness.

Let me ask you something.

When do you go to the doctor?

You don’t go because you’re feeling great. You don’t go because everything’s fine. You go because something is wrong.

Jesus says, “That’s why I’m here.”

He calls Himself a physician.

Now here’s the irony of the whole scene.

The people at the table know they’re sick. The people outside the house think they’re fine.

The paralytic knew he was helpless. Levi knew he was despised. The Pharisees thought they were healthy.

And that — listen carefully — is the most dangerous spiritual condition in the world.

It’s not immorality. It’s not failure. It’s not even addiction.

It’s thinking you don’t need grace.

Self-righteousness is more deadly than immorality because it hides the disease.

Jesus told a story about this in Luke 18:9-14.

Two men go to the temple to pray.

One stands tall and says, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men…”

The other won’t even lift his eyes. He beats his chest and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

And Jesus says the second man went home justified.

Why?

Because he knew he was sick.

The Doctor can treat cancer. He can treat infection. He can treat broken bones.

But He cannot treat denial.

Isaiah said it centuries before: “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

Paul echoes it in Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short.”

The gospel doesn’t begin with “try harder.” It begins with “you need help.”

And here is the grace in Mark 2:

The Doctor has come.

He didn’t come to shame sinners. He didn’t come to post a list of names. He didn’t come to congratulate the morally impressive.

He came to heal.

But notice that word at the end of the verse — repentance.

He did not come to affirm the sickness. He came to cure it.

So now this text turns from Levi to us.

There are really only two kinds of people in this room.

Those who know they are sick.

And those who think they’re fine.

The first group runs toward Christ. The second group stands outside and critiques Him.

Which one are you?

Maybe you’re like Levi — you’ve got a past you’d rather not talk about.

Maybe you’re like Zacchaeus — curious, but still hiding in the tree.

Maybe you’re like the paralytic — you needed somebody else to carry you to Jesus.

Or maybe — and this one is harder — maybe you’re like the Pharisee.

Faithful. Present. Respectable. But quietly confident in your own goodness.

The Doctor is in.

But you have to walk through the door.

Revelation 3:20 “20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

You don’t clean yourself up before going to a physician. You go because you cannot fix yourself.

Invitation

Let me speak plainly for just a moment.

If you have never trusted Christ, what you need is not religious polish.

You need spiritual healing.

You don’t need to become a better version of yourself. You need a new heart.

Jesus calls sinners.

Not the impressive. Not the put-together. Not the spiritually self-satisfied.

Sinners.

And that includes me. And that includes you.

If you have never repented and trusted Christ, today is the day to rise from your tax booth.

Leave what you’ve been clinging to. Follow Him.

And church family — let’s turn the mirror toward ourselves.

Are we acting more like physicians or Pharisees?

Are we sitting at tables to reach people? Or standing outside the house protecting our comfort?

Let’s ask God to give us the heart of Christ — holy, yes — but also compassionate, approachable, and bold.

Closing Appeal

The Doctor is not consulting from a distance.

He is present.

And the question is not, “Are you religious?”

The question is, “Do you know you need Him?”

If you know you are sick — come.

If you know you are proud — come.

If you know you are weary — come.

Because the Savior still calls. The Savior still dines. The Savior still heals.

And He is in this room.

Amen.