Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

Mark 2:13-17

The Scripture this morning Mark 2:13-17.

Jesus has already called four men to follow him; today we will see Jesus call another disciple.

We will be looking at the call of Levi.

While there are similarities to the call of Simon, Andrew, John, and James, there are differences.

If you have your bibles open, I invite you to follow along as I read from God’s holy, inerrant, and inspired Word.

He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.

14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

And he rose and followed him.

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said 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.’

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer of Illumination:

Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life!

Help us now to hear and obey what you say to us today.

Through Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

One of the most stressful days for most individuals is April 15th.

April 15th is tax day.

It is the day our taxes need to be filled in and submitted to the IRS.

No one enjoys tax season.

Taxes are complicated and tax law changes every couple of years.

In October of 2017, the Washington Post reported that the tax code was 82,000 pages long.

It is easy to make a mistake with taxes when tax code is 82,000 pages long.

And if you make a mistake, you get a letter or now an email from the IRS telling you of the mistake and asking you to pay the difference.

If people don’t like interacting with the IRS, how much less do people like people who work for the IRS?

Our dislike of the IRS as an institution transfers to those who work for the IRS.

When we see someone who works for the IRS, we do not separate them as an individual from the organization.

As we examine this passage in Mark, we’ll see Jesus interact with Levi the tax collector and his call to Levi for him to follow him, we’ll see the Pharisees’ reaction to that call, and Jesus’ mission.

Friend of Sinners

Jesus has just shown his authority to forgive sins by healing the paralytic man.

The town is a buzz with Jesus’ ability to heal and the radical claim he made about being able to forgive sins.

And his response is not to hold a press conference or to set up a clinic where he could heal even more people and make his name great.

His response is to go out from the city of Capernaum and go to the sea.

And while he’s out walking by the sea, spending some time with God the Father, the crowds were coming to him.

They wanted to hear more from this teacher who spoke with such authority; they wanted to experience more of his miracles.

So they followed him to the Sea of Galilee and surrounded him.

And not missing an opportunity, Jesus continued to teach them.

He continued to pronounce that the Kingdom of God was at hand, to repent, and to believe the gospel.

While he’s out along the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sees Levi collecting taxes.

Just as we’re not overly fond of tax collectors and those who work for the IRS, first century Jews were even less fond of tax collectors.

They saw tax collectors as traitors.

These were men who had allied themselves with the Roman government, the occupying force in Palestine.

They were working for the enemy.

And on top of that, the tax collectors often charged more than they needed.

To get their position as tax collectors, they bribed Roman officials and needed to collect enough to pay back those bribes and more to line their own pockets.

Tax collectors were so despised that they were forbidden from taking part in any legal proceedings.

Their testimony as a witness was considered invalid and they also could not act as a judge.

Tax collectors were viewed like those who informed on their friends and neighbors during Nazi occupied Germany or communist Russia.

They were traitors not to be trusted.

On top of that, tax collectors were considered ceremonially unclean.

They regularly interacted with Gentiles, which all self-respecting Jews avoided at all costs.

Because Gentiles did not adhere to the strict cleanliness standards found in the Mosaic Law, they were unclean.

They didn’t eat the right foods, they didn’t wash in the right ways, so they were ceremonially unclean.

And for a Jew to interact with a Gentile meant they would be ceremonially unclean for a period.

And tax collectors were regularly interacted with Gentiles.

Tax collectors were the most hated group in Jesus’ day.

“And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

And he rose and followed him.”

Luke adds this, “And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”

Levi was willing to leave behind everything he had.

He was willing to leave behind his position as a tax collector to follow Jesus.

Are you willing to leave everything and follow Jesus?

If he were to call you to follow, would you leave your lucrative job and go where he goes, sleep where he sleep, eat what he eats?

That’s the call he gave to Levi and Levi left everything and followed him.

The call to follow Jesus is to leave our previous lives behind and follow after him.

Sometimes that’s a radical change in occupation, like with Levi.

Sometimes that’s a lifestyle change, like with the woman at the well in John 4. Sometimes that’s a shift in where we do our occupation, maybe we change where we work but not the type of job.

Jesus’ call is to leave our previous lives and to follow him and his ways.

And after calling Levi, “he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him”.

Jesus hosts a dinner for his new disciple.

We don’t recognize how important eating with someone is in traditional cultures.

For many of us, we use a meal as a way to get to know someone but not necessarily make a firm commitment that you are friends.

In traditional cultures, having a meal with someone is a statement that those people are eating together are friends, those eating are united.

Do you remember the cafeteria in middle and high school?

Go into a middle or high school and you will see the power of having a meal with someone.

A new kid walks in and sits down at a table all by him or herself.

And that kid feels alone.

But then someone else sits down at the table and that new kid doesn’t feel so alone; they feel like they have a friend.

But as we get older, we forget the power of having a meal with someone has.

But Jesus and those at this dinner knew the power of sharing a meal together.

This dinner Jesus is hosting isn’t just Friday night dinner.

This dinner is a banquet.

They are all reclining.

That was how Jesus and those at this dinner are eating.

They’re reclining on their left arms, so they can eat with their right hand.

The tables would have been arraigned in a u-shape; the most important table would be the one in the middle that would have been the host’s table.

At most weddings, the wedding party is seated at a table where everyone can see them.

That’s where Jesus would have been reclining with Levi on one side.

And the guests at this banquet are “tax collectors and sinners”.

Jesus is eating with people most Jews considered to be traitors and sinners.

Here, the word sinner doesn’t mean someone who hasn’t completely and fully kept the law.

Here sinner is a technical word for “a class of people who were regarded by the Pharisees as inferior because they showed no interest in the scribal tradition” who “possessed neither time nor inclination to regulate their conduct by Pharisaic standards”.

Jesus is eating with traitors and those who were had virtually no interest in the moral standards of the Pharisees.

These aren’t the people who go to synagogue twice a week; they’re not the people who go to synagogue on Day of Atonement.

They are people who disregard the Law.