If you could ask God one question, what would it be? That’s the question that’s asked at the beginning of the Christianity Explored course. And so participants come up with their questions for God, which will hopefully be answered through the seven-week course. As we dive back into Mark’s gospel after a break of almost a year, we discover that lots of people have lots of questions they want to ask Jesus.
So as you have the pew Bible open on page 1004, in Mark 2 there are four separate stories, four episodes, and each of them contains a question being asked of or about Jesus. In verse 7, the teachers of the law ask why Jesus is speaking blasphemy, claiming to be God, as he forgives sins. In a couple of weeks we’ll see verse 18 where there’s a question about the disciples not fasting, and then in verse 24, a question about why the disciples are breaking the Sabbath. Lots of questions for Jesus, all coming out of how people are reacting to his public ministry, and there’s another question in today’s reading.
It’s there in verse 16. ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and “sinners”?’ That’s the question that is on the lips of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees. They’re asking why Jesus is eating with tax collectors and “sinners” because that is exactly what Jesus is doing - and they can’t get their heads around it.
We’ll come back to the question itself shortly, but first we need to see the context, to see why the question was being asked. As verse 13 opens, and Mark tells the story of Jesus, you wonder what is going to happen next. When you know the stories of Jesus, you’re aware of the possibilities. ‘Once again Jesus went out beside the lake.’ And you think to yourself - is this when he walks on water? is this when he goes in a boat and calms the storm? But this isn’t either of those times. They’ll come later on in the gospel.
Verse 13 continues, ‘A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.’ So, you might be expecting to hear what it was that Jesus was teaching them that day. We’ll maybe hear a parable or two. But again, that’s not what Mark is going to tell us about that day. It’s in verse 14 that we see what Mark is focusing in on:
‘As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.’
Jesus has a large crowd with him. There are loads of people around him. But Jesus is focused on this guy, Levi, sitting at his place of work. He wasn’t making jeans, he was... a tax collector.
Nobody really likes tax collectors. Oh, and by the way, a little public service reminder - if you do your Self-Assessment Tax Return, then you need to have it in and any tax paid by the end of January. But if you think that people don’t really like tax collectors now, people in New Testament times really didn’t like tax collectors.
You see, to be a tax collector then meant that you were working for the enemy. The Roman Empire were in charge, they had invaded and captured the land, but they employed locals to collect the taxes. So to be a tax collector you were a traitor. And you were probably on the take - charging whatever you could get away with, making a profit on the side.
Levi was... a tax collector. He was busy at his work when suddenly Jesus walks up to him and says, ‘Follow me.’ Jesus had said the same to the fishing brothers, Simon and Andrew, James and John back in chapter 1. And they had done what Levi does here. ‘Levi got up and followed him.’
His tax collecting days are over. From this day on, he will follow Jesus, because Jesus has called him to follow him. Notice it wasn’t that Levi saw Jesus, and Levi decided he would go up to Jesus and follow him. No, it’s Jesus that takes the initiative; Jesus that issues the call; and Levi follows.
In verse 15, the scene has shifted. We’re no longer on the road. We’re in Levi’s house. Jesus is having dinner with Levi, but it’s not just the two of them. The guest list is a lot bigger. I imagine that it’s a bit like a big family dinner, you know, when the dining table is fully extended, and people are sitting on the normal chairs, the emergency spare chairs, the piano stool and anything else that means someone can sit at the dining table.
There’s Jesus and his disciples. And there’s Levi. And then there’s all the others who are invited to dinner. The ‘many tax collectors and “sinners” who were eating with him. A big dinner party. Perhaps you’ve thought about the question - if you could invite any three people, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would you invite? When people think of who they would have, it’s always famous people, their heroes, people like Winston Churchill or ... No one would want to have Levi and Jesus’ dining companions.
Do you see the way tax collectors and sinners go together? We see that three times in verses 15-16. Tax collectors were seen as outcasts, beyond the pale, but so too were sinners. These were people who everyone knew were bad, who didn’t bother to try to keep the religious rules. Tax collectors and sinners were regarded as bad as each other.
They weren’t up to the religious standards of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. The Pharisees looked down their noses at them. And so, in verse 16, when the Pharisees see Jesus eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they ask that question: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
To eat with someone was to recognise them in friendship and partnership. So to eat with tax collectors and sinners was for Jesus to say that he was at ease with them, regarded them as friends. It was simply unthinkable to the religious Pharisees.
The question is asked of the disciples, but it’s Jesus who answers the question. He says: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.’ (17)
Imagine that you call into the Health Centre tomorrow morning. Or, you try to get in, but there’s a huge crowd of people, all waiting to see the doctor. And, as you wait, you look around, and can’t seem to see anything wrong with the people in the queue. There isn’t anyone coughing or sneezing repeatedly. There are no obvious signs of anyone being ill. So you pluck up the courage, and start chatting to the person next to you. What are you here for? And the man says, Me, oh, I’m feeling really healthy today, in tip top condition. I’m just going to have a wee chat with the doctor about football. And the lady on the other side of you, she says, I’ve never felt better! I’m in perfect health. I’m wanting to talk about where I should go on holidays.
What would you want to say to them? You’re wasting the doctor’s time! They’re not here for you to come and socialise if you’re healthy! There are sick people they need to see. If you’re healthy, then you don’t need the doctor - not when there are sick people.
Isn’t that what Jesus is saying here? He makes the same contrast in two different ways. There’s the contrast between healthy people and sick people. And there’s the contrast between righteous people and sinners.
Just as it’s the sick people who need the doctor, so it’s the sinners who need the Saviour. This is the reason why Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. They know they’re sick with sin, and they know they need a Saviour. Did you notice in verse 15, at the end of the verse, ‘for there were many who followed him.’ Levi was one, but there were many other tax collectors and sinners who followed Jesus. They knew they needed Jesus, and they were glad to follow him.
So if the tax collectors and sinners are the ‘sick’ who need a doctor, who are the healthy people, the righteous? It’s clear that Jesus is saying that the Pharisees think that they’re healthy, think that they’re righteous (in right standing with God), and therefore don’t need Jesus. They thought that they were ok by themselves and their efforts.
And maybe today, you find yourself with the Pharisees? You try hard to keep the rules. You try hard to never miss church. You think that you’re righteous. The truth is, though, that none of us are righteous by ourselves. None of us can earn our way. We all fall short of God’s glory, in so many different ways. We are all sin-sick, needing a Saviour.
The good news is that that’s why Jesus came. He didn’t come to call the righteous; he came to call sinners. He came to call Levi, and the other tax collectors and sinners. And he came to call you, and me.
Will you hear his voice? Will you follow him?
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 13th January 2019.
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