Mark 2:13-17 Sermon Jesus calls Levi and eats with sinners

So we are in a series in the Gospel of Mark… (slide on where we are…)

• Which is Mark’s biography of Jesus, written around 70AD… and it is his attempt at capturing the story of Jesus life…
• And the purpose of this biography is persuading us all that this Jesus is the Messiah.
• Central question… Mark 8:29 where Jesus asks his disciples “who do you say I am?”
• So we started eight weeks ago with verse 1, where Mark tells us “this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”

So we are mid chapter 2… and it only took us 9 weeks to get here…  

• And in the last few weeks… we find ourselves in the midst of this story of ordinary people, bumping up against Jesus and being amazed!
• Just a reminder (because we had last week off Mark with the 100% Hope kids)…
• The last story was of the paralysed man being lowered by his friends through the roof in order that he could be healed by Jesus….
• And Jesus does heal him, but not before he forgives his sins… reminding us that the priority in coming to Christ is being reconciled to God by having Jesus forgive our sins…

So we read on… Mark 2:13-17

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 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.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Now let’s watch this on The Chosen… 

• And just for some context… Levi we think is Matthew (that is just his new name which means gift of God).

Well I thought for today’s sermon I would do a who, what, why message?

• If we are going to understand and gain knowledge about a story… they are good questions to ask…
• You could also add where, and when and how…
• But we will stick to who, what and why today…
• Victoria and I often do this if the kids come home reporting drama at school… kids come home a bit flustered… 
• Fight in the playground… and Victoria and I will ask… who was involved, what happened, why did they do that?
• Sometimes we get grunts… but often we get to the bottom of the story in order to understand what has happened… 

So firstly, who is involved?

Jesus, Levi the tax collector and the Pharisees…

So Jesus has been introduced to us already in Mark’s gospels and we are regularly told that the crowds were amazed by him and followed him.

• He is introduced by Mark in verse 1 as “Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”
• And we’ve seen a bunch of things… he announces that in him the Kingdom of Heaven has come near… which is this new age where God is healing what is broken…
• He has called some ordinary people to come and follow him.
• We read he teaches with authority… unlike the Jewish teachers of the law….
• He has delivered a man from an impure spirit that had held him in bondage. Again amazing the crowds…
• And he has been healing the sick… 
• So what kind of Kingdom has Jesus come to establish on earth?
• Well it’s a revolution… and Jesus is a revolutionary. That is the first character involved in this story. Jesus the Messiah.

So who else is involved in this story? Well next are the Pharisees.

• Who are these dudes?
• So the Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect who were teachers of the law… the first 5 books of our bible…
• And Pharisees get a bad wrap but many of their intentions were good. They wanted to keep the law in order that God would bless Israel. 
• Right? They feared God and believed that a lot of Israel’s problems related to their failure to be set apart from other nations and keep the law.
• And if you are a bible nerd, scholars think Ezra was probably the founder of this sect.

But here is the thing… over time the Pharisees kind of lost the plot…

• They cared more about holiness and law keeping, than God’s heart for the sinners and the needy.
• Right and that is always a warning to us who call ourselves religious… 
• Right, Jesus has a crack at them in Matthew 23 when he says “woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” And then he talks about how they give their 10%, but neglect things like justice, mercy and faithfulness. 
• So they kind of became like religious police trying to get all of Israel to keep Torah, the law.
• Right? Obsessive, compulsive, strict… very religious…

And there was this belief going around at the time that if they could get all of Israel to keep the law for even one day… all 613 commandments…

• Then the Messiah would come, end Roman occupation and usher in the Kingdom of God.
• So can you see why Jesus and the Pharisees come into conflict…
• One group is about keeping boundaries to bring the Kingdom. And the other, Jesus is about stepping over boundaries to include people in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And one thing for sure… with all of these rules… that at the top of the list… you could not go anywhere near someone who was unclean….

• And that included quote, unquote, “sinners and tax collectors.” 
• So these guys are meant to represent God, and in their worldview, you did not eat with anyone who was unholy!

And really that is not too unlike us today… because who we eat with is really a way of saying… this is who is on the inside! This is who is acceptable to me.

• So a Pharisee would never eat with tax collectors and sinners, because that would be offering friendship and acceptance.
• Right? Because eating with someone is an offer of friendship. 
• The anthropologist Mary Douglas once said “in every culture of the planet, meals are boundary markers.” 
• Meaning, who you eat with is a way of saying “who’s in” and “who’s out”. 
• So who were the Pharisees is this story? They were the ones who had turned meals into a way of saying to sinners “you’re not welcome here.”

So I think that brings us to the final who, and that is Levi, the tax collector.

• So as Jesus is walking along the streets, teaching the people he comes to Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collectors booth. 
• And Levi is another name for Matthew, most likely the gospel writer who becomes as we will see a follower of Jesus.
• So Levi was a tax collector in the city of Capernaum where he probably worked for Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great.
• So Herod was the Roman Governor in the area Jesus did most of his ministry. And so Herod, although Jewish, really gave his loyalty to Roman rule. 
• And as Israel was under Roman occupation, taxes would be collected by the Governor to send to Rome. 

So… (get to the point Tim…) now Capernaum, where Jesus was ministering in this story was on a border between two different precincts of the Roman empire

• And to cross between the two Kingdoms, you had to pay a tax… 
• Or a more relevant phrase… a tariff. And I have no comment to make on that! Ha!
• So if you were in business you’d pay a tax on all of your stuff you were transporting to trade
• And tax collectors made a living by charging a fee on top of what would then be passed on to Herod or Rome.
• And if you were a tax collector you could charge whatever you wanted… so it was a corrupt business marked by greed and a sense of utter betrayal of your own people.
• Hence why in The Chosen video, there is a Roman guard protecting Levi. Right?

So these guys were hated. In Capernaum, where Jesus is ministering, everyone would have known Levi. 

• He is seen as a traitor. A Roman collaborator. Marked by greed. Definitely an outsider.
• Levi would have been rich, but he was despised. 
• He had lived a life of compromises…

So that is our cast of characters… who do you resonate with in this story?

• “Ohhh I am like Jesus”… “I am pretty amazing”…
• No you’re not… you’re either a pharisee or a sinner.
• OK…

So secondly, what is going on?

Well just to recap the story… one day, not long after Jesus baptism and the beginning of his ministry…

• With his reputation growing and the crowds following…
• Jesus walks up to Levi’s tax collector station right next to the road, on the entrance to Capernaum…
• And with I imagine no bitterness, or disdain or acrimony, just a warm and gracious smile. He flat out says to Levi “hey, come and follow me.”
• That’s a way of saying “be my disciple.” Change your allegiance… 
• Now I am sure Peter and James and John are thinking “Jesus, are you out of your mind?”
• But watch what happens… Levi got up and followed him.

Now of course if this doesn’t all work out, Peter can go back to fishing… a carpenter could go back to carpentry. 

• But this is big… Levi cant go back to tax collecting… but he gets up and follows Jesus. 
• So the next thing we read is Jesus is having dinner at Levi’s house with many tax collectors and sinners.
• The Pharisees question why on earth Jesus would do this…
• And then I think in one of the greatest lines in history… Jesus says “it is not the healthy who need a Doctor,  but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners…”
• Mic drop… story over!

OK, and finally, why is this happening? 

So we have the characters, we have the story, but why did Jesus do this? 

• Why such a radical invitation to become a child of God, a follower of Jesus, to someone seemingly so undeserving?
• Well let me suggest a couple of things…

Firstly, Jesus understood the nature of what was meant to happen when the Kingdom of God was ushered in by the Messiah.

• All through the scriptures, the metaphor for the coming Kingdom of God is a feast.
• When God turns up, the party begins!
• For example the prophet Isaiah writes; (25:6) “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.”
• Right? Jesus vision of the Kingdom of God was a feast to which everyone was invited.
• And it involves some goooooood dining! Fine wines… and for all peoples!
• In Matthew Jesus says “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
• In another spot, Jesus tells a parable to explain the Kingdom of heaven and he describes it as a banquet where people from the highways and byways are dragged in to join!
• In the Book of Revelation, when Jesus is talking to the church, he says “here I am, I stand at the door and knock. Anyone who hears my voice and lets me in, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me”…

Right? Why does Jesus call a tax collector and eat with him and sinners?

• Because meals are about so much more than food. 
• When Jesus sits down to eat at Levi’s house, he is enacting his vision of the Kingdom of God. Of radical inclusion and divine hospitality.
• This is what God’s rule over earth looks like! It’s been promised, it’s being fulfilled… Jesus is saying “it’s happening… it’s happening!” Get on board. 
• Come and follow me… come and eat with me… there is room at the table for the unrighteous.
• When Jesus hands out invitations to a party at Levi’s house, in reality he is handing out invitations to join the Kingdom of God!

And so the next bit of the WHY is Jesus is wanting us to learn from his mission strategy!

• One NT scholar once said, that in the gospels, Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal or coming from a meal. 
• In one passage he gets accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. Now to get that reputation, you clearly like to party. 
• I like this Jesus.
• But here is what I find interesting… Jesus’ way of radically including people into the Kingdom of heaven and discipleship involved meals. 

So here is Jesus mission strategy. Are you ready? It’s brilliant… genius stuff…

• This is how Jesus initiates the Kingdom, brings the revolution, changes the world…
• First, invite someone over to your house for dinner. Or in this case accept an invitation…
• If you don’t have much space, go out, if you don’t have much money, do a picnic. 
• And then eat a long meal. Good food… maybe a splash or two of Chardonnay? Not from a box… mind you I don’t mind chateau cardboard… 
• Stretch into the evening, have a laugh… 
• Cook the best food you know how and invite people that would never expect it. Invite people that don’t know God. 
• And you don’t have to preach at people, but you should mention how following Christ makes a difference in your life. 
• You’ll probably get those opportunities by just being a good listener…

But as a regular part of your life… eat with people. Drink. Enjoy God’s grace and the gift of life. 

• Ask if you can say a grace. I always do that. And then I always take an opportunity to do a little preach grace… haha!
• You know “Dear God, we thank you for this meal and your good gifts in our lives. Thank you for Billy and Betty, that you love them so much and have good plans for their lives. Jesus, they have shared about their concern over their kids, will you give them wisdom and grace with their kids? Lord Jesus will you bless them, will you bless our meal together. May your presence fill this space.” Amen. 

And that is it. That in my opinion is Jesus mission strategy

• Get to know people, eat with them, share with them God’s grace…
• And if you are serious about following Jesus, then take throwing dinner parties and invitations seriously. 
• You know there are so many lonely people, and so many people who have never met people as great as you guys… 
• Meals really are full of significance. And Jesus is knocking on the door wanting to come in and eat with people!

Well that brings me to the final why in this story…

• We have had the who… Jesus, the Pharisees and Levi the tax collector
• We have had the what… of Jesus extending an extravagant invitation Levi to follow him and dine with him.
• And we have had the whys… of this being a sign of the very nature of the Kingdom of Heaven arriving… and of this being the mission strategy of Jesus to bring unlikely people into his revolution
• But the final why is deeply personal. 
• This story is told by Mark to remind us that Jesus didn’t come for the righteous but for sinners. Not for the healthy, but for the sick. 
• Jesus came for you and me!

You know we have been saying that in this Jesus we meet God… and like when Jesus walked past Levi in his sin and shame

• He is walking by you and I, and calling us to follow him.
• He is knocking at your door and desiring to come in and eat with you.
• And all of this is because he loves you and wants you to be in his family. He wants to forgive your sins and call you into a new life!
• It can be a narrow path, a costly path, it doesn’t mean you get out of suffering or hardship
• But it’s a wonderful life with a promise of eternal life… and it is a free gift from God. 
• Christians call this grace… Jesus is inviting you into his divine hospitality and grace. 

Verse 17; Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

At the table Jesus is inviting us into divine hospitality and grace – will you accept it?

Do you recognize your need for Jesus and divine mercy and grace?

You know I hate going to the actual doctor… Victoria often has to book an appointment for me… and then because I am cheap, I will go because there is a cancellation fee…

But when it comes to Jesus, the great physician of our souls, I am happy to go to him

Because I know my need.