“You’re Eating With Sinners!”

Last time, the scene was in a house where a large crowd had gathered to hear this Jesus teach. As with our text this evening, there were likely a number of reasons people had gathered to see our Lord. Some were there because they needed Jesus’ kind of help, and that’s one of the things we will see this evening.

As always, there was the bunch that wanted to see the miracles, and the displayed power, to be “wowed” or impressed. It is the same reason we go today to see theatre, baseball, combat sports, or magic acts. We go to see skills we may not have be displayed for us to be amazed, and there will always be a component of people of this kind in any crowd.

Some were religious authorities, either trying to check out what this man was teaching as a kind of shepherd of the sheep for them, or more noticeably, trying to find fault with what He was doing because it didn’t match their idea of what would be proper conduct for the people. We will see and identify them in the crowd easily, for such tend to in some manner self-identify by their predictable behaviour.

I broke the text down as follows:

KV16: “You’re Eating With Sinners!”
16: When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”
13-14: The Calling of Levi (Matthew)
15-17: “I Came to Call the Sick…”

As you can see, the religious hypocrites are almost always out in strength. As we go through the text, we should notice that these individuals are not really interested in the works of God or the movement of repentance that began under John the Baptist and was being continued by our Lord Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, which He proved last time in 2:1-12. You can go back and watch that video on the Mark Playlist here, which I remembered to update on Wednesday (for a change). What we can gather so far is that they are interested in appearing to be religious and of some importance and, more importantly, authority in those circles. As is often true in politics and in religions or most sorts, it is not about following the principles of God or religion for these men, but the sole gathering of personal and institutional power with as little effort from themselves as possible. If I start talking about how much of this crowd is about avoiding real spiritual work in humility in favour of simply playing the part (the meaning of the Greek word hypo-crit’es), we could be here for a significantly longer amount of time than we have. I could even cite real-world examples with receipts, but that is not why we are here. Suffice it to say that these people can talk a good game and are obnoxious enough at it that we don’t want to spend any real time on or with them, especially the current model of Pharisee, who is all about identifying all the things that irritate them about the modern practice of religion in churches and the people who do so. That understood, let’s get into the text.

KV16: “You’re Eating With Sinners!”

16: When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”

A strong theme through the gospel of Mark can be seen here, and that is recognizing the real people who really need help. These people all somehow seem to know it, and they come to meet Jesus (sometimes to help). None of these meetings in the records are mere chance meetings. God knew they were going to happen, and every single reformed confession at least implies that it is God who in fact arranged the meeting. Jesus, as God the Son, meets them with all of the enthusiasm that He has for doing the will of God the Father. Because of the nature of those actors who are playing a part, the hypocrites, as we say in English, whose actual secret (sometimes even from themselves) task is to gather personal power and authority with as little effort on their own parts, they will begin to find fault with the works that Jesus does, with the people in whom He does the work, and ultimately with how and by what authority He does the works, because they do not and indeed cannot recognize the basis and source of His authority, which is God the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the trinity, Himself God, and not just some supernatural force. Jesus was not a Jedi, for those who follow that. Ultimately, the entire gospel turns into an argument of who holds ultimate power and authority, and that answer may be surprising to you, given the events that take place to show it.

Therefore, it is with no surprise that we see the Pharisees, the largest of the cultic groups arrayed against the truth, begin the conflict by calling out the people with whom Jesus eats, and the crowd He has attracted to Himself. We will say more about that when we get to them in the text. Let’s jump in here.

13-14: The Calling of Levi (Matthew)

It seems that even though His ministry has begun in earnest as of last study with the public healing of the paralytic, not all of His closest men had been called to follow Him as of yet, and here we have special mention of the calling of one Levi from his job as a tax collector. Let’s get into the text.

13: And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.

Jesus begins in the text this evening by walking again along the shore of the Lake of Galilee. It was called a “sea” even though it was a body of fresh water because of its size and how it could affect the local weather, with squalls and storms arising as the air moved over the water and caused it all.

We learn from the text here that Jesus is engaged in the work that God has for Him as He walked, with “all the people” coming to Him. I tend to think of this as Jesus walking and teaching, with a crowd gathering around Him and moving with Him as He walks. It says He was teaching them. It isn’t hard to figure out the subject matter, given it was the message He came to proclaim: “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

For the record, we call this message the “gospel,” or the “good news.” It is the record of how God became human to pay the price for all of our sins by offering Himself as the perfect atoning sacrifice for all of the sins of all those who will ever turn to Him. Keep that message in mind for the next verse.

14: As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

The young man sitting in the tax collection booth was named Levi, and we also know him by his Greek name as Matthew, the writer of the Gospel that bears His name. There are some other things we can assume about Levi, and some are a little controversial.

The first thing we can assume about Levi is that he was not a good man. If he had been a good man, being a Jew, he would never have been a tax collector for the Romans; his own people considered him a traitor. We can make no character judgements outside of that, but suffice it to say that it would be rare to find a faithful and fair-dealing tax collector. Add to that the ostracism that came with the position because Jews hated any reminder that they were subject to the Romans who ruled them, and we can also know that he did not have a good name or reputation, even if he himself was of superior moral character. I wonder what James, his brother (James was also a son of Alphaeus, and a second disciple named James) thought. Matthew, from Mark’s description here, is a specific kind of tax collector, known as a “little Mokhes.” (junior toll booth collector) He is the guy that the “grand Mokhes” paid to sit at something like a toll booth and collect the price of passage from people. Because he was basically out in front, with everyone going past him all the time and having to pay him at every interaction, Dr. MacArthur theorizes that he was probably one of the most hated men in Capernaum. I don’t know that I have ever been in that spot per se, but I know what it is to be largely unpopular. Maybe I have; I was a security guard on a construction site, and I had to tell workers they had to go through the front to log in and out of the website instead of taking the shortcut through the back gate. I even had a guy swing at me. Relax, it isn’t that kind of story; I ducked, and he left. Can you imagine the internal grief that makes you feel? It is no wonder he was so ready for what happened. I know I was. It was around that time, too, shortly after those events. So what happened with Levi?

I can see it in my mind’s eye. There is the booth near the shore or docks, placed in a spot where commercial fishermen could not avoid paying their taxes. Levi is sitting at that booth, alone, with most in the area avoiding him like he had leprosy. The Mishna and Talmud have some horrible things to say about tax collectors, equating them with murderers and thieves. Along comes a crowd, and as it gets closer, Levi can see Him. It’s that guy! He healed that paralyzed dude! I wonder what He wants? He couldn’t possibly want anything here. I can understand what was going through his mind. I also know from experience that nothing is further from the truth.

Jesus comes and stops in front of the table, and looks Levi right in the eyes. Levi stares back blankly. The longer the silence of the stare continues, the more awkward it becomes for Levi. Maybe Levi remembers this verse in Joel 2:12–13 “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.” After what seemed like days, Jesus simply said “Follow me.” We know from the existence of the Gospel of Matthew and other things, that he did.

Here therre is a nod at the cost of discipleship. Levi would have to leave his profession. Because of the way he was leaving it, there would be no going back. He followed with all the joy he could have, with the promise of Joel ringing in his own heart.

And for yet another redeemed heart, things were never the same again. You see, with the mercy of God through Christ, there is pardon for even the greatest of sins. Confess them to Him and ask forgiveness, with the intent of forsaking them. He will forgive them. Place your faith in Him, and in His mercy, He will pardon your greatest sins and make you holy.

Jesus called Levi to follow Him, and if you are sensing that kind of call to your heart from His through my words, then turn to Him. As He redeems you from the penalty of sin and begins to set you free from its power, begin to follow Him, knowing this: Someday, on a day of His choosing, He will set us free from the very presence of sin. Isaiah 1:18 says, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.’” In His final call in the entire Bible, He says in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” The only thing it will cost you is what you cannot keep anyway. He stands ready to redeem you. Oh turn to Him and be saved.

Wistfully moving on.

15-17: “I Came to Call the Sick…”

After Jesus calls another of His closest followers, one of His original twelve disciples, it was a cause, especially for Levi, as a cause for great celebration. The events that follow are held at Levi’s house, as we see in the parallel passage in Luke 5:29 which tells us, “And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.” This begins another occasion of the religious leaders to enter into conflict with the Lord of glory. Let’s look at the text.

15: And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.

Mark is unclear about the location, but Luke clears this up, as we mentioned before (Luke 5:29). It seems clear from the description that Levi had undergone some kind of transformation, at least morally. All of the people that he would have been forced into friendly contact with came, and seemed to be genuinely happy for him. I do get it. That security guard job I had? We were hated on that job site because we were tasked with enforcing laws and policies that flew in the face of those who would embrace lawlessness. That wasn’t everybody, but there sure seemed to be a lot of them. We even had special arrest and detention powers if it was required, though we rarely used them. We just called the cops. Let the guys with guns deal with the Satan’s Choice biker causing trouble on the job site. I was not in on that, but I heard all about it the next day. I’m sure Dan remembers his own stories from his own time as a security guard in a different place. Levi would have known and hung out with these people who formed their own kind of community. We did. And when I was off to university, they were genereally happy that I got out of that place. Anyway.

I was on that job site at work when Jesus called me to Himself. All of my coworkers heard about it from me. Some listened. Some did not. Some avoided me, thinking I had lost my mind. I’m sure Levi experienced similar things. However, as was the tradition in those days, because a valued coworker was leaving the job, they were throwing him a party. Levi invited Jesus. Jesus spoke to many of them, and the text says they dined with Jesus and the disciples. Apparently there were a lot of them, and some began to follow the Lord Jesus after that. This is no surprise. It says in Isaiah 55:11, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” This is a well-known phenomenon in gospel circles, though it seems to be less of a thing at this late hour of history. That is a topic for another time, but allow me to say that it does indicate that time is running out. There will come a time that turning to Jesus will no longer be possible for you. That might be at your death, and it could be sooner. You can avoid that pain now if you turn to Him in repentance and faith. Remember, the main theme of the gospels is that we turn away from our own dead works to a living God who loves us, if we will let Him.

Levi had been called out of death and into life (John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”). It is not known how Levi ended, and it is hotly debated, but there is no verifiable information on how he entered the kingdom of God. However, I am sure of one thing: he found it worth every cost he paid. However, this is not the end of study. Next verse.

16: When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”

Enter the religious hypocrites. The biblical account here seems to echo my own experienced reality, in that wherever and whenever there is an occasion for joy among the redeemed, these morons always show up to try to rob the joy from the occasion, whether that action is deliberate or not. I once performed a wedding ceremony, where I heard with my own ears that one such individual identified me to another pastor as a “dangerous man that was going to hurt a lot of people.” Okay, whatever you say. I’ll let the Lord decide what to do with that one. I think it was because this other individual had sour grapes because he wanted to perform that ceremony, and the couple wanted me. You have no idea of the stupidity that I went through with this individual both before and after the ceremony over this. Not that I have moved off the point, but back to the text.

Here come the hypocrites. You don’t have to work hard to get the impression they had started to follow him around after the healing of the paralytic. In fact, I see a discernable pattern. The first thing they did was to try to ruin his relationship with those whom He was associated. “…they said to His disciples…” Not unlike my own experience, I suppose. A “pastor” with sour grapes tried to ruin my relationship with another pastor by questioning my motives, priorities, or abilities. I am thankful that I was allowed to suffer like my Lord. The difference here is that they called into question His activities: “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” The parallel passage in Luke 5:30 called it “grumbling” at the disciples. I’ve seen this before. It is an attempt to drive the thin edge of the wedge in and separate the disciples from the teacher. “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’” Indeed.

The Pharisees pretended to their own holiness. They claimed holiness but were mere pretenders to the exercise. They were experts in both the Mosaic Law and their own man-made extrabiblical conditions that they imposed on the entire society with the authority of God. Their morality was only superficial; in reality they were placing heavy burdens on men, though they were unwilling to lift a finger to help carry them (cf. Matt. 23:4). They were invalidating the Law with their “traditions of the elders,” which had nothing to do with Scripture. It was not based, like that of John the Baptist or Jesus, on a transformed heart, but was instead a hypocritical pretension to morality based on nothing more than basic behaviour modification, an “acting of a part” (Gk., “hupocrites”), in other words, an external hypocrisy that was nothing more than rule-keeping. You can do that for a surprisingly long time. I did it for years before I figured out it had nothing to do with following my Lord Jesus. He desires reality in your heart. Doctor MacArthur points out in His commentary on this passage, “These Pharisees expected Jesus and His disciples to observe their legalistic prescriptions and extrabiblical regulations. When He did not, they reacted in anger and resentment.” (See p. 119.)

It is my experience and the opinion of others that these kinds of questions are not asked honestly out of genuine curiosity, but rather are asked out of malicious contempt to try to throw shame on the one being asked. This is done to try to make someone nervous or afraid to debate you. I may not be good at debate, but I recognize what is happening. The tone of these questions is accusative and contemptuous. If you logic fans out there have been paying attention, you will also see the questions are rhetorical. They are intending to imply that Jesus is a wrong-doing malefactor in performing these actions. Think about what Eating and Drinking meant. It meant acceptance and friendship. You have to understand the Pharisees and what they believed here.

The term Pharisee itself means “separate.” I think the original thought was that they be separate to God for His service, which is noble, but that was 200 years ago at this point in history. Now it meant separation from the gentiles, and even the common people, who, in their own opinion, were filthy sinners and not worthy of fellowship or any kind of contact with the noble, godly, Pharisees. These men that Jesus ate with, in the Pharisaical worldview, were cursed in the strongest possible sense. They would have prided themselves at remaining very separate from such individuals.

Ironically, this exposes their hypocrisy. They would have considered themselves whole and complete in a spiritual sense, when they were really blind and destitute in terms of spiritual sense. It was some of the men and women that Jesus ate with who would have gone on to receive the gift of salvation from sin by His grace through faith in Him, and not these so-called spiritual elites. In their own self-righteous minset, our Lord Jesus would reject their hypocrisy and them with it. In their hubris, that is, pride, the original sin of the devil, they yielded eternal life to sinners. It doesn’t mean tyhey cannot repent, but the likelihood of that is very low, I think you can see that. It is very difficult to change your ways. That may be by design. Besides, this is not why Jesus came, to fence with intellectual hypocrite pretenders. Next verse, and this shows the wisdom of Jesus, who is the Messiah, staring these so-called leaders of His people right in the face.

17: And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

If there was ever any doubt of why Jesus became human, He puts it to rest Himself with this statement. This time He waited for them to say it, having earlier addressed it before anyone could say it to Him. When He heard it, He gave an answer some of my friends would consider a home run. In an answer to their harsh remarks, He uses a sardonic wit to make His equally embarrasing point: Healthy people don’t need a doctor. Those who are sick need a doctor. Jesus had come not to call “the righteous,” but that He came to call sinners. All three synoptic gospels have this event as well, and Matthew adds to the context by adding Matthew 9:13, where Jesus also says, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” With this addition, he is explaining to His hostile critics that they have no compassion in their “seperateness,” and that is what they should have been pursuing.

When you take everything we know from the other synoptic gospels together, we can see Jesus answering them in three parts. First, we see the medical analogy which is a metaphor to explain His compassion in His ministry of calling sinners to repentance. Even the Pharisees would have agreed with the figurative language that sinners and tax collectors especially were spiritually sick. Enter the Great Physician, one of the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ! If you’re sick, you should seek out medical advice. If you’re a sinner, you should seek out the one who can deal with that at its source.

Second, Jesus answered the Pharisees from the Old Testament, which they well knew. Hosea 6:6 says, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” From that passage in Matt 9:13, Jesus uses the word for compassion, which is not quite what the verse says word-for-word, but it is a verse that emphasizes divine mercy over ritual sacrifices. Remember our definition for compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. He is saying the same thing it terms that the Pharisees can understand. But it is actually worse for the Pharisees. Jesus uses the phrase in the verse in Matthew, “go and learn,” which the Pharisees would have recognized as a rabbinic phrase Jesus was using like they would to rebuke their foolish ignorance because as teachers in Israel, they did not know about how God’s preference was to show mercy rather than accept burnt offerings.

Third, Jesus was restating to them now the purpose of His ministry: to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous to gather and fight, like they would have been looking for. The Lord did not do much more than tell the self-righteous that they needed recognize that they were sinners, and usually used the Scriptures to demonstrate that when it occurs (see the Gospel of John especially). Instead, He directed His attention and efforts to those who knew they were sinners and what that meant in terms of consequences in the end.

My pastor friend Steve in Florida wrote it into a song. It goes like this: To obey is better than sacrifice // To hearken than the fat of rams // what will man give for his own life // Houses or money or lands? // There’s a way that seems right unto them // the end leads only to death // Come unto me, all you weary // come and find your rest // Consider the cost of building a tower // it’s the narrow way that you must come // to do the will of the Father is to follow the Son // Will you love Him more than father or mother // will you love Him more than even your own flesh // to give all that you are for all that He is // This is the Gospel according to Jesus.

Yes, Beloved. Jesus has a gospel – Himself. He became human to live a perfect life under the Mosaic law (which He Himself wrote on stone for Moses with His own hand) and at the perfect time to lay down that perfect life as a perfect atoning sacrifice for all the sins of those who would ever turn to Him, perfectly redeeming the lost from the perfect wrath of God. He IS the Gospel. Turn to Christ by faith in the grace He gives you for salvation from your sins.

You don’t have to go anywhere, do some great deed, recite a specific prayer, cast some outlandish spell, chant a particular liturgy, or anything like that to earn your own salvation. You can’t do that anyway. Instead obey the command of God in Acts 17:30: “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent…” It isn’t a so-called work if you are obeying a command. Acts 17:31 tells us why: “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now Who do you think that could possibly talking about? The Apostle Paul knew: itis our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the biggest problems I run into whenever I speak with people about this is that many people, even supposed Christians don’t read Scripture anymore. The Holy Bible and the 66 books within it all speak in some way about this. Taken as a whole, It can be referred to as the Word of God, a name given to our Lord Jesus in John 1:1, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It is the very name of God the Son. Jesus is the Bible personified in that sense. We need to read it daily and learn what is in it, just like they did in the city of Berea about 2000 years ago in Acts 17:11, “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” It is the very reason we study Scripture every week formally, and it is the reason behind our chosen name, BereanNation.com. If you’re encouraged by this, come and join us at BereanNation.com. In a moment, we’ll give some announcements as to how you can do just that.

Beloved, we should learn a lesson from these Pharisees this evening. God is not interested in ritual and empty service, especially not LIP SERVICE. You have no idea how many people I meet that are just giving a cursory intellectual approval to not even the basics of Christianity and calling themselves His followers. Don’t be like that. Be those who are reading the word, really paying attention to what it says, and doing your level best to do what it says in your own individual context. Get it? Read, hear, heed. It says in Mark 4:9, “And He was saying, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’” Apply that as you will. Just know that you will bear the responsibility for your chosen course of action. Not choosing is a choice to not follow Christ. Don’t be like that. Read it, undeerstand what it says, and do your best to implement it in your life.

That’s what I saw in the text this time. Next time, we will be looking at Mark 2:18-22, which I have loosely titled Patches and Wineskins. Now those announcements I spoke about a moment ago.

This time, we saw that God is interested in acts of compassion in mercy and not empty religious rituals. As part of that story, spoilers, the Pharisees and their ilk are setting up for an old-fashioned showdown with Jesus, which, if they had really gotten the point, would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

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May God richly bless you and your family until we meet again next time. Take care, and have a wonderful week!

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