Jesus, Friend of Sinners

Friend of Sinners
Mark 2:13-17

Introduction:

I wonder, have you ever been scandalized by something? To be scandalized means to be deeply troubled and offended. Maybe something really embarrassing or offensive happened and you just can believe it. You’ve heard the stories, I’m sure of Christian preachers who have been caught up in some money laundering scheme or in some sort of sexual sin. I’ve been offended… and scandalized when I’ve seen that happen. Not only was he betraying his family, friends, and church, he was betraying the Savior and blemishing his name. We should be scandalized about things like that.

Our text this morning is Mark 2:13-17. And in it we see that the Pharisees were scandalized by what Jesus did. He did something that they thought he shouldn’t be doing, and they were deeply offended. But, as we’ll see, the problem wasn’t with Jesus, but with the Pharisees. Jesus didn’t sin or do anything to that he shouldn’t have done. But it was radical and stood in stark contrast to what religious people did. Let’s look at our text together.
Follow along in your Bible as I read from Mark 2:13-17.

In our text Marks wants to show us the radical nature of God’s grace. It is a scandalizing grace. It is offensive to some people… here the religious people. We can summarize the shocking character of that grace by saying it in a short, simple sentence: Jesus is a friend of sinners. If that doesn’t blow your mind… if that isn’t a little offensive to you, then maybe you haven’t quite understood what this means. Mark lays it out for us in this passage. Jesus calls sinners to himself. He associates and shares meals with sinners. And when the highly religious people see it, they are shocked and offended.
Jesus Calls a Tax Collector (v. 13-14)

Take a look at how Mark begins this episode. Jesus is out doing his regular thing. He is out preaching and large crowds are following him wherever he goes. There were some there, no doubt, who just wanted to see if he would do some amazing miracle. Maybe others were just curious about what he was up to. Still others, his disciples so far (James, John, Peter, and Andrew) had committed their lives to him. We read a few weeks ago about when Jesus called them to follow him. Remember, he didn’t call the top military leaders or political officials to begin his kingdom. He called simple fishermen.
 
And we see something even more amazing in verse 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.” Is that amazing to you? Does that shock or offend you? No? Well, let’s think about the background a little more.

Levi is another name for the disciple named Matthew. Just as Simon had another name, Peter, Levi was called by another name, Matthew. We see this same story told in Matthew 9, and there we see the name Matthew.
 
And Levi was a tax collector. Now all you who have studied Bible backgrounds know that this wasn’t seen as a worthy profession. Here’s how tax collecting works. The Roman government didn’t want to have to go out and collect taxes themselves, so they would contract workers to do it for them. They would take bids on how much money the contractors would be able to get. And they went with the highest bidder. Then that bidder would pay that money up front to the Roman government… definitely a good deal for them. But not so much a good deal for the people. If the bidder agreed to pay a million dollars, he would want some of that too. And he wouldn’t collect it all by himself. He would hire out others to do the dirty work of actually collecting it. And of course they wanted their cut too. So the amount of money needed keeps rising and rising and rising. And the common people would be the ones to pay for it all.

Tax collectors were seen as crooks and thieves. Especially the Jews would have hated them, because many of these tax collectors would have been Jews themselves. So, on top of being thieves they were also traitors against their own people. In fact, Jewish writings say it was actually allowable and not a sin to lie to tax collectors.

This system lent itself to corruption and oppression of the poor. The tax collectors were backed by the Roman government, so there was nothing you could do if you got cheated. You just had to pay up and move along. Here, it looks like Levi is collecting taxes from people as they cross the border… kind of like a toll booth.

So, Jesus is passing along and he looks at Levi. He sees all the commerce… the collection of taxes going on, and he calls out to Levi, “Follow me.” And Levi gets up from his booth and follows Jesus.

Now calling the fishermen as disciples was one thing. They were not the most prestigious people. But they worked hard and earned their money. Calling this tax collector went too far! He doesn’t even work for his money… he steals it. And he’s gotten rich off the backs of his own people.
 
And we see the radical nature of God’s grace here. Jesus chose this tax collector to be his disciple. There was nothing honorable in him… nothing to value… nothing to look at and say, this man is worthy to be one of Jesus’ main men. And yet Jesus chose him and called him. And he followed.

Jesus Eats with Sinners (v. 15)
But it is one thing just to call one, individual tax collecting sinner to follow you. That’s not too big a deal. It’s not like he would have been seen with a whole group of them or anything. It’s not like he went to a feast with them. But, he did just that as we read in the next verse… verse 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.”

What we have here is not Jesus just going about his usual business and the Pharisees mad at him. It’s like he is intentionally provoking them to get mad at him. He’s bending their rules. He’s pushing the limits. It’s almost like your child when he’s getting ready to do something and he does it anyway. Or it’s like that scene in the movie “Finding Nemo.” The little clown fish is swimming towards the underside of a boat while his dad is calling out to stop. Nemo gets to the boat and puts his fin up. Nemo’s dad says, “If you make one more move Mr. Don’t you dare! If you put one fin on that boat… Are you listening to me?!” And just as he says, “Don’t touch the boat,” Nemo touches it.

The Pharisees said, “Don’t you heal that man on the Sabbath. You can’t do it.” And Jesus did it. The Pharisees said, “You can’t touch lepers.” And Jesus did it. The Pharisees said, “You can’t associate with sinners.” And that’s exactly what Jesus did to get under their skin. But he wasn’t just doing it to get under their skin. He was doing it to teach them and us about his mission and his kingdom. What is God’s kingdom like? It’s where all the outcasts are received to live a new life. It’s where the ideas of this world are turned upside down. It’s where the hungry get fed, the lame walk, and sinners are forgiven.

The dinner was a feast thrown in Jesus’ honor. We read that in Luke’s account of this story. Luke 5:29 says, “Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.” Levi responds to Jesus’ call, invites him over for a huge feast, and also invites all his sinner cohorts to come along too. This is shaping up to be one party that any religious person would not want to be seen at.

One pastor, Kevin DeYoung, gives this illustration to make us feel like the scribes must have felt. Christmas is coming up soon, so imagine that you go out with a group… your Sunday school class to go Christmas caroling. And you’re just going to random houses, until you get to that one house you’re not so sure about. A couple people want to skip it. You know what goes on in there and you know they wouldn’t want to hear any songs about Jesus. But at your Sunday School leaders’ insistence, you go to the door and knock. You hear lots of laughing and carrying on. You know nothing good is going on inside. Then the door opens, and there will a smile, welcoming you in, is Jesus. Now, think about this: What is your immediate response? What are you doing here, Jesus? You’re not supposed to be here. Of all the places you would be… not here. What in the world are you doing?

And Jesus invites you in and welcomes you to the table. Instead of sitting around the table, you would be laying down on something like a mattress with your head to the table, resting on your left arm and eating with your right hand (that’s how they did it back then). And as you look around, you see Jesus and his disciples. And then over there, you see a homeless man with no teeth who smells really bad. Next to him is a woman everybody knows to be a prostitute. Then there’s the gay guy and his partner sitting across the way. And one more… beside them is the rich man who made his money from swindling senior adults saying they might win some money if they just gave some to him.

Is this where you would think Jesus would be? Is this how you would think Jesus would be spending his time? Now certainly, he wasn’t participating with them in their sin. And he wasn’t condoning their sin. But he was there with them, eating with them, associating with them, having conversations with him.

And let’s ask ourselves these questions. What would it look like if we started calling “sinners”… the outcasts to come to Jesus? What would it look like if you started inviting those types of people to church? And if they came, would you be offended? “I can’t believe he came in wearing clothes like that! How disgusting for those people to be sitting right next to me as I try to worship God!” Are we willing to do that… to go that far? And how would we respond if they came?

Jesus Offends the Scribes (v. 16-17)
We see exactly how the scribes of the Pharisees reacted in verses 16-17. They were shocked. They were offended. They couldn’t stand the thought of what Jesus was doing. It says, “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?” They couldn’t understand it. This is not how religious people… religious teachers should be acting. They would have never thought of doing that. In other places the Pharisees call Jesus a drunkard and a glutton because he ministered to sinners. And that’s exactly the response Jesus knew he would get. With his actions he is teaching them, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He was teaching them as it says in Matthew 21:31-32, “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

The story ends with Jesus responding to the Pharisees with a little parable… verse 17, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Can you imagine a doctor who didn’t want to take any sick patients? He only wants to see healthy ones? Or a car shop that doesn’t fix problems? No. Doctors serve to make sick people healthy. Car shops exist to fix cars. And Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners. This was his mission. This is why he came. Is our mission the same as Jesus’? I’m all for inviting and welcoming people from other churches to our fellowship if they’re not receiving biblical, Christ-centered teaching, and if they’re not being spiritually shepherded. But if we’re content with that so that our church might grow numerically, we have a different mission than Jesus. Are we seeking to call the righteous or sinners? Is our main focus looking for people who have it all together or people who are all messed up?

Jesus went after the sinners and we must too. But how do we do that? How do we carry out the same mission that Jesus had? Let me point out a few ways. We must get out of our religious comfort zone and make friends with sinners. Are you content to live, work, eat, associate just you own little circle of Christian friends? Are there any people you associate with that if other religious people saw it they would be offended? We must go out, friends, and seek to minister to the social outcasts… to those who don’t have it all together and call them to come to Jesus. Practically, have the Hispanic men over for dinner and treat them to a fine meal. You and your wife go out to dinner with that gay man that you know and pay for his meal. Stop by the orange house down the road and tell them you’re from First Baptist Church… you just wanted to stop and meet them and see if they have any prayer needs or if there’s anything you can do for them… and invite them to church. Whatever application this makes for you, get out of your comfort zone and let’s be about our Savior’s business.

We must not participate in or condone sinful behavior. We must be careful here. We must balance this. Certainly someone with a history of alcohol abuse shouldn’t start a ministry to drunk guys. Men you must be careful in approaching women and women you must be careful in approaching men. And we must not participate with those we’re ministering to. In your effort to associate with ungodly people don’t be a part of ungodliness or turn a blind eye to it. Jesus wasn’t just hanging out with sinners… he was on mission to call them to himself.

We must be willing to speak of sin and Jesus. Again, for Jesus, it wasn’t just hang out time… it was a time to be on mission. Further, we must not be content to be silent in the presence of sin. This doesn’t mean we constantly nag people about their cussing or sins. It will take wisdom and discernment. For Jesus, it wasn’t hang out time, but it wasn’t throw down time either. He knew what to say and when to say it. For some of you who associate with people like these, it will mean getting out of your comfort zone to speak seriously and gently about sin. If you never get around to talking about spiritual things, then you’re wasting your time. The people knew where Jesus stood and people must know who we are and what we stand for too.
 
We must remember that we, and all people, truly fall into the category of sinners. When Jesus says that he came to call sinners and not the righteous, he was talking about all of us. There’s not really a category of those who are righteous. When Paul quotes from Isaiah in Romans 3:10-12 he says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understand, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” In our mission to reach sinners, we must realize that we are just as spiritually bankrupt as the next person. There are not two categories of people, righteous and sinner. The categories are sinner under condemnation and sinner saved by grace. But there are some who think they are righteous in themselves. And Jesus says since you think you’re healthy, you don’t need me. If that’s you, then you need to realize you’re not healthy… you’re very sick. And the only cure for your disease is the forgiveness and healing that comes through Jesus Christ.

The mission of Jesus culminated in his suffering, death on the cross for sinners, and resurrection from the dead. If that isn’t your only hope, then you’re in trouble. Repent of your self-righteousness and turn to the Savior who came to heal sick people. Humble yourself before him and trust him to save you. Then you can sing along with other me and other saved sinners, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”

*This post is not an original essay by myself, GC4JC, Geisha Bear Fondue, or any other documented affiliations to this blog. GC4JC does not necessarily agree completely or endorse the entirety of this essay. It is for information purposes only, as GC4JC always suggests that the reader do their own research and draw their own conclusions.

**This is a bible study was written by an anonymous author and is being shared from another public "fair and free use" source.