Mark 2:13-17 NIV, 1558
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.
Prayer:
- We are going to begin a new series on the Gospel of Mark. It will last until the beginning of Advent which starts on December 2nd. Each Sunday, we will have a message on a certain part of Mark – and you will have advanced notice of it via the Friday email and announcements. Also, each Sunday you will receive a page of suggested scripture that will help center you each day with a very short passage from Mark that helps to focus upon the current message.
- In our introduction slide and in the bulletin – the theme is Defiance – about the radical sayings and actions of Jesus.
- Before we start with Mark, let’s look at what I mean about Jesus being a radical.
- The simple answer is yes. Jesus was radical in his ministry and teachings.
- Throughout the Gospels, Jesus questioned the rulers of the Jewish faith,
- he threw people out of the temple,
- he pronounced woe to the scribes and Pharisees,
- he performed healings and miracles on the Sabbath,
- his disciples did not fast,
- His whole Sermon on the Mount turned the Jewish traditions and laws seemingly upside down.
- The simple answer is that Jesus was a radical; however, I don’t believe it’s that simple.
- The first thing to bear in mind is who Jesus was. This was the living, breathing incarnation of God’s spirit.
- He was often spoken of as teaching like one with authority.
- Jesus’ disciples noted that even the wind and the sea obeyed his voice, and questioned who had such authority.
- Many times, Jesus was accused of blasphemy, and truly his words would have been blasphemous had he not been the Son of God.
- Every time Jesus rebuked the temple leaders, questioned Jewish traditions, or broke the “law,” it was because the system was corrupt, the teachers were misguiding the people, or else the human law was wrong by God’s standards.
- Jesus was acting righteously to restore true practice of being faithful to God, and he had the authority to do so.
- Jesus wasn’t just being radical for the sake of being different or drawing attention to himself.
- He also left several examples of how we are to submit to those in authority and keep the peace whenever possible.
- First, at age twelve we have a story of Jesus being left at the temple by his parents. You know this story; when they found Jesus, the teachers marveled at his understanding.
- But look what happens as they head home, and Mary is pondering these things. Luke 2:51 says that Jesus submitted to his parent’s authority.
- This is the same God that created the universe, but he submitted to the authority of his earthly parents because that’s what good children are supposed to do.
- Even when he is arrested and tried under false pretenses, Jesus submits to the rulers of this world and takes the punishment they prescribe.
- Jesus was a radical; but he was also fully committed to doing God’s will.
- Jesus was a servant to his followers, as well as a leader.
- We are taught by Jesus to submit to those in authority, namely our parents, church leaders, and the government.
- BUT, we are to obey man’s law except when it conflicts with God’s law.
- Yes, Jesus was a radical and we will see many examples of his actions in the next weeks and some of them will be transforming for our lives.
Let’s look at the beginning of Mark. - The Gospel of Mark is the most succinct of the Gospel accounts.
- The author is unknown, but there is some discussion about whether the author is John-Mark one of Paul’s traveling partners.
- The Gospel is action-packed and meant to be read aloud.
- It is dramatic and wastes very little time. You will see the word “immediately” many times as the Gospel writer transitions to another story.
- The Gospel of Mark focuses most of its energy on miracles and actions of Jesus than actual teachings.
- Almost all of the stories found in Mark are found in the other Gospels as well.
- The Gospel of Mark is written with a lot of literary devices, particularly, it is focused on people’s reaction to Jesus.
- There are several different audiences in the book and they each react differently as you will see this morning.
- As we read through the Gospel of Mark and break apart some of the major stories the question we are left with is- “Will you follow me?”
- Please open your pew Bible to page 1555 – the beginning of Mark
- Mark’s gospel doesn’t begin with a sweet birth story or nativity scene – it begins with the bold proclamation that the Messiah, the one the prophet’s foretold, had arrived and brought the Kingdom of God with him and John the Baptist is the one heralding the arrival of the Messiah.
- In the verses that follow in chapters 1 and 2 we see what the kingdom of God looks like on earth as Jesus wastes no time healing several people at different times. In the midst of this, Jesus calls disciples.
- The first disciples Jesus calls are fishermen who drop their nets and follow Jesus.
- In the second chapter we see Jesus call a tax collector named Levi (later named Matthew), Levi immediately leaves his post and invites Jesus over to his house for dinner with friends.
- When church officials, the Pharisees, find them, we see the first glimpse of how the pharisees will respond to the Kingdom. “Who does he think he is? He eats with tax collectors and sinners.”
- Jesus’ message is that the Kingdom of God is open for anyone who will enter and follow Him – the pharisees are hoping for special treatment and rules.
- Jesus counters them — “It is the sick who need a doctor, not those who already think they are well.” Translated: It is the person who knows that they are a sinner is who Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to.
- Let’s dig a little deeper:
- The Pharisees complained that Jesus went to dinner parties with tax collectors and sinners. But who were these people? How did they fit in the world of their time?
- Sociologists assign people to upper, middle, and lower classes.
- In modern industrialized nations, the middle class is relatively large.
- In Palestine in the time of Jesus, what we know as middle class was rather small. It was made up of professional people such as shopkeepers, tradesmen, fishermen, and educated people such as the Pharisees and scribes.
- Being a carpenter, Jesus most likely belonged to this class.
- Even smaller than the middle class was the upper class. This class included the very wealthy such as the aristocratic families of the Herods, the high priests, and the rich nobility that owned most of the land.
- The majority of the people in Palestine belonged to the lower class, known as the poor.
- All sorts of people belonged to this class, such as orphans and widows, the blind, the crippled, and the mentally ill.
- Having no other means of livelihood, people with physical and mental handicaps became beggars.
- To this class also belonged outcasts.
- One can be an outcast without necessarily being poor economically. Such were tax collectors and sinners. So tax collectors were at the same level as sinners.
- The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman Empire.
- They made their living by charging an extra amount. Some of them made more than a living. They exacted any amount they could and thus became well to do. In other words, they were cheaters.
- They were considered traitors who became wealthy by collaborating with Roman authorities at the expense of their own people.
- The sinners who are grouped with the tax collectors were not ordinary sinners. The sinner is in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
- But the sinners associated with tax collectors were in a special class.
- These were people who deliberately and persistently transgressed the requirements of the law.
- Included in this group would be money-lenders who charged interest on loans advanced to fellow Jews.
- Also, in this group of sinners might be prostitutes who made their living by their ill-gotten gains. These were individuals who sold themselves to a life of sin in deliberate disregard of the law of God.
- As we just read in today’s Scripture, Jesus associated with such people at dinner parties.
- The Pharisees charged that Jesus was “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34).
- Even though Jesus belonged to the middle class, he reached out to people of the lower class.
- On one occasion Jesus said to some religious leaders in Jerusalem, “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31). This is one of Jesus’ radical statements and was meant to shake up the status-quo of the church leaders.
- It’s not hard to see why the Pharisees and others were upset that Jesus had table fellowship with people who were morally questionable.
- These individuals were profiting by disobeying the command of God and betraying their own people.
- They were what the Old Testament calls the wicked, unworthy to be part of the people of God.
- But what infuriated the Pharisees was that Jesus was that Jesus accepted them as they were and was freely having dinner with them without requiring that they first clean up their lives.
- Of course, Jesus did have a message to proclaim to them. But his message was not, “Straighten up your life and keep the law.” Rather, his message was, “The kingdom of God is yours; you are included.” By eating with them, he was extending to them the kingdom of God. Tough to understand – but this is God’s grace at its finest.
- When we read about the protest of the Pharisees, we are quick to condemn them and to side with Jesus. But if Jesus were physically present in our world today, would we as church people be comfortable if he spent his time with cheats and swindlers, sexually deviant individuals, gays and lesbians?
- Wouldn’t we be infuriated if he constantly went to their dinner parties and didn’t come to ours?
- Jesus ask’s Levi to drop everything he is doing and to follow him. And Levi does.
- What it means to “follow” Jesus?
- To follow Jesus means to give up everything.
- To care about what Jesus cares about and not what is important to us.
- It does not mean that we have to sell everything that we own.
- But it does mean that we grow in our knowledge of Jesus by reading the Bible and prayer and worship.
- And as we grow we will do the things that Jesus wants us to do. And change our life style.
- Jesus did not care that Levi was hated by everyone else. Jesus probably knew that Levi had cheated people and had done bad things in his past.
- But Jesus also knew that Levi was a sinner and that Levi knew it. Levi knew that he needed a Savior.
- Levi responded to Jesus instantly and decisively.
- Levi did not waver, he gave up everything.
- Jesus had a job for Levi to do and knew what he was created for.
- Levi became Matthew and wrote the first Gospel Matthew
- So, we ask ourselves —Do you know what Jesus has for you to do?
- We are to care and love those around us that are the “bad” and “unlovely”.
- We are to have Jesus’ love for all people.
- Jesus came to save the “sick.”
- We have to be careful that we don’t separate ourselves from a needy world.
- We don’t want to become like the world, but we do need to love the people in the world.
- We need to love Jesus enough, to tell others about Jesus, no matter who they are or what they have done.
- Quite a party, wasn’t it?
- Thanks be to God!