Sinners, Follow Me

Mark 2:13-17

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. ¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus living a fairly regular life. Up until He was 30, he lived in Nazareth as a tradesman, having learned carpentry (or possibly more accurately, stone masonry) from His father, Joseph. He ate, slept, worshiped, had friends, and a family. When He began His ministry of proclaiming the Gospel and teaching about the Kingdom of God, He was still “that guy” who had done all those normal things (as opposed to His cousin, John the Baptist, who by all accounts was pretty weird.)

Now He is going about the business of gathering His Disciples. This was important work, as the future of His message would be held in their hands after His Ascension. As we have already discussed, the first to be called were regular fishermen. Now, He makes a bold move and calls a tax collector. I was a little surprised to learn that Levi, the man called in this particular text, may not have been the Disciple we also know as Matthew. If that is the case, then Jesus had at least two tax collectors in The Twelve. (I guess that isn’t an important detail, but interesting nonetheless.) Of course, the scribes look down on this choice; Levi is a “sinner”. As we saw with the man with the unclean spirit in Mark 1, Jesus once again associates with those deemed “unclean” by the Temple hierarchy.

Tax collectors were an interesting part of life in the Roman world. Levi, in particular, was a “toll booth” collector. He would sit at the gate of the city and collect indirect taxes on the transport of goods. This job was procured on a “highest bidder” basis: the ruling authority farmed out the collecting of tolls to the highest bidder, who then could charge as much as he was able to extract. This bred dishonesty. Levi probably collected for Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee. Jews despised these agents of non-Jewish rule, who (also) had frequent and extensive contacts with Gentiles. Of course, Levi is considered a traitor and an outcast. The temple authorities hated him and taught the rest of the population to do the same. And naturally, this is who Jesus chooses to eat with and call into ministry with Him!

When the complaint against such a choice is shared, Jesus handles that with a direct assessment of their hearts. “I’m not here for you, because you don’t need a Savior. You’ve already saved yourselves.” (That’s a translation according to Carolyn.) Of course, they don’t have the power to save themselves but in their own eyes, they are already righteous. Sadly, that will not be the standard by which they, or any of us, are measured in the end. All of us need Jesus' atoning work to save us. Nothing more and definitely nothing less.