Session #5

Mark 2:13-17
"Jesus And Sinners." • 10.20.09 • Jesus Christ: The Man Of God, Session #5
Intro

- Today, we are finishing our study of Jesus' relationship to His discples. We're looking today at the call of Levi, which is both a perfect finish and a perfect segue into our next section.
- For the next few weeks, we'll be looking at Jesus' relationship to "sinners" and "Gentiles. There are some great stories that we will take some time to reflect upon.
- Today we will reflect on Matthew and his introduction into the fold. Matthew, like Peter, is better known by a name that was not given, but inherited.
- There isn't any clear indication as to how Levi came to take the name Matthew. Some say that Matthew, meaning, "Gift of God" was given to him by Jesus. Mark and Luke call him "Levi," the theory being that this name was less of a stumbling block to their audience than Matthew.
- The significance is that his name was well known, and it seems that the reputation that went along with it was not a very good one. Today, we'll learn

I. A Little About Levi (v.13,14)

II. A Little About Levi's Company (v.15)

III. A Little About Leaven (v.16,17)

Text

I. A Little About Levi (v.13,14)

• Mark 2:13,14 : "Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him." : Jesus has just finished healing the paralytic and has gone out again to the sea of Galilee to teach.
- On his way, He saw Levi. This word is more than just seeing. It's a construction of two Greek words that refer to perception. Jesus had a sense about Levi, the tax collector.
- In those days, on the shore of the sea of Galilee, there were several tax booths set up to manage taxes on all imports, including recently caught fish.
- They were not cheap to operate, as the tax collector, like most contractors today, had to bid for the job. Today, the lowest bid usually wins the job.
- In the case of the tax collector in Jesus' day, the one who bid highest won the contract. And as a tax collector, he would make his investment back over and over again!
- The Romans got a certain guaranteed percentage, the tax collector made what was over and above that and it seems that they determined just how much to cheat the people out of!
- This was the most sure way, with the powerful endorsement of the Roman government, to get rich quickly.
- But before he was Matthew the tax collector, he was Levi, the son of Alphaeus. Of course, we immediately recognize the significance of the name Levi. He's Jewish. A Levite.
- That means that he was supposed to have been a priest! He was supposed to be set apart for temple work! He should have been one of the guys walking around leading people to God!
- Instead, this man is really hated because not only is he a traitor to his people, but he is also a backslidden priest and is therefore, a traitor to God in their minds!
- Levi decided to reject the priesthood. Maybe it was just money. It's likely that his Father was a priest, so there was intimate knowledge both of the priesthood and the scriptures.
- In fact, throughout the book of Matthew, there is an authoritative number of Old Testament scriptures that is quoted.
- This man was well trained. But in his case, it might be that he knew too much, not about the Bible, but about the men who were themselves profiting from the Bible.
- He got an inside look into the religious establishment. What he saw was likely very unflattering. It leads us to the most scathing view in the gospels of the scribes and Pharisees.
- The book of Matthew records one word that he uses more than any other Bible author: hypocrites! He uses the word "hypocrites" 15 times ("hypocrisy" 1 time.)
- When Jesus talks to the scribes and Pharisees, this word screams loudly to Levi. Turn over to Matthew 23. Jesus goes on a streak and uses the word 8 times in this chapter alone!
• Matthew 23:13-15 : "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."
- There is a lesson here isn't there? Our children will see more than we want them to see. Let us be careful that our Sundays and Mondays match up!
- This makes what happens all the more incredible. Jesus sees this man, perceives that he has chosen a career likely out of disillusionment, and now calls him to follow Him.
- Levi has a keen eye. He has seen hypocrisy. He's an expert! However, at His Word, Matthew gets up and leaves to follow Jesus.
- Of all the disciples, Levi leaves the most. His job was the most lucrative. His departure was final. There was no return.
- I give us all this for a two reasons. First, Levi was brought into the company of men that he had personally robbed! Peter and the crew knew who Matthew was.
- Levi knew coming in that there would be an akward time of healing, but that Jesus could effect that between he and the others.
- Second, and more poignantly, Levi found someone that he could believe in. He found a man that embodied what he believed was an accurate representation of God.
- Of course, it helps that Jesus is God! I mention this though because there are men who love Jesus, but hate the church. They are waiting for a legitimate reason to believe as well!
- I recently read a note from a good friend of mine who I went to High School with. He is very pro-life and wears a "life" band on his arm. He was asked about it and religion came up.
˚ "Religion disgusts me. Religion is the reason I am embarrassed to say that I am a Christian. I am not what you think of when you hear "that" word. I am not what you see on TV. Religious people are the ones that killed Jesus and I believe they are still killing Him every day. I love God. I want to be close to God and I struggle all the time with it. ... I am sick of church. I think I could be happy never setting foot in a traditional church again. I am sick of the judgement, the formulas and of the cliches. I am sick of church functions and of church members trying to draw you in to their building so they can grow big and strong. I am sick of the greed. On the news I see 'the religious right" protesting with signs that say God Hates Fags or "Christians" being holier than thou and condemning every one to hell that doesn't believe exactly as they do. These people in no way represent me!"

Owen Klaas

- He and I went to the same Christian High School. He and Levi would've been great friends!

II. A Little About Levi's Company (v.15)

• Mark 2:15 : "Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him." : If the last statement about Jesus calling a tax collector was not enough, this statement regarding Jesus eating with him, would have killed!
- The language points to a great feast in an opulent environment. Luke in fact says that exactly. It was more than a meal, it was an all you can eat banquet!
- It was akin to our thanksgiving day, where you eat and then stay long enough to eat again!
- This was a good deal of time. People today think that 2 to 3 hours is a good visit. This could easily have been at least double that amount of time.
- I love that Jesus loves to eat and that Paul loves sports! These are men that I can identify with! Jesus was seen eating enough times that He was called a "glutton" by the religious. Yeah baby!
- But then, the shock continues. Jesus is not just eating with Levi and his disciples. He is not just eating with one tax collector. No, there were many tax collectors and sinners!
- An interesting note about tax collectors: they had severely limited contact with anyone!
˚ "When a Jew entered the customs service he was regarded as an outcast from society: he was disqualified as a judge or a witness in a court session, was excommunicated from the synagogue, and in the eyes of the community his disgrace extended to his family."

David Guzik

- Levi and his tax collector friends, even if they wanted to go to synagogue, could not enter. They were unable to come into a place of fellowship!
- So, who do you fellowship with when you are an outcast? Other outcasts! The sinners!
- I tried to ascertain what the precise definintion of this word was. This is what I got: "Devoted to sin," "pre-eminently sinful," "especially wicked," "men stained with definite vices or crimes" and my favorite: "Heathens."
- These were professional sinners. They were the cream of the crop. The finest in sin! And they are all eating with Jesus and His disciples!
- I imagine the disciples thinking to themselves, maybe even nervously laughing and commenting among themselves, "Is this ok!?"
- Having too much fun cannot be what walking with God is about! And there is a cause to pause here. Doesn't the Bible say that we are to be separate from sinners?
- Turn with me over to I Corinthians 5:9. Paul clarifies a point.
• I Corinthians 5:9-11 : "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person."
- There is a subtle difference between a person who is consistently fellowshipping, developing partnerships with the world and the one who is using their fellowship to develop relationship to Christ.
- The difference I find is in a person who makes much of what makes him distinct.
- That man often says, "I heard something in Church this weekend," or "I read that in the Bible." Jesus often comes up in casual conversation.
- Turn with me to Genesis 19. The Bible provides us with a good example of what I am talking about. Lot was a man that the Bible terms as righteous.
- Unfortunately, there was a time that he seems to have lost his way. When his voice was the most important, his life kept it from being heard.
• Genesis 19:12-14 : "Then the men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city--take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.' So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, 'Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!' But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking."
- What Lot said to his sons-in-law was so out of character, so out of the blue, it seemed to them that he was joking. Most commentators believe that this points to a disparity of life and speech.
- These tax collectors and sinner followed Jesus. There was some level of genuine interest.
- It's because Jesus showed the real nature of God and made sure that they knew what holiness was all about!
- It was not about behavior or weird dress or rules and regulations. It was about being uniquely set apart for the Lord, regardless of the place, and being authentic in every instance.

III. A Little About Leaven (v.16,17)

• Mark 2:16,17 : "And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, 'How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?' When Jesus heard it, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'" : You have to love the scene here. The scribes and Pharisees are so observant of other's people's activities.
- I can almost see them with a Pirate spyglass, sitting in a duck blind, just hoping for some dirt!
- They saw Jesus and the company that He was keeping on that particular day.
- They are genuinely stupefied! How can he do this? They were so bound up and restricted that they simply could not explain how this could be!
- These people did not fit the mold. They had not come in contrition to their temple, so that they could perform the rites that made them acceptable.
- How could a Rabbi of such standing associate Himself with them? Before we pass judgement, let's think about what we would think if we had an equivalent scenario.
- Pastor seen in town having dinner with a flaming homosexual and two prostitutes! Many of you did very well to withhold your gasp! Some of you know you want to cry "foul" even now!
˚ "I am constrained to say that I believe at this very hour one of the secrets of arrest, and one of the reasons for the condition of things in the Christian Church that is troubling us in many ways, is the aloofness of the Christian Church from sinning men and women. We still build our sanctuaries, and set up our standards, and institute our arrangements, and say to the sinning ones: if you will come to us, we will help you!"

G. Campbell Morgan

- When Jesus heard their words. Luke tells us that the scribes and Pharisees complained against His disciples. They weren't quite man enough to go face to face with Jesus.
- Jesus replies to them with one of the more famous lines in the Bible. Those who are strong, whole, robust do not have a need for a physician. How many of us would in our strength voluntarily submit ourselves to the physician's hand!?
- The ones who are miserably ill need the physician. They appreciate his sklll. They welcome the temporary additional pain for the hope of more permanent relief. They'll gladly submit to his hand.
- Then He clarifies that He did not come to call, invite the righteous, but sinners to a change of mind. A change of mind about God and His character.
- Let me say something here. Jesus is not saying that the scribes and Pharisees were righteous. He is not affirming their righteousness.
- What He is saying is whoever views themselves properly, ie., in a horrible state before the Lord, will call upon the great physician to heal them! That is who Jesus is!
- The leaven of the scribes and Pharisees is the illusion of righteousness. It's the pill that they take that lightens their pain and blinds them to the true severity of their condition.
- Jesus is inviting them to see themselves as having need of Him! They are sick! They are the ones who need repentance!
- Turn with me to Revelation 3. The church of the Laodiceans were a lukewarm church. The crux of their disease came about as a result of a poor diagnosis.
• Revelation 3:17-19 : "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'--and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked--I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."

Conclusion

- Hypocrisy, self-righteousness and empty religion had turned Levi over to a godless life. When Jesus came into His life and he saw the real thing, he couldn't wait for his friends to see the same thing.
- I hope that the Jesus that people see in you this week will inspire in the same way.