The Gospel of Mark 2:13-17
13 And He went out again by the seashore;
and the entire crowd was coming to Him, and He was teaching them. 14 And as He
passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and He
said to him, “Follow Me!” And he stood up and followed Him. 15 And it happened
that as He was reclining at the table in his house, many tax collectors and
sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. For there were many of
them, and they were following Him. 16 And when the scribes of the Pharisees saw
that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they were saying to His
disciples, “He is eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners!” 17 And
hearing this, Jesus said to them, “Those who are healthy do not have need for a
physician, but only those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners.”
Because of the growing crowd, Jesus went out by the
waterside, and the entire crowd was coming to Him and He was teaching them. It
should seem by this, that Jesus had a strong voice, and could and did speak loudly,
for wisdom cries out in the places of concourse. Wherever
he goes, though it is to the seaside, multitudes resort to him. And
wherever the doctrine of Christ is faithfully preached, though it is driven
into corners or deserts, believers must follow it.
Jesus walked by a tax collector’s office whose name was Levi
the son of Alpheus, also known as Matthew. He would in time come to write the
first Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is important because Levi was wealthy from
his trade as a tax collector. Levi was also a loose extravagant young man for
he, being a Jew, would never have been a tax collector.
Thus, righteous people who knew the Law would not have associated
with him because he was a sinner of the worst kind. Tax collectors were known to
extort people by taxing more than the tax was owed to make their wealth. Jesus
calling Levi was effectual for Levi left all that he had to follow Jesus. Just
like Simon, Andrew, James, and John left their wealthy fishing business to
follow Jesus, Levi gives up all he must do the same.
Jesus went to Levi’s home and the crowds followed Him to
continue to hear what Jesus was teaching. A meal was prepared, and Jesus was
reclining at a table joining in the festivities. It’s here where we learn that
some scribes of the Pharisees are also among the crowd. Scribes are the lawyers
for they copy the Law of God carefully and so are knowledgeable of it. In this
case, their knowledge was in line with the Pharisee denomination.
The offense that the scribes and Pharisees took themselves
was seeing Jesus sit with tax collectors and sinners, which they would be
provoked by. They would not come to hear Jesus preach, which they might
have been convinced or edified by; they endeavored to put the disciples out of
sorts with their Master and therefore put to them. “He is eating and
drinking with tax collectors and sinners!”
It’s not uncommon that when one is speaking rightly and
justly those who would seek to disparage or create dissension would resort to
go to secondaries. Instead of speaking
to Jesus directly, they go to His disciples for the sole purpose of creating
strife. These righteous scribes and Pharisees speak with their authority to
them exclaiming the sin of Jesus that He is eating with Tax Collectors and
sinners; they must not follow this man, this Jesus.
Causing division between man and God is a sin. It is what
the serpent did in the garden when he said to Eve, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You
shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” knowing full well that Man had
been graced with every tree to eat, except on one fruit of one tree, the fruit
of the knowledge of good and evil.” And through his deception, Mankind sinned by
agreeing with Lucifer and rebelling against God and were separated from God.
And in Job, when Satan attempted to break the bonds of faith
between Job and Yahweh, Satan came to Eliphaz, “Can mankind be right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” thus
Eliphaz repeated in agreement against Job, only Job’s faith did not fail.
So too these scribes and Pharisees seek to separate people,
especially the Disciples from Jesus. But Jesus heard them, and He spoke to them
as God spoke to Job, saying, “Those who are healthy do not have need for a
physician, but only those who are sick; I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners.”
For Christ can bring bodily cures to those who sought Him
like the Leper, the demon-possessed, and the paralyzed, but in these
spiritual cures, Jesus sought out those who would not seek Him. For
this is the great evil and peril of the disease of sin, that those who are
under it desire not to be made whole.
Consider this, do you
consider yourself a good person? You don’t need a savior. Do you say to
yourself, “I am not a sinner.” You do not need a savior. Do you say to yourself?
“I am my god.” You do not need a savior. Understand this, Jesus came to save
the lost, to save sinners. Sinners are people who know in their hearts that they
are vile, rebellious, haters of God who are lost and in need of a savior, they
know they need Jesus.
And upon the effectual calling of Christ who seeks you this
day, He can forgive you of your sins and restore you whole again. For He has
the authority and the power of redemption. You who are lost in the ideologies
of this world, imprisoned by the doctrines of men, slaves to your sexual
desires and perversions, who rebel at the created order of God and make
yourselves the determiner of your death and destruction.
Jesus seeks you right now and brings life to all who repent
and believe. Jesus the Messiah has risen from the dead, conquering it, and
lives. He is in your midst with us, but you cannot see. You are blind and your
heart is darkened thus we bring the light that we proclaim.
Death will soon take you and when you die you will face judgment for your sins. God is just and cannot by His nature abide by sin nor dismiss it. Every act of rebellion and transgression against God is wrapped up in sin, yet you have foolishly chosen to do it because you love your sin, rather than follow Christ and His righteousness that would truly enrich you.
From the Ten Commandments, we have false worship,
idolatry, misusing God’s name and living vain lives, violating the Sabbath,
dishonoring parents, murder, adultery, stealing, lying/false witness, and
coveting.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew
5–7), Jesus took some of these same sins to a new level. Regarding
murder, Jesus said, “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to
judgment.... But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of
hell” (Matthew
5:22).
Regarding adultery, Jesus said, “Anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
This includes men lusting other men and women lusting other women.
In Galatians
5:19-21, we are told, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred,
discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this
will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
In addition to the
various lists that can be found in Scripture, we are told in 1 John
5:17 that “all wrongdoing is sin.” Not only does the Bible tell
us the things not to do, but in James 4:17,
we are informed that anyone “who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do
it, sins.”
God is just and He must bring recompense to every sinner,
and you are that sinner, and you cannot comprehend your sins to root them
all out and make yourself right with God. Neither by obeying the Law nor by deciding
that you are right with God. Only God can make you right with Him and He sent
His son Jesus to live that perfect life without sin, die, and rise on the third
day alive to atone for your sins.
Jesus bore all our sins; He bore all the sins of all who
believe in Him. He suffered the totality
of God’s Wrath upon Himself that every sinner deserves, willingly, so that
those who believe in Jesus may have peace with God.
As it is written, “God, being rich in mercy because of
His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been
saved—and raised us with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches
of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;9 not of
works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:5-8
Turn away from your unrighteous sinful ways which lead to death and turn toward and follow Jesus which leads to life.
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