A 5-day per week study.

January 7 – Reading Mark 2:13-17.

Read and believe in Jesus.

“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners”  Mark 2:17b

 

The Gospel According to Mark 2:13-17

Vss. 13-14.

Jesus is again beside the Sea of Galilee (it was near Peter’s home).  The crowd was coming to him, and He was teaching them. (Standing by the water and speaking up the sloping land made for great acoustics. Many people were able to hear Jesus’ voice clearly.) 

Then, Jesus continued along a certain path, but this time He wasn’t looking at the boats.  He knew where He was going and who He would find there. And as he’d specifically called the two sets of fishing brothers to Himself, Jesus now spoke to a Tax Collector sitting at his tax booth.  

“Follow me,” Jesus said, looking into the man’s eyes.  (I almost expected Him to say, “…and I will make you a ‘Collector of Men’,” but of course He didn’t say that.)  The tax collector, Levi, got up, left his coveted Roman franchise booth, where he’d become a rich man at the expense of his fellow Jews, and followed Jesus.  

Don’t you wonder what Peter, Andrew, James, and John were thinking?  Levi had probably extorted money from their family’s fishing businesses many times. And Jesus was calling… him?  How did the richly ornate robe of the Publican blend with the simple attire of local fishermen?  

(I’m so glad that Jesus calls all types of people to follow Him.)

Like with the fishermen, I believe Levi had heard Jesus speak before as He made his way along the shore of Galilee.  Perhaps he’d witnessed miraculous healings too, as he watched from inside his booth.  Whatever he’d seen and heard, Levi’s heart was now toward Jesus.  The instant the Master called, Levi was out of the booth – leaving the quills, ledgers, and piles of coins behind – and walking with Jesus.

(By the way, this man’s other name was Matthew.  And this careful calculator wrote the wonderful Gospel by his name, specifically to the Jews about their Messiah.)

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Vss. 15-17.

Peter had invited Jesus to headquarter in his home. Now, Levi asked Jesus (and disciples) to a feast at his house. He also invited a bunch of other tax collectors (and “sinners”) that he knew. 

(Another tax collector – Zacchaeus – did the same thing in Luke 19.  This is SO like what happens to a person who has truly been converted. They want to share “the good news” with others. They want friends and family to know Jesus, too.)

Jesus, of course, accepted the invitation. He is comfortable with anyone who truly seeks Him.  Did other “sinners” there believe in Him and follow His way too?  

Outside, the Scribes (probably the same ones who’d observed the paralytic man being healed) had sour faces.  “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  (THEY would never do that!)

Jesus heard what they said as He left Levi’s house.  He looked these self-righteous men in the eyes and said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

Did they understand what Jesus meant?  What DID Jesus mean? 

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Did He truly see these Jewish rulers as “righteous,” not needing forgiveness and salvation?  Absolutely not.  Psalm 14:2-3 says, “None is righteous (good), no, not one.”  Jesus was speaking about the “self-righteous” who “think” they don’t need a savior.

Later, in Luke 18, we will see that Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a Tax Collector. Was He thinking of Levi and these men?   He told this story “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.”

In the story, the Pharisee stood and bragged of all his good works and accomplishments, and how he had never done such sinful things as the extortioners, adulterers, the unjust, or even… the tax collector…

The Tax Collector, on the other hand, could say nothing but, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  (Were those Levi’s words that Jesus quoted?)   Jesus told his audience that the Tax Collector went to his house JUSTIFIED, while the braggadocio Pharisee did not.

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Here, in Capernaum, the Jewish leaders were just beginning to spar with Jesus.  It would get worse. Would any of them recognize their lack of true righteousness before it was too late?