Consider these questions as you dwell in Mark 2:13-17.

1. How does the calling of Levi, a tax collector, by Jesus challenge societal norms and expectations of that time?

2. What message is Jesus conveying to the Pharisees when he says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick"? How does this relate to his mission?

3. How should the story of Levi's calling and Jesus' interaction with tax collectors and sinners influence our approach to sharing the gospel and calling people to repentance?

Transcript:

Here we find one of the better known stories from the early part of Mark, the Calling of Levi, or the Calling of Matthew. Well, what happens here? Jesus goes out and he sees this crowd and he walks by Levi and he's sitting at a tax booth. He was out collecting taxes and Jesus said to him, Follow me. And what does Matthew do?

What does Levi do? He rises up and follows Jesus. He does something. He gets up and goes after Jesus. He hears the call from Jesus and he follows him.

Now this is pretty significant because tax collectors in that day were considered to be dishonest. They were disliked by those that were getting taxes collected from. I guess we don't necessarily wouldn't like a tax collector today either. We kind of grumble about taxes. But in this case there was a sense that they were dishonest, that they were stealing from people.

And so Jesus goes to him. He is one of the last people that they would expect someone for a rabbi to call to follow him. And Jesus goes right up to this unwanted, this person sort of on the fringes of being desirable in their culture. And he calls on this person and he actually listens and follows. Now, as a tax collector, he had access to money and he gives that up and he follows Jesus.

Jesus is going to ask him to have honesty in tax collecting. He is losing out on a substantial amount of money, but he is getting up and he is following Jesus. Well, what happens? Jesus reclines at the table. That was the posture that they had at the time.

And there were tax collectors and sinners there with Jesus and the disciples. Now sinners, now, they weren't just know that person over there does a specific thing. This was sort of a generic term that the Pharisees used for people who did not fall in line with their level of adherence to the rituals and laws that they had established. And so this is people who were outside what the Pharisees considered to be following their path. And so the Pharisees see this and they say, what kind of a rabbi is this?

He's got tax collectors and sinners. He's got these people, these undesirables at the table with him. And Jesus hears. Ah. Good job out of Jesus, right?

He hears it and he says what needs to be said? Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. He is saying to the Pharisees, look, if you believe that you're so righteous, there's nothing that you're going to be able to get from me, because I am here to call sinners, to repentance. And if you don't think that you're a sinner, if you think that you are more righteous than these people who I'm at the table with, then you're in a sad state of affairs, because you're going to have to acknowledge your sinfulness if you're going to come to Him. Jesus came for sinners, and that's who he called and that's who responds to Him, just as Levi did.

Now, for us, it is important that we remember this story, that we remember that just like the tax collectors and the sinners we are, apart from Jesus sinners, we need to be rescued by Jesus. He came to save us. We needed a position and he came and rescued us. We needed to be brought to life. And Jesus brought that new life through his life, death, resurrection for us, and by our faith in Him, we are healed, we are brought to life.

Jesus came for us. And so may we remember this as we go out into the world, as we have the opportunity to share the gospel, may we be sharing it in such a way that we are calling people to repentance. Not because we think that we're better than them and they need to start behaving like us, but calling them to repentance because we are sinners too. And we need to be saved by grace, just as everyone else. So may we proclaim that message of the great Physician who heals the sick and who brings the dead to life.