The Good News about Jesus – Part 5
By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
Mark 2:13-17 -June 8, 2025
This is part five of our series titled The Good News About Jesus. In this series we are walking through the first half of the book of Mark. Mark is a book that shows us rather than tells us who Jesus is. I love what Mark has to say about Jesus in today’s story.
There are a lot of tough jobs in our society. I went for a ride along with a police officer friend of mine. In the course of doing his job, and in my estimation, he was doing his job well. He was threatened to be sued multiple times that evening. He ended up having to tackle some people. Most of the people that he encountered were not happy to see him. If you are on the wrong side of the law, having an officer at the doorstep is not something you want to see.
Being a police officer in our time is akin to being a tax collector in Jesus’ time – only being a tax collector was worse.
Mark 2:13–14a (NIV)
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth.
Tax collectors were hated not only by those who were on the wrong side of the law, but also those who were on the right side of the law as well.
In this story, Mark introduces us to Levi. He is known as Matthew in the other gospels. Levi was the author of the book of Matthew, the first gospel in the New Testament.
However, when we get to this story – people didn’t see who Matthew would become; they just saw who Levi was. Levi was a tax collector.
A tax collector in Jesus’ time is not the equivalent of a revenue Canada officer in our time. Let me give you a little bit of background.
As you may know, Israel was conquered and ruled by Rome. Rome was seen as the oppressor. To become a tax collector, one had to purchase this job from the Romans. Then, to pay for this purchase, they charged taxes to people going from one region to another. Basically, they could charge whatever they wanted to. They were seen as supporters of Rome by their fellow countrymen. They were thought of as swindlers and cheats.
They were not allowed to be witnesses or judges in court because they were considered to be untrustworthy. They were not welcome at the synagogue. They were considered to be disreputable, unrighteous and disloyal to Israel. A few weeks back, we talked about how lepers were unwelcome in society because of their disease. The tax collectors were spiritual lepers.
Mark 2:14 (NIV)
14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
Levi had obviously heard of Jesus. It would have been hard to be in Galilee and not hear of Jesus. But what is amazing is that Jesus sees this spiritual outcast and, looks him in the eye and says come follow me.
*****
You kinda get why Jesus would call Peter. Sure, he was a little brash. But he was part of a successful fishing business. It is easy to get why Jesus called John. He was a kind lovable guy. But Jesus calling Levi is somewhat mind-boggling.
To put it in modern terms, why would you call a disgraceful, disreputable guy who is viewed as untrustworthy to represent your brand? It doesn’t make any sense if you go by the world’s value system. But this tells you something about Jesus.
He cares more about people than he does about optics. He doesn’t choose people because of who they are but because of who they can become. He values a person’s heart more than he values public opinion.
I think Levi saw all of that when Jesus issued the invitation to come follow me. The Bible records that Levi did just that. He got up and followed Jesus.
****
We are now taken to a different scene.
Mark 2:15 (NLT)
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)
So, there was a party at Levi’s house. It seems that Jesus really likes parties. He ends up getting invited to a lot of them.
Remember, Jesus came to teach us what the Kingdom of God was like. The Kingdom of God is a party. It is a celebration. It is full of joy and laughter. It is full of friendship and connection.
The Bible says that the angels rejoice over one sinner who comes home. The Bible says that when we get to heaven, there will be what is called the marriage supper of the lamb. It is a celebration of what Jesus has done. It seems like Jesus ended up at a lot of parties have because the Kingdom of Heaven is a party.
Not all of life is a party. There are serious, important and even hard aspects of the Kingdom of God. But a party is not foreign to the culture of the Kingdom.
*****
What fascinates me about this party that Jesus attended was the guest list. There is Jesus, who is called a prophet and a teacher. People understood that he was a righteous man. There are the disciples. They are an eclectic, diverse smattering of people. Then there were, as the new living translation puts it, many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. That is quite the guest list.
Levi invites all these people to his house and then puts on a meal. Having a meal with someone else, in Jesus’ time, communicated something about the relationship between those people. It communicated friendship. It communicated acceptance. It communicated a relationship that was positive.
So, Jesus is reclining around this table with his disciples and with these social outcasts eating a meal that speaks of friendship. Notice that it’s not just Jesus and the disreputable sinners. Jesus takes his disciples into this situation.
Jesus is teaching his disciples. Can you imagine being a disciple in this situation? You look across the table, and you see this guy, and you are trying to figure out where you know him from. Then it hits you. Oh yeah, he was the guy who was collecting taxes a couple of weeks ago and I am pretty sure that he ripped me off. Oh yeah, I remember that other guy, he was the guy that the synagogue told us not to talk to. Yet, Jesus takes his disciples into the situation.
It’s probably a little uncomfortable for them. But hey, it’s good food. It’s good wine. I have to figure that Jesus knows what he’s doing. Right?
*****
I remember reading a study have a while back that surveyed Christians. It said that two years after a person became a Christian that, they had lost most, if not all, of their non-Christian friends. Contrary to what was thought, it usually was not the non-Christian friends leaving them but the Christians leaving the non-Christian friends.
That would be consistent with my observations as well. Why does this happen? Well sometimes Christians are just easier to be around. They’re not telling those off-colour jokes where you’re not sure whether you should laugh or not. Your interests and their interests don’t seem to be the same anymore. What you want to do on the weekend doesn’t seem to be the same anymore. Being around them is a little uncomfortable, so you kind of just drift apart.
But Jesus here takes his disciples to a party where they’re not comfortable. That says something about what we, as disciples, are to be.
The other thing that fascinates me about this party and this verse is that there were many tax collectors and disreputable centres at the party, but Mark notes that many of these kinds of people were among Jesus’ followers. While the disciples might have been uncomfortable hanging out with these kinds of people, these kinds of people wanted to hang out with Jesus.
*****
What do you think it was about Jesus that made them want to hang around him? They were very aware that Jesus was righteous, but they weren’t. They were very aware that they were social outcasts. But they were also aware that Jesus was happy to share a meal with them. The message that Jesus was communicating to them was substantially different from what they heard from everyone else.
*****
We live in a world where image is more important than substance. From influencers on Instagram to politicians, people want to be seen in a good light. But that is not something that is unique to our time and culture. In Jesus’ time, have you had some who were trying to portray the image that they were righteous? You had others who were trying to portray the image that they were good Israelites. Being a poser is part of what it means to be human in this fallen world.
Along comes Jesus. He wasn’t trying to be anything but who he was. He was God’s servant. He was God’s messenger. He was the Messiah. He was the Lord. What came across from him was authenticity. He would say let me tell you what the Kingdom of God is like. It’s like someone who loses a sheep and leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep. He would say let me show you what God is like. He had compassion on the hurting. He had compassion on the humble.
The reason why these people like to hang around Jesus was not because he was cool. It was because he was authentic.
****
I get that. It is easy for Christians to become posers. We pretend we’re loving, but we’re really judgmental. We pretend that we have it all together when we’re hanging on by a thread. We pretend that we have all the answers when we only have a few of the answers. The reality is people see through that. People don’t want to hang around that.
When people are compassionate and genuine, humble and authentic —these are the kind of people that others want to hang around. They are the kind of people who are like Jesus.
****
So, Jesus is sitting around this table at Levi’s house with his disciples and with the spiritual lepers of the region.
Mark 2:16 (NLT)
16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
Like I said, there are posers in every generation. What Jesus was doing was not computing for them. In their opinion, these people were the dregs of society. Jesus, by eating a meal with them, was saying “I value these people.”
This was not computing for the teachers of the religious law. So, these Pharisees ask Jesus disciples, “Why does your Rabbi eat with such scum?”
Jesus heard the question, or it was relayed to him. This is what he told them.
Mark 2:17 (NLT)
17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
I like this translation of this verse. The NIV puts it this way.
Mark 2:17 (NIV)
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
That is a better word-for-word translation from the Greek. But the new living translation catches the essence of what Jesus is saying. He is not saying that the Pharisees who are looking down their nose at these tax collectors and sinners are righteous. In fact, he makes it very clear in other passages that they are not. What he is saying is that his mission is to those who understand the unhealthy state of their soul. His mission is not for posers. People who pretend their soul is OK.
****
This verse helps me in a number of ways. Jesus portrays sin as a sickness or as a disease. Often, when we think of sin, we think of it in legal terms. I broke God’s law therefore, I am a sinner. Sometimes, we think of it in moral terms. I have done bad things therefore, I am a bad person or a sinner. But here, Jesus says these people are sick. Yes, they are sinners, but the sin comes out of the disease.
****
If we simply think of sin in legal terms, then the solution for sin is to be forgiven. That is a fine way to understand sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are righteous-not even one of us. When Jesus died on the cross, he took our sin upon himself. When we ask for forgiveness, he grants it. To know you are forgiven is a wonderful thing.
But if that is your only understanding of sin, then what do you do when you find yourself sending again and again and again? God forgives again and again and again. But do we just think to ourselves, I guess I have to live this way until Jesus comes back?
If we simply think of sin in moral terms, then what do we do with our sin? – I’ve done bad things. Yes, we need to be forgiven, and we get that. But do we just say to ourselves I have a character flaw, and I need to try harder? If I can only learn to discipline myself, then I will be a better person. I know I have been bad, and I just need to try harder to become better.
There is nothing wrong with trying to become better. There is nothing wrong with trying to be less selfish and more generous. There is nothing wrong with trying to envy less and love more. But that will only get you so far.
But if you think of sin as a sickness, which is what Jesus describes in this verse, then what you need is to be cured of that sickness. You need healing.
The great thing about it is that in this verse, Jesus is portraying himself as the doctor. (It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick)
If you remember back over the last two chapters of Mark that we have been looking at – Jesus taught with authority, he cast out demons, he healed the sick, he cleansed the leper, he cured the paralyzed man and proclaimed his sins forgiven.
Jesus is saying through the book of Mark I, if I can deal with all of those things, I can deal with the health of your soul too.
So, what do you do when you find your heart full of envy or unforgiveness? What do you do when you find your heart full of worry and doubt? What do you do when you are battling that besetting sin that seems to trip you up all the time? What do you do when you are not the person you expect yourself to be?
When you sin, you need to be forgiven.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
But the fact that we have committed these sins indicates that our soul is damaged. It indicates that our heart has been poisoned. It indicates that we are sick on the inside.
It is not the kind of sickness where you just get some more rest, and you are then better. It is the kind of sickness where you need a doctor – a spiritual doctor. You need Jesus, the doctor.
The first thing that he is going to prescribe is that you strengthen your connection with him.
John 15:5 (NIV)
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
He says you can’t get better on your own. Your healing will come out of connection with me. Depending on the contours of your soul and the places that are poisoned, Jesus will prescribe what he knows you need.
He may prescribe that you renew your mind. He will call you to set your heart and mind on things above. He may prescribe forgiveness of yourself or others He may prescribe opening your heart to others – Where you find healing by sharing the life of Christ together.
What I know is that Jesus is the doctor. He knows what he is doing. When our souls are sick, we need his healing touch.
How about you today? Do you need to make an appointment with Jesus? Do you need to talk to him about the things that are going on in your soul? Will you do what he says so that you can be healed?
Life has a way of damaging our hearts. You are going to find yourself coming back to Jesus, the doctor, again and again.
His criteria is that you acknowledge your sickness – That you acknowledge your sin. He describes those on his patient list.
Mark 2:17b (NLT)
I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
How is it with your soul? Do you need to spend some time with Jesus? If you do – book some time to spend with Jesus.