Talk 7 Mark 2:13-17 The Call of Levi
Welcome to Talk 7 in our series on Mark’s Gospel. We’ll begin by reading Mark 2:13-17.
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. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 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.”
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.
As we saw last time, Jesus’ home was now in Capernaum (v1), a village on the western shore of Lake Galilee. We have also seen how, wherever Jesus went, large crowds gathered. There were two main reasons for this, his teaching and his healing. In Mark 1:22 we read:
The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
And in verses 27-28 we’re told that:
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching – and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Mark goes into great detail about the miracles of healing and exorcism that Jesus performed, but he says relatively little about his teaching. Here in verse 13 he simply says, he began to teach them. However, as we’ve said before, the miracles were not the message, but served as signs confirming the truth of the message (cf. Mark 16:20). In Mark 1:14 Jesus proclaims the message that the kingdom of God is near and tells the people to repent and believe the good news. In 2:2 he speaks the word to them, and in verse 13 he teaches them. It’s clear that he used a variety of methods to communicate the message.
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.
It’s important not to miss the connection with the previous verse. Jesus began to teach the people as he walked along. It’s so easy to think of teaching as something that you do in a standing (or sitting) position. But here Jesus is teaching as he walks along. A walk with someone is a great opportunity to share God’s truth with them. (When I was a Bible College principal I sometimes felt that I was able to teach my students more as I travelled in a car with them than when I was in the classroom).
It’s interesting too that Jesus felt able to interrupt his teaching to speak to an individual and call him to follow him. The call of Levi (identified as Matthew in Matthew 9:9) is almost identical to the call of the four fishermen in chapter 1. Jesus is walking along, he sees them, and calls them to follow him. And immediately they do so.
But the fishermen were earning an honest living. As a tax-collector, Matthew almost certainly was not. The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 indicates that tax-collectors were certainly in a position to extract money under false pretences. And because of their reputation they were outcasts from Jewish society, being treated as traitors as they served the hated Roman authorities. They were viewed as the worst of sinners – but Jesus had come to call sinners to repentance, to seek and to save those who were lost (Luke 19:10).
So, Matthew gets up and follows him. As the fishermen had left their nets, he leaves his tax-collector’s booth (Luke 5:28 says he left everything), to become one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. I wonder if the other apostles were surprised at Jesus’ choice. There is certainly no suggestion that they were, and neither should we be when he calls people with a questionable background into church leadership today. What matters is not what they were, but what Christ can make of them when they repent.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
Luke describes this meal as a great banquet. The angels in Heaven rejoice when a sinner repents (Luke 15:10) and it’s right that we should do so too. Overjoyed at his newfound salvation, Levi throws a banquet to celebrate in honour of Jesus. And perhaps he did it, too, to provide an opportunity for his former business associates to get to know Jesus. Those who have just found Christ have a unique opportunity to tell others about what he has done for them.
If we are really grateful for what Christ has done for us, we will do the same – at the ‘banquet’ we call the communion service or eucharist, where we regularly remember and celebrate the Lord’s death, and as we testify to those around us of the transforming work Jesus has done in our lives.
We also see in this verse how the sinless Christ was willing to look like a sinner (as he was at his baptism in 1:9) foreshadowing his redemptive work on the cross, where he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). He mixes with those seen as the worst kind of sinners. But the fact is that we’re all sinners – or we were, until we met Jesus – and not one of us is worthy of his grace. The word Christian occurs only three times in the New Testament, but far more frequent is the use of the word saint to refer to Christian believers. We who were once sinners God now calls saints. What amazing grace!
16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
Despite the miracle performed on the paralysed man earlier in the chapter, the teachers of the law are still criticising Jesus. Now the question is not, What right has he to forgive sins? but Why is he eating with sinners? Did these Pharisees really think that they themselves were sinless? Probably not, but they certainly considered themselves a cut above the rest. Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the tax-collector illustrates their attitude perfectly:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).
Of course, Jesus didn’t condone sin, but he mixed with sinners because their need was so great, and he loved them and sought to save them. Luke 7:36-50, where Jesus is in the home of Simon the Pharisee and where a woman who has lived a sinful life anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume, also illustrates what we’re talking about here. The Pharisee can’t understand why Jesus would allow a sinful woman to touch him, making him ceremonially unclean. Jesus explains that those who love him most are those who have the most to forgive. He tells the woman, Your sins are forgiven… your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
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 (to repentance).”
Jesus’ message was that people should repent and believe the good news (1:15). This is what he came for. Of course we know that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and everybody needs to repent and believe the gospel. So Jesus is not suggesting here that the Pharisees were righteous and did not need to repent. But if no one is righteous then everyone, including the Pharisees, needs to repent and receive the forgiveness Jesus so freely offers. It’s true that the healthy do not need a doctor, but if everyone is sick, then everyone needs him.
Note, incidentally, that, although in the context this was not his intention, Jesus here acknowledges our need of the medical profession. Some Christians, because of God’s promises of healing, believe that to consult a doctor is an evidence of lack of faith. The people who take this view are usually those who believe that Jesus died for our sicknesses in exactly the way that he died for our sins. Both in my PhD thesis and in my book Just a Taste of Heaven, I show that this is not what the Bible teaches and that to teach this is not only erroneous but also potentially dangerous.
Although this is not directly relevant to the context of the passage we are studying in Mark 2, because it’s so important, I will conclude this talk by giving you a brief summary of why I believe it’s quite appropriate for us to seek medical help and advice, even though we passionately believe in the supernatural power of God to heal the sick today.
Firstly, it is noteworthy that on at least three occasions the New Testament actually advocates the use of medicinal means. One clear example, is Paul ‘s recommendation to Timothy to take wine for the sake of his stomach (1 Timothy 5:23). A further example is the instruction given to the church at Laodicea to purchase eye salve that they might see (Revelation 3:18), and although the use here is clearly metaphorical it seems hardly likely that such a metaphor would have been employed if the use of medical means were disapproved of.
Yet another example is the use of oil and wine in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). In v.33 the Samaritan takes pity on the wounded man and in v.34 dresses his wounds , pouring on oil and wine. He then takes him to an inn where he takes care of him. It is clear from the context that the purpose of the oil and the wine was medicinal and Jesus commands his followers to Go and do likewise (v.37).
Furthermore, there is no clear evidence in either the Old or the New Testament of a negative attitude towards the use of medicine. In fact, as we’ve just seen, there are indications of a positive attitude. This suggests that as Christians today we too should be positive about it and be grateful to God for the advances in medical science that have been made since Bible times.
But given that the use of medicine and the medical profession is appropriate for a Christian, the question arises as to when we should avail ourselves of it, bearing in mind that God has promised to heal us. In this connection it is important to realise that it need not be a question of God or medicine. It can, and probably should, be a matter of both. As Christians we should seek the Lord in everything, so we should not, like Asa (2 Chronicles 16:12) , consult the doctor and forget the Lord. On the other hand, we should remember that God works through the natural as well as through the supernatural. It would seem foolish to ask God for a miracle when there is a simple natural solution.
A good illustration of this principle is God ’s miraculous provision of food for the Israelites when they were travelling through the desert. Exodus 16 reveals how God provided ‘manna’ as food for his people. There was always enough for each day …until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they came to the border of Canaan (v.35). This is confirmed in Joshua 5:12. The manna stopped the day after they ate food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.
The lesson from this is very clear. God has many natural ways of providing for the needs of his people. It is when our needs are beyond our natural resources that we may expect God to provide supernaturally. God does not work miracles when there is no need for them. Applying this principle to healing, since we are to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we should pray as soon as we are ill and continue to pray until we are better. But that does not mean that we should not consult a doctor or take medicine. Indeed, in most cases it seems that it is through medical means that the Lord chooses to heal us. Where human skill is insufficient, however, as Christians we have the assurance that even when something is impossible with man, all things are possible with God .