A Friend of Sinners

Bible Passage: Mark 2:13-17

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he often faced opposition from the religious leaders. One of the primary complaints that they had about him was who he chose to spend his time with. Jesus associated with people who had a reputation for immoral or sinful activity, and this passage offers both an example of Jesus doing just that, and a justification of why he considered this to be a priority for his ministry. In these verses, Mark is seeking to help people see Jesus as the friend of sinners, who moves toward the morally and spiritually lost with compassion, pursuit, and purpose, and to invite hearers to respond to Him.

Sinners Want to Be Around Jesus (v13-14): The passage begins with Jesus teaching beside a lake. At this point in his ministry, Jesus had achieved widespread popularity and crowds were flocking to hear him. But in verse 14, the scene quickly moves to a more intimate one-on-one conversation that Jesus had with Levi the tax collector. In the context of ancient Galilee, the reputation of tax collectors was not good. They worked as agents of the oppressive Roman occupiers, and they made their living by squeezing extra money out of people to line their own pockets. They were despised and seen as ungodly people who should not be associated with. It is likely that tax collectors themselves would be wary of religious people, and especially religious leaders, expecting to face shame and condemnation from them. But in Jesus, Levi finds something different. He finds somebody who is interested in him, and whose teaching is so compelling that he wants to follow when he is called. There is something in the kindness of Jesus (and ought to be replicated in his people) that people who are far from God find attractive and want to be around. Jesus’ call carries gracious authority, compelling enough that even a hardened tax collector responds

Jesus Loves Spending Time With Sinners (v15): Having invited Levi to follow him, the next thing we hear about Jesus is that he is eating a meal in Levi’s home. It may feel more comfortable to imagine Jesus inviting Levi to step out of his world than to picture Jesus himself entering into Levi’s life, but this is just what Jesus did. Many of Levi’s friends were also engaged in disreputable occupations, and they were present at the dinner that Levi threw. Jesus was not only interested in spending time with Levi himself but wanted to be connected into a whole network of people far from God. Unlike many of the religious elite of his day, Jesus did not try to separate himself from people who were far from God but wanted to be amongst them and spend time with them. Sharing a meal was a sign of acceptance and relational solidarity, so Jesus’ choice is not incidental but intentionally shocking. This story is an important reminder for Christians today that we have not been called to separate ourselves from the world, but to be in the world as lights.

Jesus Came For Sinners (v16-17): When the religious elite saw Jesus with tax collectors and sinners, they questioned his choice of company. In their minds, it diminished his credibility as a man of God that he was spending time with people who are so evidently ungodly. In response, Jesus likened himself to a doctor and pointed out that a doctor will primarily work with those who are ill. His point is that he has come on a mission from God to seek and to save the lost, and in order for him to do this he needs to spend time with lost people. The contrast Jesus makes with the righteous is not suggesting that other people don’t need him, but rather exposing their self-righteousness that they think they have no need of grace. Those who are far from God are the whole point of why he has come and the centre of his mission.

Potential Applications:

• There may be people in the room who feel like Levi or his friends, that they are too ‘sinful’ for Jesus, but this passage shows that Jesus came for exactly this kind of person. Offer people the chance to rrespond to the call of Jesus, just like we see Levi do in this passage.
• Jesus made very different choices about who he spent time with than the teachers of the law did. This should challenge those of us who are Christians to follow the pattern of Jesus in our own choice of company.
• One possible practical idea is to do the same thing that Matthew does in this passage and create events where we invite both Christians and non-Christians into the same space to get to know each other.