Excerpt: Religion assumes that God most loves people who live up to religious demands, but Jesus shows that God values those far from him who come to him with their deepest need.

Talking Points:

• By calling the tax collector Levi to follow him, Jesus revealed a very different standard for leadership than we would expect from religion. Mark 2:13-14
• By criticizing Jesus’ social engagement with Levi and his disreputable friends, religious people demonstrated their scorn for people who don’t measure up to the rules. Mark 2:15-16
• In broadest spiritual terms there are only two kinds of people. Only the second group has any chance at a relationship with God.
• Mark 2:17

Discussion:

1. Who comes to your mind when think about a “good person”? How about a “bad” person?
2. Read Mark 2:13-14. Who is Levi? Why isn’t he the type of person you would think Jesus would ask to come follow him?
3. What does it mean to follow Jesus?
4. Who do you know that is most like a Pharisee?
5. Read Mark 2:15-17. What kind of person did Jesus come to save?

See Also:

• Humanity and Sin
• Pharisees
• Mormonism

Shownotes:

The Tax Collector 

Jesus has different standards than religion

• Mark 2:13-14 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
• Jesus is still in Capernaum / along the Sea of Galilee
• Teaching the crowds out in the open along the lakeshore
• That’s where he meets Levi - also known as Matthew - sitting at tax collector’s booth
• Collecting commercial taxes for the Roman Empire
• Based on the business taking place there that day
• Jesus does some scandalous things in today’s passage
• Here’s the first → he invites Levi to follow him / be his disciple
• That’s the definition of a disciple → one who follows another
• Like we saw in ch 1 when Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, John
• Levi got up - on the spot - and followed Jesus
• Here’s the scandal: Jesus didn’t select religious professionals to be his followers
• Went outside the religious mainstream
• He didn’t select his closest followers from rabbi school
• Even more scandalous, he chose a tax-collector 
• This goes beyond his surprising choice of 4 fishermen in ch 1
• Fishermen were not a despised group
• Tax-collectors were hated for a couple of reasons
• First: they were in a business partnership with Roman Empire
• Hated / resented conquerors
• “Unclean” / impure Gentiles
• This partnership pushed them to fringes of religious life
• Tax collectors would not have been seen at synagogue
• Though Jewish → very much outsiders in Jewish society
• Second: they typically used shady / violent tactics to collect for Rome
• If brought in more taxes → reaped more wealth
• Often resorted to extortion / cheating to make a profit
• In some ways, closest parallel today might be gang criminals
• We don’t know much about Levi personally
• Was he one of the worst / a more benign version of his class?
• Doesn’t matter → he wasn’t respectable / wasn’t a religious elite
• Jesus would not have met him at the synagogue
• So what qualified Levi for his role as potential leader?
• Basically: willing to follow Jesus fully
• If we were tasked to find a few core disciples for Jesus
• Who would eventually become his closest followers
• Where would we look? Who would we pick? Would we pick Levi?

The Pharisees

Religion is scornful of people who don’t measure up

• Mark 2:15-16 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.) 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?” 
• Second scandalous thing Jesus did: Spent time socializing with disreputable & unworthy people
• In this case, accepted dinner invitation from Matthew
• Text takes note of who was there → an important detail
• There were other tax collectors → Levi’s professional colleagues
• There were also “other disreputable sinners”
• Like who? Basically the rejects of society
• Luke 7:37 = “a certain immoral woman from that city”
• BTW this happens while Jesus was socializing with a religious leader
• Eating at home of Simon the Pharisee
• Luke 19:1-10 = Zacchaeus → another tax collector
• Not only that, Mark notes: Jesus welcomed people like this as his followers
• Look at the response of the religious leaders
• Why is Jesus eating with scum like that?
• Implied: if he legitimately spoke for God → he wouldn’t do that
• He would know what kind of people these are
• Wouldn’t go anywhere near them
• Luke 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw [that the woman was putting perfume on Jesus’ feet], he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
• Summary: how religion / religious leaders see people
• Disreputable / scum / sinful
• Application: how do I see people who are far from God? Judgmental? Outraged? Think I’m better? 

The Difference

Jesus came for people who don’t measure up

• Mark 2:17 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.”
• How Jesus sees people
• #1: he doesn’t present everyone as being OK
• He never says, “I’m okay; you’re okay”
• “You follow your truth”
• “Just be true to yourself”
• “People are basically good”
• Points out → people are needy / we are broken / spiritually sick
• But while Pharisees saw needy people and scorned them
• Jesus saw needy people and loved them
• #2: in this verse, identifies two kinds of people in the world
• This covers everyone → there really are only 2 kinds of people
• Religion would say, “Yes, there are two kinds of people in the world”
• Good people / bad people
• Righteous people / sinners
• Of course, religious people tend to identify themselves as the first kind
• But that’s not how Jesus sees it
• First kind = those who think they are righteous
• Second kind = those who know they are sinners
• You are either one or the other
• So there are those who are broken and don’t realize it
• To use Jesus’ analogy
• This is a huge problem with religious people
• Don’t usually see → they are broken too
• Their religious activity masks their spiritual need
• Bc they are moral / religiously active → think of themselves as worthy before God / special to him
• Often: as better than others
• Have to say: this is not just limited to religious people
• Lost of secular irreligious people who are broken and don’t admit it
• It’s a person who is coughing up a lung / has a fever
• Can’t walk up the stairs / puking guts out
• Who says: “I’m not sick”
• But it does seem to be a particular problem for religious folks
• It’s a person who has stage 4 cancer
• But hasn’t noticed anything really wrong
• Headache / feel tired sometimes
• But wouldn’t go to doctor → don’t realize their need
• Then there are those who are broken and know it
• They know they are sinners / can’t measure up
• With the first group → next step is to become what Jesus called “poor in spirit”
• With the second group → next step is to turn to the doctor to be healed
• Application: Do I realize, even after I’m saved & sins forgiven, that I’m always deeply needy of what only Jesus can do for me? Or have I become self-righteous / confident in my own righteousness?
• Let’s zero in on Jesus’ response to needy people
• Jesus says to critics → let me help you understand WHY I came in first place
• I came for this second kind of person
• You might as well ask: why does that doctor spend so much time with so many sick people?
• So he entered their world to call them to himself
• To invite them to find healing for their brokenness
• He wasn’t just hanging out / partying / buddying up
• Wasn’t enjoying some light-hearted revelry
• He wasn’t like he didn’t care about how they lived
• Engaged them in their world to teach them God’s heart / God’s ways
• Forgave them when they repented
• Embraced them when they followed him
• Application: Am I willing to engage lost people to invite them to Jesus? Get on their turf? Do I only hang around with “safe” Christians? 
• Application: On the other hand, do I hang around with lost people, but I mostly just follow their ways and never represent Jesus to them?