"Eating with the Tax Man" - a sermon from Mark 2:13-17

(1) Introduction

Jesus has clearly established the purpose of his coming and the nature of his mission – to call for people to turn in a new direction and believe in Jesus as the full revelation of who God is. It will be those with faith to see beyond the obvious, and put this into action, who will experience the Kingdom of God and obtain salvation. The key dynamic in this, is for people to seek and receive forgiveness. In so doing they are being put back onto the right track in life that leads to becoming a whole human being, with their spiritual space being filled with the glory of God.

(2) Who Jesus called (v.13-14)!

Early days, Jesus called the fishermen Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John to be disciples. Now Jesus will call another, from a very different walk in life, to follow him. Such a person as this being specifically called to be a follower of Jesus will cause great controversy. But such a calling will steadfastly demonstrate that nothing should stand in the way of anyone at all joining with Jesus. In fact there may even be special intentions and graces directed at those who have found themselves rejected and alienated from mainstream life.

You probably could not have found anyone seemingly more unsuitable to be counted a follower of Jesus than Levi. It’s just as if Jesus, having just proven his authority to forgive sins, picks on the biggest sinner/outcast he could find on his walk along the Sea of Galilee! Given Levi was sitting at a “tax booth” along the roadway, this indicates that he was a collector of ‘indirect taxes’ – custom taxes, or transport tolls, or sales taxes … boo hiss!

Levi would have had some form of private contract with the Roman government to collect taxes on their behalf. As such Levi would have been viewed as a collaborator with the hated Roman colonial authorities. He would have been considered ‘unclean’ due to his frequent contact with ‘Gentiles’, and thought of even more adversely if he charged higher taxes than required by the Romans – pocketing the profits. Hans Kung has commented that Jesus deciding to approach Levi was particularly radical, because it is so likely that Levi would have cheated so many people (and swindled so much money), he could not possibly have remembered all of his victims when he began to have his feelings of regret – making repentance (and restitution) almost impossible. Yet, with Jesus around, it wasn’t impossible!!

[So, rather than ministering to the poor and marginalised, this may have actually been a case of reaching out to the ‘rich’ and marginalised – ‘rich’ in material terms anyway – reminding us that ‘rich’ does not necessarily equate to ‘blessed’, and usually is the opposite! When you think of Heath Ledger, who would have acquired enormous resources, and then about his obvious unhappiness and despair, you just would have hoped that someone with the hope of the gospel in their lives could have just spent some time with him, and such a tragedy as his death might have been avoided.]

This calling of Levi into Jesus’ service is of great assurance to us, when we feel at our most unworthy of grace or service – that Jesus calls us nonetheless, and trusts us with his mission in this world. He will restore us and continue to transform us, so that we will be effective – not in our own strength, but with his strength inhabiting our humbly expressed weakness. We can work hard at our gifts to improve them, but our greatest effectiveness will come from our availability to simply be God’s person (in the hustle and bustle of life).

(3) Where Jesus ate (v.15-16)!

Jesus didn’t just call Levi as a number or just an anonymous face in the crowd – he was interested in Levi’s life and what he brought to the mix. Whether Levi had invited him, or whether it was his own idea, Jesus went to Levi’s house for some hospitality. This could have been a bit like having a church luncheon after some baptisms. This was likely to be a bit of a community celebration of Levi’s new direction in life (and newfound friendship with Jesus).

In this culture, sharing a meal with someone was one of the most intimate, significant things you could do. To eat with someone like this was a sign of trust, an offer of peace, a declaration of forgiveness between parties, and an acknowledgement of a special bond – ‘sharing a table’ with someone was akin to sharing life with them. Therefore one’s dinner guests were usually chosen very carefully.

So here, Jesus was again modelling to his disciples (and the other followers he took along), all that was involved in following Jesus – befriending those who society had rejected or left to their own devices. “Sinners” in Jesus’ day generally referred to those who broke the ‘ten commandments’, lived an immoral lifestyle, or had a dishonourable profession. So, it would be fair to say that some people had brought upon themselves their disreputable reputations, however Jesus was about offering hope, and wasn’t going to give up on the possibility of such people changing.

Jesus had already broken a taboo by touching a ‘leper’, and been charged with “blasphemy” for forgiving the sins of the ‘paralysed’ man. Entering the home of a despicable toll collector, and eating with many other “tax collectors and sinners”, would certainly be too much for the religious vanguard of the day to handle! Jesus, the One who claimed to have the authority (of God) to forgive sins, according to the “scribes of the Pharisees”, was opening himself to moral contamination and rendering himself ‘impure’ through who he was eating with.

These people were sticklers for the rules without any heart or understanding for the alienated. There own strict and inflexible interpretations of the ‘law’ had become for them equated with the ‘Law of Moses’ itself. Yet Jesus stood firm, and even raised the bar some, by stating that it is the abject needy “sinners” who acquire an awareness of their need of redemption, that Jesus had come to befriend and give salvation. Jesus also sought to restore such people to positive interactive social life in community. Not only this, but Jesus also sought to establish a new spiritual movement made up of such new disciples as Levi and the other dinner guests.

(4) What Jesus said (v.17)!

Whereas no-one will be out-rightly excluded, those who, in their own pride and misplaced confidence, set themselves up against God’s purposes, will make it near impossible for themselves to ever know the ‘Kingdom’. The “scribes of the Pharisees” serve here as an example of such opponents – because as they did not recognise their own ‘illness’, they could not access the ‘Physician’, and therefore remained ‘sick’.

Such people were opposing and persecuting Mark’s community of Jesus followers around 70 CE, and thus needed to be reminded that Jesus stood against the sort of rigidity and unforgiveness that negates God’s grace and destroys the possibility of changed future outcomes in people’s lives.

Having said this though, Jesus’ words here in verse 17, are first and foremost revealing his radical love and concern for those in need who have not previously had the opportunity of experiencing God in their lives, especially those whom the general society (and even the church) may have given up on, thought to be hopeless cases, or deemed unworthy. It will be through hearing about and responding (in faith) to Jesus that their life will be able to begin to turn around.

(5) What does this all mean for us?

a) Befriending the lost and needy
b) Sharing our lives with them
c) Leading them gently toward Jesus