Mark 2:13-28, “Calling Of Levi & Jesus Being
Called Friend Of Tax Gatherers And Sinners / Jesus’ Disciples Accused Of Not
Fasting & Breaking Sabbath”
By
1.
INTRO:
2.
In our last study, we looked at verses
1-12 of chapter 2 of Mark.
2.1.
We looked at the
incredible story of how four men brought a paralytic to Jesus to be healed, and
we looked at a few important principles taught through this story.
2.2.
We saw how that
the church needs to learn from the hearts and tenacity of those four men and be
encouraged in how to go about winning the lost to Christ following their
example.
3.
In our study
today, we are going to look at verses 13-28 of chapter 2.
3.1.
We will look at
the calling of this man known as Levi or Matthew who is a tax gatherer. We will look at how he responded to being
called by Jesus.
3.2.
We will talk
about how the Pharisees began to criticize Jesus for being a friend of tax gatherers
and sinners.
3.3.
We will see Jesus
make three defenses of his disciples when they are accused of breaking the
Sabbath by picking grain in a field and eating it.
3.4.
We will hear
Jesus defense of His disciples for not fasting in the manner that the Pharisees
fasted.
4.
VS 2:13-17 - “13 And He went out again by the
seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of
Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow
Me!” And he got up and followed Him. 15 And it happened that He was reclining at the
table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with
Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following
Him. 16 When the scribes of the
Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said
to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and
sinners?” 17 And hearing this,
Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are
healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners.”” – Jesus calls Levi the tax
collector to come and follow Him, and Levi throws a big party to introduce his
friends to Jesus, but when the Pharisees see who Jesus is eating with, they
criticize him for being a friend of tax gatherers and sinners
4.1.
The man who is
called to be one of the twelve in this story is none other than Matthew, the
one who wrote the first gospel in the New Testament. He was a ‘tax collector’ (also referred
to as a “publican”). Matthew in
his gospel includes this identical story, yet he calls the man “Matthew”: Matthew
9:9, “9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the
tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!”
And he got up and followed Him.”
4.2.
Matthew is perhaps the name that Jesus gave to Levi after
he began following Jesus, and “Matthew” means “gift of God”.
4.3.
Like the other
disciples when they were called, Levi surely knew of Jesus before this point and
when Jesus calls him, and thus he immediately leaves his toll booth and follows
Jesus. Luke records that Levi left
everything in his life when he began to follow Jesus, and he also burned all of
his bridges for he surely knew that he would never be able to get his job back
working for Herod Antipas and Rome: Luke 5:28, “28 And he left everything behind,
and got up and began to follow Him.”
4.3.1. It is important for us when we become Christians to
have a clean break and leave our life of sin behind us. We need to be in the world so we can win the
lost, but not of it.
4.4.
Jesus determined
early in His ministry that He was not going to following the practices of the
hypocritical Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, and despise and
refuse any contact with those who were considered the despised and untouchable
lower echelons of society. Rather, Jesus
determined to befriend those who were outcasts, including the infamous sinners
of society, because His ministry was to seek and to save the lost, for this He
was sent to the earth.
4.4.1. We in the church today need to follow Jesus’ example
and go to those who need the gospel most, those whose lives are wrecked by
their sin and who will be more likely to see their need for a Savior in Jesus.
4.5.
Luke in his gospel tells this story saying that after
Jesus called him Levi through a big reception for Jesus in his house: Luke
5:27-32, “27 After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named
Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow
Me.” 28 And he left everything
behind, and got up and began to follow Him. 29 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his
house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who
were reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling
at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and
sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and
said to them, “It is not those who are well who
need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 “I have not come to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance.””
4.6.
Mark writes here
that Levi was in the ‘tax booth’ when Jesus called him to follow
Him. Wycliff Bible Commentary states the following about
this ‘tax booth’: “
4.7.
Wycliff Bible Commentary includes more about the profession of a tax
collector in Jesus’ day: The privilege of collecting taxes was purchased by
payment of the total tax fee required by the government. The collector was then
free to extract as much as possible from the people through extortion. Usually
the actual collection was made by lesser collectors, to which class Matthew
probably belonged. These men were despised because of their service for a
foreign overlord and their fraudulent practices.
4.8.
When Jesus overhears the scribes of the Pharisees talking to His
disciples about why Jesus wasn’t more discerning about who He hung out with,
Jesus says to them, ‘“It is not those who are well who need a
physician, but those who are sick. 32
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”’
4.9.
It wasn’t that the tax gatherers were worse sinners than others, they
simply were more acutely aware of their sin.
They knew they were sinners and this caused them to realize their only
hope was in the grace and mercy of God.
Knowing that the tax gatherers and sinners were more open to the gospel
is why Jesus was drawn to them for He hoped to lead many of them to salvation.
4.10.
About Jesus being
our Great Physician, The Bible Exposition Commentary says: ‘We have already seen that sin may be
compared to sickness and forgiveness to having your health restored. Now we see
that our Saviour may be compared to a physician: He comes to us in our need; He
makes a perfect diagnosis; He provides a final and complete cure; and He
pays the bill! What a physician!’
5.
VS 2:18-22 - “18 John’s disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples
and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “While
the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can
they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 “But the days will come when the
bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the
old, and a worse tear results. 22
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the
skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new
wine into fresh wineskins.”” – John’s disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting but Jesus disciples were not, and John’s disciples and
the Pharisees came to Jesus and ask Him why His disciples do not fast; then Jesus tells them that when the
bridegroom is with the attendants then they do not fast, and that no one sews a
patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment nor does one put new wine into old
wineskins
5.1.
The Pharisees
fasted twice a week and had added this as a requirement for their disciples to
achieve true spirituality according to the Law of Moses. The Law itself proscribed some fasts
throughout the year, but this wasn’t good enough for the Pharisees. They could consider no one spiritual who did
not fast as they did.
5.2.
There is nothing
wrong with fasting, and in fact fasting for the right reasons can be a blessing
in a believer’s life. But, the
Pharisees’ hearts were not in the right place when they fasted. They did not fast to get their hearts right with
the Lord and for the strength which He might give them to endure and fight
temptations. Instead, they fasted in
order to appear to others to be spiritual.
5.3.
Jesus did not
teach His disciples to follow the practices and teachings of the Pharisees that
they had added to the Law of Moses as He knew that this would only cause them
to become hypocritical and judgmental.
5.4.
Jesus gives these
Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist three arguments for why He has not
taught His disciples to fast as the Pharisees fasted:
5.4.1. The attendants of the bridegroom do not fast while the
bridegroom is with them.
5.4.1.1.This is an interesting metaphor for Jesus to use. Jesus already was considering those whom He
called to salvation to be His bride, and He their bridegroom.
5.4.1.2.This was not a new thought for the Old Testament used
the comparison of
5.4.1.2.1.Isaiah 54:5, “5For your husband is your Maker,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of
5.4.1.2.2.Jeremiah 31:32, “32 not like the covenant
which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the
5.4.1.2.3.Falling into idolatry for
God’s people is called adultery in the Old Testament, as seen in many places,
such as the book of Hosea in which the Lord told Hosea to go and to marry a
harlot for the children of
5.4.1.3.There is joy when the attendants come together with
the bridegroom at a wedding celebration, and there was to be joy when Jesus was
with His disciples. But, fasting is not
a joyous activity. There was a very
somber and serious attitude that accompanied the fasting that the Pharisees
did. This was incongruous for a disciple
when he is with His Lord.
5.4.1.4.Jesus tells them that His disciples will indeed fast
one day, but that will be when He is taken away from them. But, whenever He is with them there will not
be fasting. As one has said, in Jesus’
presence there is always feasting not fasting, and thus even in heaven there
will be no fasting but rather feasting.
5.4.1.5.Notice here that this illustration by Jesus is
prophetic and also pictures Jesus’ death on the cross and ascension up to
heaven (He will be taken away), as well as His return to earth for His
people. The bridegroom will be taken
away, but he is going to return.
5.4.2. No one sows a patch of ‘unshrunk cloth’ on an
old garment.
5.4.2.1.When cloth is new and has never been washed, it
shrinks quite a bit when it is first washed.
Therefore, if you sow a patch of new cloth on an old garment then when
the garment is first washed the patch will shrink and pull away from the
garment and a bigger tear will result.
5.4.2.2.This illustration is designed to teach the
incompatibility of a law-keeping works relationship with God, and that of the
new covenant that Jesus is inaugurating in which one grows in the grace of God
and is led and motivated by the Spirit of God.
Putting patches of the walk of grace in the Spirit onto the garment of a
legalistic law-keeping approach to God is going to cause turmoil and strife,
and one will eventually be forced to go one way or the other, legalism or
grace.
5.4.3. No one puts ‘new wine’ in old wineskins.
5.4.3.1.Over time leather wineskins soften and weaken. If one puts ‘new wine’ that is still
expanding due to fermentation into an old wineskin, the force of the expanding fluid
will burst the wineskin and ruin both it and the wine that is spilled out.
5.4.3.2.The illustration here is very similar to that of the
previous example. The ‘new wine’
of a Spirit-filled walk in the grace of God cannot be contained in the old
wineskin of law and rule keeping such as the Jews were living under the Law of
Moses. The Holy Spirit will break out of
the old wineskin of living simply under rules and law-keeping.
5.4.3.3.The Bible Exposition Commentary includes a few points
about what Jesus was teaching through these arguments He gives about putting a
new patch on an old garment and putting new wine in old wineskins:
“Jesus
came to usher in the new, not to unite with the old. The Mosaic economy was
decaying, getting old, and ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:13). Jesus would
establish a New Covenant in His blood (Luke 22:19–20). The Law would be written
on human hearts, not on stones (2 Cor. 3:1–3; Heb. 10:15–18); and the
indwelling Holy Spirit would enable God’s people to fulfill the righteousness
of the Law (
By
using this illustration, Jesus refuted once and for all the popular idea of a
compromising “world religion.” Well-meaning but spiritually blind leaders have
suggested that we take “the best” from each religion, blend it with what is
“best” in the Christian faith, and thus manufacture a synthetic faith that
would be acceptable to everybody. But the Christian faith is exclusive
in character; it will not accept any other faith as its equal or its superior.
“There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be
saved” (Acts 4:12).
Salvation
is not a partial patching up of one’s life; it is a whole new robe of
righteousness (Isa. 61:10; 2 Cor. 5:21). The Christian life is not a mixing of
the old and the new; rather, it is a fulfillment of the old in the new. There
are two ways to destroy a thing: you can smash it, or you can permit it to
fulfill itself. An acorn, for example, can be smashed with a hammer, or it can
be planted and allowed to grow into an oak. In both instances, the destruction
of the acorn is accomplished; but in the second instance, the acorn is
destroyed by being fulfilled.
Jesus
fulfilled the prophecies, types, and demands of the Law of Moses. The Law was
ended at
6.
VS 2:23-26 - “23 And it happened that He was
passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make
their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are
they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And He said to them, “Have
you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions
became hungry; 26 how he entered
the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the
consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the
priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”” – As Jesus was passing through the grainfields one Sabbath, His
disciples were hungry and began picking the heads of grain and rubbing them in
their hands and eating the grain, and when the Pharisees criticize Him for this
He reminds them of the story of when David and his men were hungry and ate of
the showbread that only the priests were to eat
6.1.
In this story, we
see that Jesus was on a Sabbath day passing through some grainfields with His
disciples. The Law of Moses allowed the
poor of the land to glean from a person’s field any of produce. Jesus and His disciples definitely fit into
that category: Deuteronomy 23:25, “25
When
you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with
your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.” The Law only forbid someone from using an
implement to harvest in his neighbor’s farm, and from taking some of what he
harvested with him.
6.2.
The Old Testament
Law had only given a few specific examples of what constituted breaking the
Sabbath, as this quote from The Bible Exposition Commentary shows: “Moses had prohibited work on the Sabbath,
but he did not give many specifics (Ex. 20:10). It was wrong to kindle a fire
for cooking (Ex. 35:3), gather fuel (Num. 15:32ff), carry burdens (Jer.
17:21ff), or transact business (Neh. 10:31; 13:15, 19)” However, this wasn’t good enough for the
Pharisees, they had invented and added all kinds of additional violations of the
Sabbath Law. As in all other instances,
Jesus did not recognize the Sabbath Laws that the Pharisees had added to the
Law of Moses.
6.3.
What the
Pharisees were criticizing Jesus’ disciples of doing was harvesting or
performing manual labor on the Sabbath, which was forbidden in Exodus
20:10. But, this was an unnecessary
splitting of hairs that the Pharisees were doing in being judgmental in this
way. They were going beyond what the Law
forbid.
6.4.
Jesus reminds the
Pharisees here of the story concerning king David that is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:1-6, “1 Then David came to Nob to
Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to
him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has
commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything
about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned
you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ 3 “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me
five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” 4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no
ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men
have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept
from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were
holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their
vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him
consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the
Presence which was removed from before the Lord,
in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.”
6.4.1. In this story, David and his men had become hungry and
had no food to eat. David came to the
priests in the tabernacle seeking help.
The Law had commanded that 12 loaves of bread, one for each tribe, be
cooked and placed on the Table of Showbread in the holy place for one
week. At the end of the week, new loaves
were to replace them. Then, only the priests
who served in the tabernacle and their families were to eat the bread that had
been removed. But here, because David
and his men were in a dire need the Law was broken and the showbread was given
by the priests to David and his men to eat.
6.4.2. The lesson that Jesus makes from this story is that
the Law of Moses could sometimes be abrogated if true human need were
involved. True human need trumped mere
external ceremonial observance of the Law.
The Law was not meant to keep people’s true needs from being met.
7.
VS 2:27-28 - “27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28 “So the Son of
Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”” – Jesus tells everyone that
the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and, that the Son of Man
is Lord even of the Sabbath
7.1.
The eating of the
grains of wheat out in the field by Jesus’ disciples had occurred on the
Sabbath. The Pharisees had objected to
them doing this because it was a Sabbath day.
So now, Jesus tells them that the Sabbath itself was made for man, man
was not made for the Sabbath. The laws
concerning the Sabbath were to enrich men and help them to rest from their
labors and concentrate upon worshipping the Lord. They were not there to be mere arbitrary
commands just for the sake of forcing obedience on people.
7.2.
It may be that
Jesus’ disciples were eating the wheat out in the fields at the very time that
the Pharisees were fasting, and this may have riled the Pharisees.
7.3.
Jesus on other occasions
was criticized for healing on the Sabbath, and He countered that it is always a
day to do good works, Sabbath included.
7.4.
To explain that
He had authority to make these determinations concerning what a proper
interpretation of the Law of Moses involved, Jesus tells the people, ‘so the
Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’.
7.5.
The Teacher’s
Commentary says the following about Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and then
telling them that the Son of Man is Lord of the harvest: “So, Jesus explained, “The Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In other words, God was not angered
when real need drove a human being to violate a ceremonial aspect of Old
Testament Law. People are more important to God than ritual observances…
What is the significance of this sequence in Mark’s story of Jesus? Mark wanted
his readers to realize that Jesus is authenticated as the Son of God by His
demonstration of God’s deep compassion for human beings. He heals our diseases.
He forgives our sins. And He shows us that what God desires is not a legalistic
relationship with human beings but a relationship marked by loving concern. The
love which infused the Law at its giving had been lost sight of as God’s people
thought of it as rules to follow in order to please God rather than as
guidelines showing them how to love Him and one another.”
8.
CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
Following Jesus’ example, are you known as a friend of sinners? Do you try to befriend those who most need
the Lord so that you can lead them to the glorious Savior? Remember though that hanging out with sinners
does not mean that you are to compromise your morals and participate in their
sinful practices.
8.2.
Following Levi’s example, have you burned the bridges to your life of
sin and left it all behind to follow Jesus?
8.3.
Be careful not to fall into huge patterns of legalism because the life
in the Spirit and the grace of God is incongruous with a life of laws and
rule-keeping. And, realize that true
human need must always be recognized and met, as we are able and God leads us.