Tax Collectors and Sinners Mark 2:13-1713 And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.After cleansing the leper, Jesus withdrew to the seashore, where He taught a multitude of people. Remember that Capernaum was a sea-side town, so the seashore is probably not that far from there. We don’t know where Matthew’s tax booth was situated, but a location near the seashore would allow travelers on foot, and by boat to easily pay their taxes. It would be nice to know exactly which public sermons Mark is referring to here, but his focus isn’t so much the teachings of Jesus, as the actions of Jesus, so we don’t get the content of Jesus’ teaching here. The gospel is not something merely spoken but lived. Jesus teaches large crowds, beside the lake, because he wants to reveal the Kingdom of God to everyone, not just a select group of the best students. He wants to teach everyone, knowing that not everyone will receive what He has to say. He knows that it is the poor, the downtrodden, the ones who feel like they have no hope to reach God through the system set up by the Scribes and Pharisees who will be the ones to listen to His revelation of the Kingdom of God. He is a teacher with a message for everyone who will listen, “Whosoever will”. The Call of Matthew14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, The calling of Matthew, or Levi, or Mathias is interesting. It presents yet another way in which Jesus went against the convention or custom of the day. If you think IRS officials representing our own government are sometimes resented, it’s nothing compared to how tax collectors were viewed in ancient Israil. These people were collecting taxes from the Jewish people to support a government who had conquered them. They were paying taxes so that Roman soldiers could be paid to oppress them, and Jew who collaborated in this process was hated. The Mishnah describes tax collectors making daily rounds, “exacting payment of men with or without their consent,” or, as here, sitting at tax stands with account books open and pen in hand (m. Avot 3:16). Travelers arriving in Capernaum from the territory of Herod Philip and the Decapolis to the east and north would be taxed by agents such as Levi, who were in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. His own profit came from what he could extract from his constituents, and a portion of his receipts stayed in his own pockets. The Roman system of taxation depended on graft and greed, and it attracted enterprising individuals who were not adverse to such means. Levi, and other tax collectors like him were detested everywhere and were classed with the vilest of men. The practice of leasing the customs duty of a district at a fixed sum encouraged gross oppression by tax officers anxious to secure as large a profit as possible. When a Jew entered the customs service he was regarded as an outcast from society Tax collectors were obviously despised and hated. Understandably, the call of Levi causes great consternation in the eyes of fellow Jews. It brings Jesus again into contact with unclean persons; not with unclean diseases as in the case of the leper, but with an individual who, because of his collaboration with the Gentile occupation, is both morally contemptuous and ritually unclean. It may be that contact with Levi was actually more offensive than contact with a leper since a leper’s condition was not chosen whereas a tax collector’s was. But, it was also likely that Matthew was continuing a family business or occupation in collecting taxes, and so either himself, or his family had made a decision long ago that they couldn’t satisfy the requirements of the Law, so they might just as well get all that they can, while they could—Eat, Drink, and be Merry, for Tomorrow we die. But, somewhere, deep in his heart, Matthew hoped that there was more to life, as we’re going to see. He may have also known Jesus, who spent considerable time in Capernaum. And, Jesus had compassion for him, and treated him with kindness. This would do much to explain his response to Jesus when he was called to discipleship.and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.Abandoning all other concerns, he arose and followed Jesus. The account of his call is similar to that of the four fishermen, but here the verb for follow, Akoloutheo ἀκολουθέω is used in both summons and response. Occurring nineteen times in Mark, “following” is a load-bearing term that describes the proper response of faith (10:52!), and is indeed practically synonymous with faith. “Following” is an act that involves risk and cost; it is something one does, not simply what one thinks or believes. Matthew had been following his own path for His life, and Jesus is calling him to seek first the Kingdom of God, and It’s righteousness. He is offering Matthew a hope for a relationship with God that Matthew thought that he had been cut off from. And he jumped at the chance as soon as it was offered, completely cutting off his former life, and following Jesus from that day forward.Messiah Eats with Sinners– 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.As a spontaneous expression of his joy Levi gave a banquet for Jesus and his disciples to which he invited his fellow tax officers and a group of men who are designated “sinners.” This term cannot be understood in the generally accepted sense of “transgressors of the moral law of God” since Mark would then have written “tax officers and other sinners.” The term is technical in this context for a class of people who were regarded by the Pharisees as inferior because they showed no interest in the scribal tradition. With the derisive epithet “the people of the land,” the scribes often dismissed as inconsequential the common people who possessed neither time nor inclination to regulate their conduct by Pharisaic standards. They were particularly despised because they did not eat their food in a state of ceremonial cleanness and because they failed to separate the tithe. The designation “sinners” as used by the scribes is roughly equivalent to “outcasts.” The joint expression “publicans and sinners” denotes well-known and despised classes among the people.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 with tax collectors and sinners?” The Pharisees were deeply devoted to the Law and strictly governed their own life by the interpretation passed down in the scribal tradition. Jesus not only called Matthew, the Tax Collector as a disciple, which was outlandish enough for the Pharisees, but then, rather than stopping with Levi, Jesus joins Levi for dinner at his house where there are “many tax collectors and ‘sinners,’ ” signifying that the call of a sinner is not an exception to his mission but typical of it. The Pharisees were the “nose in the air” type, who thought that they “had it made” in terms of their relationship with God. They elevated themselves, using God’s Word as a ladder to distance themselves from the commoners, calling themselves “deserving” and “righteous.” And everyone else, who did not live like they did, they lumped into the common “sinners and tax collectors”.They criticized Jesus because he failed to observe the distinction between “the righteous” and “the sinners” which was an essential component of their piety and observation of The Law. 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 silenced their protest with a traditional proverb. With this maxim, which the Pharisees recognized as valid, Jesus implied that it was his responsibility to sit at table fellowship with tax collectors, and the many despised common people that the Pharisees had excluded as unworthy of a relationship with God. Jesus, on the other hand, looked at the heart. And Jesus saw in the hearts of the Pharisees and Scribes mostly self-righteousness, and no real love for God, just a commitment to a bunch of rules that ensured that they would always be on the top of the society, both socially, and financially. At least the poor, the downcast and downtrodden were in the position that they were in because they thought that all hope was lost for a relationship with God, because that’s what they had been taught-that there was no hope for tax collectors and sinners like them. But, again we see Jesus, the Great Physician willing to heal all those who were willing to come to God on God’s terms, not according to their own self-righteousness. He was much more willing to extend grace to those who sinned in their ignorance that God still loved them and wanted a relationship with them, than those who had chosen a relationship with the Law, but not with God! The fact that Jesus can be found in the company of people such as Levi reminds us of the difference between his mission and that of the scribes. They come to enlighten; he comes to redeem. Given that mission, it is as senseless for Jesus to shun tax collectors and sinners as for a doctor to shun the sick. Ironically, in one sense great sinners stand closer to God than those who think themselves righteous, for sinners are more aware of their need of the transforming grace of God. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom 5:20). Because the scribes were confident in their own righteousness they were incapable of perceiving the call to repentance. “Righteous” is used ironically—they considered themselves “Righteous”, but were only self-righteous. Instead, the “sinners” humbly heard and immediately responded to the newfound hope in the Call of God that Jesus was offering them. Jesus had not come to call for the Kingdom of God men like the scribes who considered themselves to be righteous, but outcasts who knew they needed to be made whole. Jesus was tireless in his condemnation of the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, just as he was continually pouring out grace to sinners who wanted to change, repent, and accept salvation. See Mark 2:23–27 23 ; Mark 3:1–5;Mark 7:5-14. Again and again, we see how Jesus deals with the Pharisees and Scribes. (1) He performs an amazing miracle or action which is according to the Will of God, but is in opposition to the traditional interpretation of the Law, or the traditions set down by the Jewish forefathers. (2) The Pharisees or Scribes are offended at this, and say so, which gives Jesus the opportunity to both correct the Pharisees and Scribes, as well as teach the people the real Truth from God. (3) Jesus makes a pronouncement by which they are silenced, using their own misunderstandings and misinterpretation of the law to trap them. Jesus never challenges the Law itself, since nothing can pass from the Law, until all is fulfilled. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus states, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” This verse emphasizes that Jesus came to complete the purpose of the Law and the Prophets, not to eliminate them. Instead, He came to bring the fullness of God’s law to life, ensuring that it remains binding and relevant until all is accomplished. This fulfills the Old Testament prophecies and highlights the eternal nature of God’s Word, which Jesus embodied in His teachings and actions. Jesus does not follow the Law for the Law’s sake, but out of love and obedience to God. That is the difference!
