One feature of Jesus’ ministry emphasized by all four Gospels is that Jesus had contact with a wide variety of people across a wide social-economic strata and covering a broad geographical range in Palestine. His ministry was not just about raising a large numerical following, but also about attracting all types of people from all types of lifestyles and facing all types of circumstances. Each of the Gospels bears witness to this fact in its own way. The present passage is a good place to see this feature of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Mark.
The main point this lesson must convey is that Jesus desires his committed people to reach people of all walks of life. In fact, it probably is not so much a matter of reaching people for Jesus, but a matter of receiving people Jesus reaches and brings our way.
The issue arising from following Jesus’ practice of including all people is that not a few manmade obstacles must be overcome. Manmade obstacles can be seen in the present passage, in situations that involve “sinners,” fasting and the Sabbath. These obstacles seem bring out the worst in the religious devout of Jesus’ day. The same is true in our churches today.
These three situations also offer insight into Jesus’ urgent desire to reach into the lives of socially marginalized or ignored people. As often was the case in Jesus’ ministry, acceptable social levels often were accompanied by religious affirmations whereas unacceptable social standing was explained through religious denunciation. In the present passage, as elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus clearly fought on behalf of the socially shunned. Jesus sought to rescue people from a system that had taught them God was distant, angry and oblivious to their daily needs.
This week’s lesson provides many answers to the question in its title, “What does Jesus’ call mean for me?” The overriding answer is that God’s call comes to one’s life just as it comes to the next person, whoever they may be. God relates to people on the basis of grace, not religious performance. The fact that God opened the door for our inclusion into his kingdom in no way means he has chosen to admit only people who are like us. The gates to God’s kingdom are wide open, all are welcome to enter, and Jesus meant for this message to be proclaimed and demonstrated wherever he went.
Reach out to sinners (Mark 2:15-17)
This episode occurred in the home of Levi, as he is known in the Gospel of Mark, but better known as Matthew. Levi had just been called to be a disciple. He responded affirmatively and had invited Jesus to join him and his friends at dinner. Levi had been a tax collector until his call so naturally many of his friends were also tax collectors.
The trouble began when Pharisees came to Jesus’ disciples and asked why Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners. The two terms were used with derision by the Pharisees. Tax collectors were despised, not merely for their duties, but because the tax collectors were seen as sell outs to the Roman government. In the Roman world, people placed “bids” for a tax collector position. The tax collectors were allowed to collect more than their bid in order to make a salary, and many tax collectors made excessive salaries. The people in turn could not resist paying taxes, because the tax collectors could appeal to the Roman rulers who likewise controlled the army that occupied Palestine. Since these taxes went to support a foreign occupational force, the tax collectors were seen as sell outs to the Romans and traitors to Israel and her God.
The Jews thought it inconceivable that tax collectors could even comprehend the Lord and his call upon their lives. Yet Levi committed himself to being a disciple of Jesus and immediately engaged in the main activity of disciples—introducing others to Jesus.
The so-called “sinners” in the passage were common people whose lifestyles consistently were in variance with the traditional applications of God’s law. These applications were developed by the rabbis over the years and by Jesus’ day were regarded as having the same authority as Scripture. Those whose everyday lifestyles prevented them from satisfying rabbinic rules were categorized as “sinners,” that is, those who must have inner dispositions that drive them away from God.
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This disposition to wander from God is the key, as we will see, that helps us understand Jesus’ famous saying in this passage. Jesus, however, strongly opposed such traditions because they had influenced large numbers of people to give up on a God who appeared to be judgmental and out of touch with the difficulties of their daily lives.
Jesus’ famous saying in verse 17 would, at first sight, seem to satisfy the Pharisees and seem to stand in agreement with their assessment of the lives of the people with whom Jesus’ dined. But the statement actually reflects on all lives. All are in need of a “doctor” who can heal the greatest and deepest of all spiritual issues. In fact, the Pharisees were just as needy as the so-called sinners, for all have a tendency to wander from God. By emphasizing the fulfillment of rabbinic traditions, the Pharisees had caused themselves to turn away from knowing and satisfying God himself. Had they known God, they would have understood the role of grace in his motives and actions.
In churches today, a view similar to the Pharisees’ often can be found. It almost goes without saying that some so-called Christians emphasize a superior knowledge and their satisfaction of religious performance factors. These fail to see that God operates in the lives of people from the perspective of grace, freely answering to those who respond to him with faith. God greatly desires to draw all people to him. Thus Jesus dined with the so-called sinners, but he also answered the questions of the so-called religious elite. Both needed God in their lives, and God was busy through Jesus laboring to make an impact in their lives.
Live with a new attitude (Mark 2:18-22)
The key to understanding the exchange between Jesus and the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees is to understand the concept of joy in God’s presence. Several biblical passages describe this point, but perhaps none so vividly delivers this message as Nehemiah 8:8-12.
Central to this Nehemiah passage are the words of verse 10: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” One also notices the people in Nehemiah 8 were instructed to eat festively because they were in God’s presence. The point is that God’s presence is to be enjoyed not mourned. Mourning must be abolished from God’s presence.
Fasting is an important religious discipline that at its core recognizes God is not fully present in some way in one’s life. Fasting therefore draws one to focus more on God. When fasting, one sets aside food in order to acknowledge to the Lord that the Lord provides everything needed in life. The greatest of these needs is the Lord himself.
The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees practiced fasting because they piously (and rightly) knew they needed to draw closer to the Lord. But Jesus did not teach fasting, because the disciples were being taught that they were in the presence of the Lord, a point they would eventually understand (Mark 8:27-29).
Tacitly, then, Jesus confirmed the Lord had come to his people, though the message went unrealized for a while. Speaking of new wineskins perhaps did not immediately help. Jesus declared that “new things” were happening through him and his ministry. These “new things” were evidence something was different about Jesus. Therefore watching and understanding these “new things” would lead someone to understand, as Jesus’ disciples eventually did, that Jesus was the Lord himself and his presence was to be enjoyed and cherished.
What is the new attitude? The attitude that the joy of the Lord should saturate every moment of our lives. To borrow from Nehemiah, the joy of the Lord is our strength for living. Though fasting may help us in our present lives to focus on the Lord, because we are not yet in his full, eternal presence, even our fasting must be influenced by the fact the Lord can be personally known. Christian fasting then becomes something more along the lines of a get away with a loved one instead of a missing person search.
Meet others’ needs (Mark 2:23-28)
Again, Jesus dealt with Jewish religious traditions. The rabbis went to great lengths to describe for their people how to fulfill God’s requirement to keep the Sabbath. Their motives were pious, yet over the years had pushed applications of God’s laws well into the realm of tedious observances. So as Jesus and his disciples traveled through a grain field, the disciples, perhaps idly, picked heads of grain, rubbed away the chaff and munched on the kernels. These actions were seen by Pharisees as violations of God’s law to keep the Sabbath, and they informed Jesus of their observation.
Jesus delivered an astounding answer nevertheless. Citing a passage of Scripture (1 Samuel 21:1-9), Jesus reasoned that just as satisfying David’s personal need was more important than woodenly following ritual prescriptions, so also the needs of Jesus’ followers were more important than following petty religious rules. In other words, human need is far more important to God than the fulfillment of his rules for religious ceremony. God wants to provide for human need far more than he wants his ceremonial laws fulfilled. So while these ceremonial laws have importance, they never override God’s desire to respond to human need. Furthermore, a godly priest, actually Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar (referenced in Mark 2:26), gave David food provisions from the table of the Lord in the tabernacle. Surely Ahimelech, through the Lord’s guidance, saw the truth of David’s hunger and sensed God’s approval for the actions he took. The fact that the story was preserved in Scripture shows underscores the present point.
This passage teaches that religious customs should never stand in the way of assisting others in need. By extension, the religious conduct of the Lord’s followers should recognize human need when it presents itself as well as regularly finding ways to assist others in need since Scriptures so frequently describe the Lord’s compassion for the needy.
The glad reception of outsiders, the practice of joy for the Lord’s presence in one’s life, and a careful responsiveness to the needs of others are character traits of true followers of Jesus. Where these practices have been diminished by religious practice, they must be restored. And as they rise to prominence in a person’s or a church’s walk with Christ, newness of life in God’s presence will be experienced because the implicit promise of the episodes of Mark 2 is that these are the practices that draw God near.
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