"I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:14-3:6

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.”

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.”

Question of the Sabbath

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?” 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 Heals on the Sabbath

3 He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. ² They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” ⁴ And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. ⁵ After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

The text today from the daily reading in the One Year Bible(link available on links page), begins with Jesus calling Levi(Matthew) to become one of His disciples. Jesus knew there were no perfect men to choose from in selecting and calling His disciples. Rather than those who were currently religeous leaders, Jesus choose ordinary men. Here He calls Levi, a tax collector. Tax collectors are almost always mentioned in connection with sinners in the Bible. We see right from the beginning the evidence of how an encounter with Jesus changes a sinners heart.  He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. 

Next we see Jesus in Levi's home eating and interacting with these tax collectors and sinners. Verses 16-17 contain a well known saying of Jesus.  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.”   The truth is, scripture tells us, ¹⁰ as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; ¹¹ There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;
¹² All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”(Romans 3:10-12) Jesus came to call and save every person. It just happens that those who the religeous leaders considered sinners and unworthy of association were the ones who readily recognized their need for a savior. Jesus had a unique ability to interact with these evryday people and sinners in a way that showed none of the judgment they normally received from the relieous leaders. Jesus Himself though never participated in or condoned the sin in these peoples lives. He walked in unconditional love, yet  He was a light in the midst of the darkness.

That's a challenge that the church has faced throughout her history. How do we love people and hate sin? The natural tendency is to reject people because of the sin in their lives. Most churches would not welcome prostitutes, drug dealers or any sort of openly sinful people into their sevices. We have a tendency to classify or rank sin, allowing certain more acceptable sins,(often our own) while drawing a hard line against others. On the other side of this there are some who welcome sinners and their sinful lifestyles into their midst. Tolerence and acceptance of any and all sin is not the answer for the church either.   "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.(Matthew 5:13)
 A saltless church is no good to the world.  Jesus loved sinners yet hated sin. The church needs to find and operate in that perfect balance today. We can only do that in Christ and fully yielded to the Holy Spirit. Empowered by the Spirit we can walk in the darkness and be light. 

The next thing we see the religeous leaders challenge Jesus on is adherence to the law of the Sabbath. The religeous leaders were  steeped in law and tradition, not only holding to God's laws but also having added many more of their own. Jesus says  “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” This greatly angered the religeous leaders. It's not that Jesus wanted to disregard or do away with the law, In Matthew 5:17-20, He Himself says,

¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  ²⁰ “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees... Our righteousness is in Christ alone.      For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;(Isaiah 64:6)  When Jesus says “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.", what He wants us to understand is that the Sabbath like all of the laws were for man's benefit. The benefits of the law included not only the ackowledgment of sin and the attonement by sacrifice, but also practicle rules for healthy living. The purpose of the law was for man's benefit, to live a healthy physical and spiritual life. We now have the fulfillment of the law in Christ. Romans 8:1-4

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

In the final part of our text we see Jesus entering the synagogue on the sabbath and again the Pharisee's are more concerned with tradition and law than they are with the well being of a man with a withered hand.     They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” ⁴ And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. ⁵ After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.    Do we hold our Sabbath traditions higher than God's will?  How many of our churches truly make way for Jesus to come and do whatever He wants to on a Sunday morning? We may not look and talk like the Pharisees but are we truly yielded to Jesus and the Holy Spirit? He wants to be the fulfillment of the law to us. He wants to be our all in all. Sunday and everyday.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit,  I thank You and praise You for all that You have done in me and for me. I am thankful that I am no longer a sinner but Your called and chosen one. I am righteous in Christ. I desire to be fully yielded to You Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. I want to make room for You to do whatever You want to do. Help me to walk in the perfect love of the Father, so that I like You might be able to love people while hating sin. That I might be the light in the darkness which You have called me to be.  Amen