On Line Bible Study - for the week December 22 - 28, 2008
Lesson 367
Mark 2: 13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
There are two points of controversy: the call of a tax collector to be a disciple, and the fact that Jesus enjoys table fellowship with people who are deemed to be sinners.
Levi – Apart from the textual challenges (Mark calls him the “son of Alphaeus; but in the next chapter Mark says James is the son of Alphaeus, not Levi. In fact, Mark makes no mention of “Levi” in the list of the 12 disciples. There is no mention of a “Levi” in Matthew’s gospel.), there is the fact that he is a tax collector. Capernaum was on the trade route (Via Maris, from Damascus to Caesarea Maritima); it makes sense that there would be a tax collector or a customs booth there. In their commentary on Mark, Harrington and Donahue remind us that, in the time of Jesus, there were a wide variety of taxes and tolls the people were made to pay. The collectors of these taxes were not popular, to say the least.
Eating with sinners – This point of controversy is a more serious one, with implications that are more far-reaching. Eating with sinners was not the sort of thing religious people did – and this was as true for the early church as it was for religious Jews. “Sinners” in this case must be understood to be people who were outside the Law – it was not occasional transgressions they were guilty of, but a more fundamental condition of being outside the covenant community entirely.
Look carefully at the passage and note that Jesus says he has come to call them . . . but, call them to what? When this same story is told in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says he has come to “. . . call sinners to repentance . . .” Assuming Luke is taking the story from his knowledge of Mark’s Gospel, he has made an intentional change. As Mark tells the story, we are left to wonder if Jesus isn’t making a significant adjustment to the “guest list”. He is at the table with them, and there is no indication they have repented.
This controversy made its way right into the church – Peter seems to have struggled with who he would eat with (Galatians 2:11-14). Paul has an extended teaching for the Corinthian Christians (I Corinthians 8-10) with regard to food, eating, idolatry, and the “Lord’s Table”. And the Roman Christians are also in need of teaching on the matter (Romans 14).
Why is eating such a controversy?
One way to look at it might be like this: The next time you bow your head to say “grace” at the dinner table, contemplate who you are talking to. Would the God you are thanking sit with you? Would the Christ you honor pull away from your table because of who you are, or what you have done?
I can’t speak for you, but speaking for myself, if Jesus refused to eat with sinners, I know he could not eat with me. But every time I hear the invitation to come to the Lord’s table, I do so with thanks – and humility. I am forgiven, ever for the things I don’t know I should confess! And that’s the startling thing about Jesus – not that he sits with us when we invite him, but that he has invited us to sit with him!
More on Mark 2 next time.
Mark 2: 13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
There are two points of controversy: the call of a tax collector to be a disciple, and the fact that Jesus enjoys table fellowship with people who are deemed to be sinners.
Levi – Apart from the textual challenges (Mark calls him the “son of Alphaeus; but in the next chapter Mark says James is the son of Alphaeus, not Levi. In fact, Mark makes no mention of “Levi” in the list of the 12 disciples. There is no mention of a “Levi” in Matthew’s gospel.), there is the fact that he is a tax collector. Capernaum was on the trade route (Via Maris, from Damascus to Caesarea Maritima); it makes sense that there would be a tax collector or a customs booth there. In their commentary on Mark, Harrington and Donahue remind us that, in the time of Jesus, there were a wide variety of taxes and tolls the people were made to pay. The collectors of these taxes were not popular, to say the least.
Eating with sinners – This point of controversy is a more serious one, with implications that are more far-reaching. Eating with sinners was not the sort of thing religious people did – and this was as true for the early church as it was for religious Jews. “Sinners” in this case must be understood to be people who were outside the Law – it was not occasional transgressions they were guilty of, but a more fundamental condition of being outside the covenant community entirely.
Look carefully at the passage and note that Jesus says he has come to call them . . . but, call them to what? When this same story is told in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says he has come to “. . . call sinners to repentance . . .” Assuming Luke is taking the story from his knowledge of Mark’s Gospel, he has made an intentional change. As Mark tells the story, we are left to wonder if Jesus isn’t making a significant adjustment to the “guest list”. He is at the table with them, and there is no indication they have repented.
This controversy made its way right into the church – Peter seems to have struggled with who he would eat with (Galatians 2:11-14). Paul has an extended teaching for the Corinthian Christians (I Corinthians 8-10) with regard to food, eating, idolatry, and the “Lord’s Table”. And the Roman Christians are also in need of teaching on the matter (Romans 14).
Why is eating such a controversy?
One way to look at it might be like this: The next time you bow your head to say “grace” at the dinner table, contemplate who you are talking to. Would the God you are thanking sit with you? Would the Christ you honor pull away from your table because of who you are, or what you have done?
I can’t speak for you, but speaking for myself, if Jesus refused to eat with sinners, I know he could not eat with me. But every time I hear the invitation to come to the Lord’s table, I do so with thanks – and humility. I am forgiven, ever for the things I don’t know I should confess! And that’s the startling thing about Jesus – not that he sits with us when we invite him, but that he has invited us to sit with him!
More on Mark 2 next time.
posted by Mark D at 2:42 PM
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