You Are Sick | The Gospels | Mark 2:13-17

(gentle music) - Welcome to Tim Minnet Bible Talks. - Where we connect the Bible to your life. - And the time it takes to get to work. - I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Have you ever felt like an outcast? Have you ever wondered if the promises and things that you read in scripture are for you? Could Jesus really be talking to you? Well, if you've ever felt those kinds of things, then today's passage, it's for you. We're gonna just go ahead and jump right in scripture. Jesus has begun his teaching ministry. He started to call his disciples. He's a respected rabbi, but he's now also begun to clash heads with the Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of his day. And that's where we're gonna pick up today. Jesus is traveling and calling a new and unexpected disciple. Mark 2 verse 13. Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphius, sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. Okay, I wanna know a few things about this exchange. First, Levi is most likely just another name that the disciple Matthew went by. Two names for the same person. Okay. Second, notice that Jesus is not alone. He's surrounded by people, and he is not shy about what he does. Third, Levi is a tax collector. That means that he's employed by the Romans, the oppressors of the Jewish people, but he himself would be Jewish. See, tax collectors were hated, both because they sided and worked for the Romans, but also because it was just well known that they used their position of authority to cheat the Jewish population out of more money than was necessary. They were greedy, traders, sinful, despised, outcasts. Now fourth, let's notice that surrounded by a large crowd, Jesus boldly invites a despised outcast to follow him in the exact same way that he called his other disciples. There's no stipulation, there's no shaming, there's no nuance, and there's no explanation. A clear call exactly as we see him call the previous disciples. And fifth, Levi, the sinful tax collector, rejected by his people, shamed, looked down upon, gets up and leaves behind his way of life and follows Jesus with the same faith as the other disciples. Okay, so what can we learn from these five observations? Well, first, we can easily recognize the tendency of humanity to compare, specifically for the religious to judge, to partition off certain groups of people as good and bad insiders, outsiders, accepted, rejected. Second, we can easily see that Jesus does not follow the same standards and rules by which the religious often judge, and he is not shy about his rejection of these rules. And third, the requirements necessary to follow Jesus have nothing to do with moral standards or societal acceptance and everything to do with humility and faithfulness. Let's continue verse 15. While 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. When 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?" Okay, so this reaction to the Pharisees, it's not surprising. If the call of a tax collector wasn't enough, now Jesus is openly entering into the home of Levi, a tax collector, for a feast. He is reclining at the table with not just one, but many people that society deemed his outcasts and sinners. He's associating himself with these people. He's accepting them to sit and to dine with them wouldn't have just been a social faux pas. It was a religious statement. The Pharisees would have seen this as Jesus making himself spiritually unclean. But clearly, Jesus does not see it this way. Instead of following the path of religiosity, Jesus remains pure by extending a hand of mercy. His response to the Pharisees makes this clear. He goes on to say, "On 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." Jesus is reminding the Pharisees of his mission. He likens righteousness to health and sinfulness to sickness. Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy. Now, for a long time, when I heard this verse, it always made me feel a little nervous. Like, as someone who had grown up in the church who had considered themselves a Christian as long as they could remember, who is maybe even like part of a religious crowd, who tried to do the right thing and not live a sinful life, did this mean that Jesus didn't come for me, didn't come to call me, that when he became man and began his mission, his sights were set on just the outcast, the rejected, that if I wanted to really see myself in this story, that maybe I needed a rebellious phase, needed to achieve the outsider outcast label in order to be number one on Jesus' priority list. And maybe you've wondered the same thing, but to think this way is to play by the rules of the cultural narrative of insiders and outsiders based on religiosity, morality, outward perception. Remember what we saw from Jesus, the same call to all people, regardless of status or morality, follow me. And then the requirements to be disciples, well, that was humility and faithless. Humility to recognize that you need help, you need someone to follow, you need a doctor, and the faith to get up and follow the one who can help you, lead you, heal you. So there's an episode of "Bluey," sorry, I am a mother to toddlers. But in this episode, her little sister, Bingo, is sick in the hospital. And she's sad, she feels lonely because she has to stay at the hospital while everyone else is at home. So, "Bluey" tells her a story of Bumpy, the puppy who is sick. And in order to get better, he needs to find someone who has never been sick to help heal him. Now, Bumpy searches and searches, but everyone he asks has been sick before. In the end, Bumpy has to realize that being sick is a part of life that everyone gets sick. And Bingo learns the same thing. She isn't alone. Everyone gets sick. And it's the same lesson that we all need to learn. The outcasts and the insiders. Everyone is sick. Everyone needs a doctor. See, the difference between the Pharisees and the tax collectors in this story isn't that the Pharisees are healthy and righteous and the tax collectors are sick and sinful. It's that the Pharisees don't have the humility to recognize that they are just as sick as the tax collectors. They are no better off. And without that recognition, they'll never realize they need to put their faith in Jesus. They need a doctor. See, Jesus isn't saying that he only came for the outcast. He came for everyone because everyone is sick. Everyone is sinful. Everyone is in need. The thing about the outcast is that it's not as hard for the outcast to believe that they need help, believe they're sick and in need of healing. Society has made that clear to them. See, Jesus came for the societal insider, just as he came for the outsider because the labels that society place on people have nothing to do with the rules that Jesus follows. The invitation to follow Jesus is the same for every person because each and every one of us is in need of healing. We are all sick. The question is whether you are willing to humble yourself enough to recognize it, to see yourself inside of the true story to play by Jesus's rules to faithfully follow him, to give up everything to chase after him because you recognize the incredible gift that it is for Jesus to welcome you, a sinner, into his fold. Jesus to join you at a table to want you and his family to accept you and love you. There is no one right just, no not one. We all need healing. Religious or not? When you realize this, that is when you will find true healing. It's when you will start to see the world the way that Jesus does. Not with people to be parsed apart and judged, some to be accepted, some to be unclean, worthy, some who we spend our time with, associated with, some we avoid. Now imagine a world where followers of Jesus actually followed the rules he played by, actually followed him, looked like him, loved like him, welcomed the sinner like him. Not because they thought they were better than the sinner, but because they saw themselves in them, equally in need of Jesus, desperately wanted every person to receive that same welcome, the same healing, the same redemption that they have received from Jesus. I just want to end today asking a few questions. Where do you see yourself in this story? What rules are you playing by? Are you tempted to split the world into outcasts and insiders good and bad, sick and healthy? Who are the people that you might be looking down upon avoiding judging, ostracizing because you think they're too sick, too simple? Will you humble yourself today to recognize that you are just as sick, just as simple and just as in need of a good doctor? God would you humble our hearts? Would you make us see ourselves with the eyes of reality within your story sick in need of healing from the good doctor? Jesus would you heal us? Help us to be a people of God who know our need and who run to you for healing, run to you in faith. Give us the courage to welcome all people. No matter their religious status, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or immigration status, God, tear down the pride and our hearts that will oz us to break people up into groups of worthiness. Instead, open our eyes to reality. Make us the kind of people that replicate the same love, same welcome and acceptance of Jesus. Everyone is welcome at your table, God. Everyone is welcome to follow you, to be like you, to live in your ways. May we be a church that reflects that truth to the world. May it start in our own hearts and lives today. Amen.