Should Christians Hang Out with Sinners Like Jesus Did?
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What shapes our character and personality? Well, one of the most significant influences is other people. Parents mold us. Sisters and brothers affect our personality. Friends pull and push us in this or that direction. Teachers inspire our ambitions and interests. And since peer pressure has such horsepower, we want our influences to be good, positive.
Basic wisdom tells us to avoid bad characters. It is foolish to expose yourself to prolonged sinful company. Sadly, we all know people who got mixed up in the wrong crowd and went south. Good kids were corrupted away from the path of truth and faith. And this is in part why we create communities, to form an arena of positive influences and to defend against wicked ideas and practices. The apostle Paul’s warning, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals,” is a red-flag waving.
And this is not just a Christian thing; everyone does it to some extent. It is both biblical wisdom and natural law prudence. And yet, when it comes to this common grace principle, our Lord didn’t conform. He looked the fool and not the sage. Though, as we will see, Jesus had the best reason for his exceptional practice.
Jesus calls a tax-collector named Levi, who is an Israelite employed by a pagan overlord.
He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:13-17)
So, our Lord is back on the road again. After staying put in the city of Capernaum for a handful of days, Jesus must keep moving and continue to preach and bears east towards the sea of Galilee. The crowd of people are following Jesus while he is teaching them and the group comes to a check-point. This is likely a border crossing; the officer on duty is named Levi, the son of Alphaeus. The regular practice was to name your child after a distinguished ancestor. To pick Levi most likely means that this man is a Levite.
He belongs to the famous tribe of Levi. The high-priestly line of Aaron belonged to the Levitical tribe, and all the other family lines were temple servants to assist the priests. When the family business is temple service, this comes with a higher expectation of piety. Levites were supposed to be experts in the Old Testament, masters of ritual holiness, and devoted servants of the temple. With a name like Levi, we expect a Bible-thumping, goody two-shoes, but then we are told his job. He is a tax-collector. His office is a toll-booth on the road. Instead of working for God, he is employed by a pagan overlord.
Now, there were numerous types of taxes levied on Galilee by Rome. At this time, Rome didn’t collect taxes firsthand in Galilee. Instead, Rome imposed its sovereignty through a tetrarch, or governor. The governor of Galilee was Herod Antipas, and just east of Capernaum was a border with another region governed by Philip. Herod and Philip had the privilege of taxation, a healthy portion of which did go to Rome. And at the border crossing, there would be a check-point to pay a toll. This was a tariff, a custom, a denarius for the tax-officer to pass.
Levi was supposed to be a pious servant in the temple of God, but instead he signed up for a lucrative career with the enemy.
The business of taxes is key to appreciating the reputation of Levi. In order to get his tax, Herod would offer contracts on which private businessmen would bid. The highest bidder got the contract. These private “tax-farmers” most often did not belong to the local population. They were foreigners, and they would turn around and hire natives to do the actual collecting. This was the first sting against tax-collectors: Levi is a Jew working for a foreigner to confiscate taxes from his own people. Socially, this was nearly an unforgivable betrayal.
Next, there was how the tax-men got paid. They earned their salary by charging higher rates. For example, Herod may set the toll at one denarius per person. The businessman orders his collector to charge one and a half denari to get the half for himself. Then, the collector may levy the toll at three denari to keep one and a half for himself.
In such a system, there is unlimited opportunity for corruption. When you paid the 3 denari toll, you had no idea how much went to Rome and what percentage was skimmed off by greedy middlemen. Additionally, tax-collectors were often wealthy, and they hired muscle to wield violence against you to pay up.
Levi was supposed to be a pious servant in the temple of God, but instead he signed up for a lucrative career with the enemy. Rather than helping you with your holy offering, Levi was squeezing cash out of you to pay the man and to live in the mansion down the street. Instead of suffering with his fellow Jews, Levi was feasting with greedy Gentiles.
When Christ calls, the person comes.
As a tax-collector, Levi was essentially categorized as an apostate. He had been corrupted by keeping bad company and he was a lost cause. The pious name and the immoral job are meant to make you sick to your stomach. Yet, Jesus speaks kindly to Levi, “Follow me.” And with no drama, Levi gets up and follows. There is no two-week notice. Levi immediately quits his job to follow Jesus and not look back. Nothing is said about Levi’s faith, repentance, or any other emotion. Jesus speaks and Levi complies. The stress here falls on the power of our Lord’s Word.
When Christ calls, the person comes. The Shepherd knows his sheep, and they know his voice to fall behind him irresistibly. The Lord comforts and assures our faith by the effective force of his call. Yet, this call of Levi is structured to match that of Simon and Andrew in chapter one. Next to the sea, Jesus called Peter to be both a disciple and an apostle in training.
In the same manner, he summons Levi as disciple and apostle. Christ saved Levi, and he made this tax-collector part of his inner circle. Thus, in his version of this story, Matthew calls Levi by the name of Matthew. It was common for people to have two names. So, Levi’s other name is Matthew, and in all the lists of the twelve apostles, they include Matthew the tax-collector.
Those we deem to be lost causes are not beyond the power of our Lord’s gracious calling and words.
Christ is the cornerstone, and the apostles are the foundation for the church. This tax-collector is part of our foundation as members of the church. Our Lord used sinners of the worst sort to lay the bedrock footing for the gospel. Those we deem to be lost causes are not beyond the power of our Lord’s gracious calling and words.
Nonetheless, even though we are not given any personal details about Levi’s inner thoughts or feelings, we do see a response. After following Jesus, Levi has him over for some hospitality. Hosting the Savior is the highest privilege, and it is faith’s best reply to the call of Christ.
The faith of Levi rolls out the red carpet for our Lord. Having people over for dinner is still precious and vital today. Hospitality expresses acceptance and kindness. The place setting says You are safe. I like you and I want to get to know you. The bowl of soup welcomes the other person into your circle, your community. The meal is a way of stating that these are my people.
In Jesus’ day everyone was sorted by class and status, bottom to top, and the higher-ups did not easily entertain those below them.
If hospitality does this today, it did even more so back in Jesus’ day, because theirs was a hierarchical culture. Everyone was sorted by class and status, bottom to top. And while it was a privilege to show hospitality to someone from a higher class, the higher-ups did not easily entertain those below them.
Generally, the nobles avoided the commoners. Mixing with those deemed vulgar and immoral was not done at the dinner table. Yet, Jesus had a way of not paying attention to social norms and taboos. He was good at doing the socially awkward and offensive. Thus, when you accept the invitation of a tax-collector, who else do you expect to be there but more taxmen?
Jesus reclines at the feast of Levi, and he is surrounded by more tax-collectors and sinners. He is keeping company with some bad folk. To be labeled a sinner was not to be socially misunderstood; it wasn’t an unfair prejudice against those who were different. No, sinners were categorized as such because of infamous sin.
In rabbinic texts, tax-collectors are found in lists of sinners next to murderers and robbers.
Sinners included men who cheated on their wives, sex-workers, cheating and greedy businessmen, people who never went to synagogue but frequented pagan temples, and those who dabbled in divination and the occult. In rabbinic texts, tax-collectors are found in lists of sinners next to murderers and robbers. Why?
Well, their extortion of levies was basically theft. Also, the tax-collector’s muscle could get too rough with a resistant payer and kill the person. Beat downs can easily result in death. Levi was not a good person who did a few bad things. No, he made his living by overcharging and hanging out with Gentile pagans.
Parents keep their kids away from the people with whom Jesus is eating. Levi might even have corrupted a few good teenagers away from the synagogue to come work for him with the promise of big money. The father, in the book of Proverbs, would be shouting about now, “Son don’t consent to go with sinners.”
The force of the scribes’ question to Jesus fires on several levels.
The Pharisaic scribes see what is going on and they are concerned. The folly on display aggravates their conscience; they see something wrong and they speak up. They don’t remain silent at an injustice to become complicit. The scribes locate the disciples, and they file a formal complaint: Why does your master eat with tax-collectors and sinners? Now, the force of this question fires on several levels.
First, this isn’t really a direct question for information, but it is a rhetorical condemnation. The scribes condemn Jesus for breaking a moral principle of godly wisdom. As Psalm 1 states, you do not sit with scoffers.
Second, the condemnation of Jesus is a rebuke and warning to the disciples. The scribes are saying to them that it is folly to follow Jesus as he is influenced by sinners. You better leave Jesus and defect before it is too late.
Third, they shame Jesus as being an unworthy teacher. If a teacher of righteousness hangs with sinners, then he does not deserve the title.
Finally, the scribes are getting bolder. Previously, they just thought condemnation, but now they vocalize it. Yet, the scribes only speak to the disciples and not to Jesus, which shows their righteous scruples are cowardly.
To be honest, at least at one level, we have to agree with the scribes. The scribes are basically quoting Proverbs against Jesus (see Prov. 13:20). If your teenage daughter was hanging out with people taking illegal drugs, you would be saying the same thing. The scribes highlight a true and important principle of godly wisdom here.
In fact, Jesus himself agrees with them. Jesus, of course, knows what is going on between the scribes and his disciples, so he deals with them head on. And our Lord agrees with their wisdom, because he cites an exception. Doctors are not for the healthy but for the sick. This is a proverb that is widely found in both Jewish and Greek writers.
And it is an exception proverb. That is, normally you stay away from sick people. You don’t have to know the germ theory of disease to realize that illness is contagious. The healthy avoid the ill. Thus, the age-old therapy for the sick has been quarantine, isolation. Long before Covid-19, the ancients practiced social-distancing with the sick.
The proverb “Doctors are not for the healthy but for the sick” was most often used by the moral philosophers.
But where everyone is separated far off, one draws near—the doctor. Due to his expertise and special training, the doctor is the biggest exception to the wise practice of quarantine. The doctor has ability and technical tools to be near and not get sick. And yet, this proverb was most often not used for actual medical practice; rather, it was used by the moral philosophers.
The moral philosophers presented themselves as doctors for the morally sick and foolish. It was their duty to cure folly and wickedness. And as doctors, the philosopher possessed the high virtue and moral fortitude not to be influenced by sinners. Influence was a one-way street with the virtuous, incorruptible philosopher.
And this is how Jesus employs this proverb. He says to the scribes, You are right; sin is contagious, but I am the doctor. Jesus possesses the special abilities not to be infected by the sinners’ evil influence. Jesus again confronts the scribes with the uniqueness of his person and office. They must realize that Jesus is the doctor exception to the general truth. Jesus claims the doctor exception and then clarifies what kind of doctor he is. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinner. This is another one of those missionary statements of our Lord. The missionary purpose he has from the Father to fulfill is to call sinners. He may perform healings, but Christ is not a medical doctor.
Jesus is the soul-doctor.
Christ’s first coming was not concerned with the body; he deals with that in the resurrection. Also, Jesus is not a moral philosopher to conduct therapy classes on the virtuous life. Godliness and moral reform may be fruits, but they are not Jesus’ target. Rather, he came as a doctor for sinners. He came to heal us from sin.
Christ is a doctor of the soul and heart to save it from the death cancer of sin. Thus, a table full of sinners is the very ward of Jesus. Christ’s purpose was to heal us from sin, and as the doctor, his pure righteousness is immune to our sin. Jesus may take our sins into his body, but his righteousness was never tainted.
Of course, it didn’t look this way. Because Jesus was the doctor to cure sinners, he hung out with sinners and then was executed as a criminal. At the cross, the scribes laughed at Jesus saying, I told you so. With a cruel irony, it appeared that the bad company Jesus kept had corrupted him to the point of capital punishment—Jesus was the doctor who hooked you up to the ventilator but then caught Covid-19 himself and succumbed. Or this is how it looked until the third day. In the resurrection, Jesus’ incorruptible righteousness was vindicated. He bore our sin away, but he in no way sinned. Christ is the resurrection cure for all sinners, but he is not for the righteous.
Are you a sinner who needs Jesus’ cure or are you fine without him?
Jesus puts a challenge to you. He speaks in a very conventional way. Humanity can be divided into two groups: the sinners and the righteous. The Old Testament speaks this way as we also do today. There are good people and bad ones: criminals and law-abiding, wicked and upright, and so on. This is accurate in so far as it is intended. “Righteous or sinner” is an external categorization based on customs and current law. It is functional and helpful. Yet, with this statement Jesus is forcing you to self-categorize. Where do you put yourself—in the righteous bin or the sinner bucket? And to answer this, you have to decide if righteous or sinner is literally or ultimately true.
Are any humans truly righteous or are all people sinners? In this way, Jesus puts the gospel call to you. Are you a sinner who needs Jesus’ cure? Or are you fine without him? Are you willing to confess that you are a sinner, who has no cure apart from Christ?
We might be shipshape on the outside, but our hearts are a graveyard of sin and wickedness. Jesus reveals that the true character of faith is humility—admitting we are miserably bankrupt and resting on Christ. Our Lord discloses that the biggest stumbling block to saving faith is self-righteousness.
Come to Jesus, the only doctor in life and in death, body and soul, for now and forever.
To concede that you are a good person is to wave Christ off—no doctor needed. But to bend the knee as sinners is to receive freely the everlasting healing of Christ: forgiveness, justification, and resurrection. Come to Jesus, the only doctor in life and in death, body and soul, for now and forever.
Yet, as we hide ourselves in the cure of Christ, we need to realize that we cannot really imitate Jesus the doctor. Not just that he is the only doctor and we are totally sick, but that we are not incorruptible. Jesus could hang out with sinners in ways that we cannot. This is one of those “don’t do what Jesus did” passages.
“Bad company corrupts good character” is wisdom for us. We must be on our guard against sinful influence and keep it at a safe distance. Of course, we cannot leave the world; we are not called to live in gated communities. We live elbow-to-elbow with sinners. We must put up firewalls against evil influence; yet, we don’t shun sinners as a plague.
Instead, we offer them the humble summons of the gospel. We invite them to see Christ as the doctor of salvation and to repent as sinners. Wisely, we do not sit with scoffers, but we do plead the gospel to them in order for Christ to be glorified in everything. Praise the Lord that he came to save and heal notorious sinners like ourselves, and may the healing of the gospel ever spread.
This article is adapted from the Rev. Zach Keele’s sermon on Mark 2:13-17, preached at Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church on August 29, 2021, and was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on December 3, 2021.
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