The Dinner Party Mission

THE DINNER PARTY MISSION

An Exposition of Mark 2:13-17

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   November 24, 2019

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Here is the Word of God as it is written in Mark 2:13-17 –

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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?” ¹⁷ 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)

THE QUESTION

What does it mean for us to follow a Lord who dines with sinners? What does it mean for our ministry, our social life, our ‘guest list’ when we open up our home for hospitality? What does it mean to be on mission with Jesus to a sin-sick world?

If we claim to follow Jesus, then we must pay close attention to how He carries out His mission. His ‘dinner party mission’ in verse 15 is especially insightful.

THE SITUATION PART 1: JESUS CALLS A TAX COLLECTOR

Following Jesus is an important theme in Mark 1-2. In Mark 1:17, “Jesus said to [Simon and Andrew], “Follow me.” In Mark 1:20 Jesus repeated that same call to James and John. So through the rest of Chapter 1 and then into Mark 2, Simon, Andrew, James, and John are following Jesus – they are observing Him, listening to Him, and learning from Him. They are with Him as He preaches the Word, casts out demons, and heals diseases. Over and over again, they see God’s power at work through Him.

One of the realities that you have to come to terms with when you follow Jesus, is that Jesus is also going to call other people to follow Him. At times you may be very surprised at the choice of people that Jesus calls into His family – but it is His call to make, not ours. So be ready!

Verse 13 says: “[Jesus] went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.” Nothing new here: Jesus was the talk of Capernaum; directly or indirectly He had impacted virtually the entire town through His healing ministry; the people were flocking to Him (Mark 1:32-33, 37; Mark 2:2); and all the while His priority was to teach them about the glory of God’s kingdom (Mark 1:14-15, 21-22, 38-39; Mark 2:2).

Jesus had found His original four disciples “alongside the Sea of Galilee” (Mark 1:16), and now He was about to find His fifth disciple in the same general area: “And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.”” (v. 14) Same place. Same call. Same immediate response: “And he [Levi] rose and followed him.” (v. 14)

But did you notice a difference? The first four disciples were fishermen. By contrast, Levi was not a man of the sea. Levi was a tax collector. Tax collectors are a significant part of the story in our passage. Levi, “sitting at the tax booth” before Jesus called him, is the only tax collector mentioned by name. But in verses 15-16 we learn that Jesus was eating “with many tax collectors and sinners” (v. 15). And it is quite clear that the Jewish religious leaders – “the scribes of the Pharisees” (v. 16) – looked down on tax collectors, which is why the Pharisees were critical of the fact that Jesus was eating with them. Who are these tax collectors? Why is the term “tax collectors” paired three times with the term “sinners”?

‘Tax Collectors’ and ‘Sinners’

Well, tax collectors were not a beloved people in first-century Israel. First of all, we have to understand that tax collectors were regarded as sellouts to Rome and thus as traitors to their Jewish brethren. At this stage in history, the land of Palestine was under the control of the Roman Empire. So Roman officials ruled over the Jewish people and the Empire imposed taxes on the people. Levi was an authorized tax agent who collected taxes on behalf of Rome – which wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the fact that Levi was a Jewish man. So you have a Jewish man collecting taxes from his Jewish brethren on behalf of the foreign oppressor. Levi’s decision to be a tax collector may have been good for his wallet, but it wasn’t good for his public reputation. He was seen as a traitor. He was despised as a spiritual outcast and as a gross violator of God’s law.  

Tax collectors were often cheats, too. They used their authority to collect taxes to collect more than Rome required, and they pocketed the difference. In one sense they had to impose a ‘tax agent fee’ – for that was how they made a living. But the system was easily abused. When tax collectors came to John the Baptist in order to be baptized, they asked John, “Teacher, what shall we do?” (Luke 3:12) John answered: “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” (Luke 3:13) Or you might recall that wee little man named Zacchaeus, who “was a chief tax collector” (Luke 19:2). After Zacchaeus received the Lord’s gracious salvation, he said to the Lord, “[If] I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” (Luke 19:8)

So of this sizable group of tax collectors (including Levi) in Mark 2:13-17, all were regarded as traitorous sellouts, and it is probably safe to say that a fair number of them were also greedy men who abused their position in order to fatten their own bank accounts.

The other shady group mentioned in this passage is that term “sinners”. We are very familiar with the Bible’s teaching that every human being is a sinner: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But in verses 15-16 the term “sinners” has a specialized meaning. It refers to people whose shortcomings are so obvious that they are publicly known as “sinners.” They are card-carrying sinners. It would be like: having a reputation as ‘the town drunk’ or as ‘the person who doesn’t go to church’ – or being known to everyone as a scoundrel or as an associate of scoundrels – or wearing the scarlet letter “A” for all to see – or simply not having a reputation for uprightness. You’re a sinner, everyone knows it, and it’s easy to pick you out!

Taken together, “tax collectors and sinners” would have included people such as traitors, cheats, dirty-mouths, drunkards, gamblers, prostitutes, Sabbath-breakers, and even people who didn’t measure up to the strict religious standards of the Pharisees. Religious outcasts. Moral disappointments. Not a spiritual all-star team. But do you know what? They were Levi’s friends. They were part of Levi’s social network. Which means that this unseemly and unpopular group of spiritual losers is friends with a man who is now a disciple of Jesus. And this little link to Levi is about to put them at the dinner table with the Son of God.

THE SITUATION PART 2: A MEMORABLE DINNER PARTY

Admittedly, the beginning of verse 15 is somewhat vague: “And as he reclined at table in his house.” Who is the “he”? Levi or Jesus? And whose house is it? Levi’s house or the house where Jesus was staying? In one sense it doesn’t really matter, because it doesn’t affect the basic storyline. But The Gospel of Luke fills in an important detail. After telling us that Levi “rose and followed him [Jesus],” Luke then says: “And Levi made him [Jesus] a great feast in his house.” (Luke 5:28, 29)

So Levi is demonstrating his love for Jesus by hosting “a great feast” for his Lord. Levi is ministering to Jesus and to Jesus’ other disciples. At the same time, Levi is opening up his home to his social network, giving his friends an opportunity to rub shoulders with Jesus. Isn’t this a beautiful picture of love? Levi is loving his lost friends by inviting them to have dinner with Jesus. Here is a little glimpse of what it means to be “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).

At this great feast, “many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.” (v. 15) I’m not sure if the phrase “many who followed him” refers to the genuine disciples or to the “many tax collectors and sinners” who were attempting to get a closer look at Jesus. In any case, the whole group was sitting together and sharing a meal. In our fast paced days of efficient, over-scheduled, and running-in-different-directions families, sometimes we just eat in order to fulfill our high calling as calorie consumers! But in those days, eating together was fundamentally a social act – the act of friendship and solidarity, the symbol of fellowship and sharing life together and making room for each other. Eating together was a social statement.

Notice that there are three distinct groups of people represented at the dinner party (in v. 15), and afterward a fourth group comes into play (in v. 16).

Four Distinct Groups

First, there is Jesus (v. 15). He is in a category all by Himself: He is the beloved Son of God (Mark 1:1, 11), the Lord who speaks and acts with divine authority (Mark 1:3, 7-15, 21-28), and “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24).

Second, there is the group of Jesus’ disciples (v. 15). Up to this point, Jesus has called the four fishermen as well as Levi the tax collector. Whatever they were in the past, now they were “his disciples” (Mark 2:15).

Third, there is the group of “many tax collectors and sinners” (v. 15). It is important to realize that Mark makes a distinction between these “tax collectors and sinners” and Jesus’ followers: there were “many tax collectors and sinners” (that’s one distinct group) who “were reclining with Jesus” (Jesus is a category all by Himself) “and his disciples” (the disciples are another distinct group).

Then there is a fourth group – this group wasn’t at the dinner party, but they heard about it and they had an opinion. So the fourth group that we meet is the religious bigwigs (v. 16). These are “the scribes of the Pharisees” (v. 16) – the theological professionals – who were critical of the fact that Jesus was “eating with sinners and tax collectors.” (v. 16)

Do you see these four groups? Jesus is on mission, and His disciples are on mission with Him. The tax collectors and sinners are the mission field. The religious leaders are the critics of the mission. When a church is faithfully following Jesus, don’t be surprised when the critics show up. In fact, don’t be surprised when those critics are uptight religious insiders who claim to know better.  

The Uptight Logic of the Pharisees

Why are the Pharisees so uptight and fussy about the fact that Jesus is “eating with sinners and tax collectors”? Because Jesus is cultivating relationship with spiritual losers; He is showing friendship toward religious outsiders; He is making room in His heart and life for despised and disreputable people. And that is not what they would expect from a legit Jewish teacher.

Pharisaical logic is clear: a holy man has no street cred if he is hanging with unholy people. A holy man just wouldn’t do that. After all, God is holy, and Jesus claims to speak and act on God’s behalf. Jesus claims to be teaching about God’s righteous kingdom. So who would we expect Him to be rubbing shoulders with? We would expect Him to hang with holy and righteous people – ‘like us Pharisees’, for instance. We certainly would not expect Him to be reclining at table with these spiritual lowlifes and moral misfits. His life and message is going to be compromised by coming into contact with these religiously unclean people. Do you see? And as the Pharisees are tracing their line of thought, it’s only a short hop, skip, and jump to the conclusion that Jesus must not be a true ambassador for the holiness of God. If He is confused about such basic issues, then Jesus must be nothing more than a pretend preacher with a few tricks up His sleeves – but He certainly isn’t the real deal.

So the Pharisees ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v. 16) Why does He associate with and fellowship with the spiritual underclass? Why does He in any way, shape, or form befriend those who are ungodly and unlovely? The Pharisees posed this question to the disciples of Jesus, and we don’t know if they could have produced a faithful answer. My guess is that they wouldn’t have had a good answer at this point in their discipleship – they had only been following Jesus a short time, they were in the early stages of their learning, and they probably didn’t understand what they were doing at Levi’s house with a bunch of outcasts and sinners. They were there because Jesus was there, and they were following Him.

Jesus Clarifies His Mission

But even if the disciples didn’t understand what they were doing, Jesus understood what He was doing. And even though the Pharisees posed their question to the disciples, Jesus stepped up with the answer. “And when Jesus heard it [their question], 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.”” (v. 17)

Do you understand what Jesus is saying? First of all, He is saying that He is like a physician. As medical doctors go about their work, they give their special care for those who are ill or injured. Ten days ago I went to see a hand surgeon. I didn’t go to the hand surgeon because my hands were healthy. I went because I had broken my thumb. When you go back to Mark 1 and read that the people of Capernaum “brought to [Jesus] all who were sick or oppressed by demons” (Mark 1:32), you realize that they were bringing these people to Jesus because these people were not well. It is sick people who seek out a physician.

But Jesus, of course, is driving at a much deeper point in verse 17. He is not talking about physical sickness. Instead He is talking about spiritual and moral sickness: sickness of the soul, dysfunction of the heart and mind. Jesus is a spiritual physician, the great doctor of the soul, and He gives His special care to those who are spiritually sick and morally diseased. He clarifies His meaning at the end of verse 17: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

What criteria must you meet in order to benefit from Jesus’ spiritual soul care? Answer: you must be sin-sick. For it is the sin-sick that Jesus came to call, mend, and transform.

So when Jesus was sitting at the table with a bunch of “tax collectors and sinners,” do you know what He was doing? With a tender heart, He was visiting the sin-sick patients that He had come to save.

How do you see yourself?

Do you see yourself as a sin-sick patient whose only hope is the healing touch of the Great Physician?  

When Jesus says that “[those] who are well have no need of a physician” and that “[he] came not to call the righteous,” He isn’t actually saying that there is a group of people out there who are naturally righteous and who therefore don’t need Him to save them. As The Gospel of Mark will make clear later on, Jesus knew that the Pharisees were profoundly sin-sick themselves: they looked good on the outside, but it was just glitter and show, for on the inside they were full of corruption.  

So verse 17 has another layer of significance: Those who think they are well have no sense of need for a physician, but only those who know how sick they really are. I came not to call those who think that they are already righteous, but people who know that they are sinners in need of grace. Do you understand? Jesus is inviting you to take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself: do you see yourself as a righteous person who doesn’t need the grace of Jesus, or do you see yourself as a sinful person who desperately needs the grace of Jesus? Jesus won’t help you so long as you are trusting in your own resources. But if you know yourself to be a screwed up mess, then He is more than willing to sit down next to you and show you the healing power of His grace. The blood that He shed, He shed for sinners like you. The death that He died, He died in place of sinners like you. The forgiveness that He purchased on the cross, He purchased for sinners like you. The Holy Spirit that He pours out, He pours out on helpless sinners like you. Your excellent record of attending worship services, your official status as a church member, your decent reputation in the Christian community, your respectable moral conduct, and your dutiful service to other people – none of that will get you into the kingdom of God. The only way into the kingdom of God is through the grace of Jesus Christ, whose body was broken for broken sinners like you. Are you clinging to His grace?

APPLICATION: WE MUST JOIN JESUS IN HIS MISSION

It is humbling to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to dine with us, even though we bring enormous amounts of sin to the table. But when we grasp His remarkable grace and realize that He calls us to follow Him, then His dinner party mission must transform how we do mission.

I think that the most important application in this passage for Jesus’ disciples has to do with the church’s mission. Of course, you will never be able to participate in that mission unless you first receive His grace. But once you have received His grace, once He has breathed new life into your heart, then you become a participant in His mission.

And this passage shows us a clear picture of Jesus on mission: He calls Levi the tax collector (in v. 14), He eats with “tax collectors and sinners” (in v. 15), and He calls sinners to follow Him (in v. 17). And Jesus has called us to be on mission with Him: “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) He expects His disciples to accompany Him to the great feast in Levi’s house and to ‘take notes’ as He ministers to the religious outsiders – so that we can learn to participate in Jesus’ gracious work of rescuing sinners.

Here’s the application we need to grapple with: if we are Jesus’ disciples, then we must cultivate relationship with lost sinners so that we can call them to join us in following Jesus. Isn’t that simple and straightforward? Jesus eats with sinners so that He can call them into His grace. If we are following Jesus, then we must join Him in His mission.

Can you picture a church that is truly on mission with Jesus, and is therefore having meaningful interactions with spiritually lost people on a regular basis? Can you picture a Levi-like disciple in our church throwing a great party in his home and inviting both lost people and disciples to come and mingle and eat together, all the while trusting that Jesus will show up in a powerful way? Can you picture yourself as a disciple going to such a dinner party and navigating graciously through uncomfortable moments with a bunch of people who don’t know any better? Can you picture Christians in the workplace having lunches with their unbelieving colleagues? Can you picture us going to places where we are likely to run into despised people, visible sinners, or religious castaways – and showing them that although there will always be religious bigwigs who reject them, there is a gracious God who is willing to receive them? Can you picture the lost, the last, and the least showing up at South Paris Baptist Church on Sunday morning, and feeling welcomed and loved by us? And if you can’t picture that, why not? What have we done? Can you picture a church filled with earnest believers who had the mindset of C. T. Studd, who was a British missionary to China and Africa? He said: “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”

We Often Find Mission Difficult

We need to be honest, though: we often find it difficult to live the missional dynamic that we see in verses 15-17. In fact, this holy path of purposeful mission to a sin-sick world is impossible to pull off, unless the Holy Spirit is transforming us in profound ways. Just consider these three imbalances that result in drifting away from our mission.

1) The first imbalance is to choose separation over mission.

Let me explain.

As disciples of Jesus, we are actually recovering sinners. We aren’t like the self-righteous Pharisees who think they have achieved wellness on their own. At the same time, we aren’t like the lost tax collectors and sinners who are still stuck in sin. True disciples are recovering sinners who are being transformed by the grace of God. The Spirit of God really is changing us from the inside out. But sometimes, we get to thinking that we’d rather not sit down and cultivate relationship with a sinner who is still lost. We might think, ‘Maybe they will influence me more than I will influence them, and before you know it I’ll be spiritually compromised.’ So I stay away. I choose separation from the world over mission to the world. But biblically speaking, we must not choose one over the other. We “are not of the world” (John 17:16), which means that we must separate from the worldliness of the world (Romans 12:1-2). God calls believers to gather together, even as we have gathered here this morning, in order to be strengthened in the Lord and deepened in our fellowship. This is crucial for our spiritual health. And yet, it is not God’s will for us to live exclusively in the comfortable fellowship of fellow disciples. He calls us to go into the discomfort of a perishing world. We “are not of the world” (John 17:16), but we are “sent… into the world” (John 17:18), which means that we must care deeply about the people of the world.

Sometimes, the separationist way of thinking can be taken so far and can infect an entire congregation, and we become like the Pharisees all over again. Then we self-righteously condemn the world, but no one is building bridges to the world for Jesus’ sake. Jesus rebuked the church in Laodicea: “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17) Churchgoers who think they are self-sufficient might be skilled at running programs, but they will not be very effective at reaching broken people. But if we can remember deep in our hearts that Jesus alone is our life and salvation, then we will have the attitude expressed in the familiar quotation: “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”[1]

2) The second imbalance results from trying to please the critics, particularly critics from inside the church family.

We might be genuinely glad to share our lives and the gospel message with lost people, but we might be intimidated by the religious bigwigs who cast judgment upon us. “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Why does she play music at the open mic night instead of coming to our Bible study? Why does he grab a drink with his co-workers after work? Why does she invite that wayward lady to come over to her house to cook with her and her children? Well, maybe because she wants to touch a wayward heart for Jesus’ sake! But trying to satisfy the complacent-and-critical-church-crowd is a great way to quench the Spirit of mission. What I say to you is: Go! Go to Levi’s dinner party or throw your own! Mix it up with the world! Follow Jesus into surprising places!

3) The third imbalance is to turn mission into mere friendship.

It’s one thing to socialize with lost people. But Jesus didn’t merely socialize with them. Jesus wasn’t there to affirm them in their sin. Jesus really was there to call them out of their sin and into His life. So at some point I’ve got to open my mouth and tell them that Jesus offers them something better, and to get that something better they really need to turn away from their sin and entrust themselves to Him. And when I do that, they might reject the gospel message. They might say that I’m narrow-minded. They might not want to be my friend anymore. Even so, we must remember that our mission is not ultimately to win their friendship to us, but to win their allegiance to Jesus.

For all these temptations to imbalance, we may find it difficult to follow Jesus on mission to a messed up world. Which is why we need to lean into Jesus and trust His Holy Spirit to enable us to do what we are unable to do on our own. We also need to lean into one another and support each other as we join Jesus on His mission. 

Maybe Some Things Need to Change

If we really believe that Jesus came to reach sinners, and if we really believe that Jesus calls us to join Him in His mission, then maybe some things need to change in us. Maybe some things need to die. Maybe some priorities need to be rearranged. Maybe our social calendars needs some adjusting. Maybe our approach to discipleship needs to be less inward-looking and more outward-looking. Maybe we need to reimagine what it means to follow a Lord who dines with a bunch of spiritual underachievers. Maybe each one of us needs to rediscover the stunning reality that Jesus would show grace to a sinner like me. And maybe someone needs to be bold enough to insist that even here in the Oxford Hills, we ought “to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. 

ENDNOTES

[1] This quotation is attributed to D. T. Niles.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Victor Babajide Cole, “Mark.” In Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars. Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Editor. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.