Mark 2:14-17 New American Standard Bible 1995
Levi (Matthew) Called
14 As He passed by, He saw [a]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 *[b]happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and [c]sinners [d]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 [e] 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 Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Jesus came to save sinners.
Yes, all of us are sinners. Unfortunately, many — even some people who consider themselves religious — try to pretend they are not sinners or defend the sins they have committed as “normal failures” or “mere mistakes.”
Jesus reminds us that he came to rescue sinners.
He came for us. He came to call us to join him in the work of rescuing sinners.
Will we respond?
How will we respond?
There’s so much I love about this passage and so much we could talk about in it.
Mark 2:16–17 Shows how the Spiritually Needy were Drawn to Jesus
But what I want to point out in particular and lead us to pray according to is the dynamic at work here as tax collectors and sinners are drawn to Jesus, these people who, especially the religious leaders, would have scoffed at.
They are scoffing at them.
Yet, they’re still drawn to Jesus, people who are in need of salvation, sinners, people who see that they are sick spiritually. They were being drawn to Jesus.
And I just think about my life, about my family.
I think about the church I’m a part of.
I am accountable to God, I want to serve God, I want to live and I want to be a part of a church where sinners feel welcome, where people who are far from God, feel loved and cared for, are drawn to, not because we are like the world.
That’s obviously not the case here.
In Jesus life, it was evident he was totally different from the world in such a way that those people were drawn to the grace and the mercy that was found in him.
Oh, I want my life to look like that.
I want my life to overflow with grace and mercy and love in such a way that people who are far from God through my life would be drawn to Jesus.
I want to be a part of a church where people who are far from God are strangely drawn to the love and the grace and the mercy they find in the body of Christ.
Mark 2:16–17 Encourages Us to care for the Spiritually Needy
So, can we just pray that for our lives, for our churches, that we are a part of?
God, we pray that you would help us to live and assemble as your people and operate as your people in the churches we’re a part of, in such a way that to use language from Mark 2 tax collectors and sinner, find a welcome place there in our lives, in our homes, and in our houses of worship as the body of Christ.
In this devotional we’re going to look at Mark 2:14-17.
In this passage we’ll see that Jesus reached out to and called very unlikely people to follow after Him as His disciples, people no one else would have chosen, people who were unlovely because of their sinfulness.
We come across unlovely people every day, rough and unkind people, people who reject the help that Jesus offers and anyone who talks negative about Him, people whose lives are fully corrupted and controlled by sin, people whom it’s difficult and undesirable to show even minimal love and minimal kindness to.
Do you know anyone like this, at your workplace, in your neighborhood, maybe in your family?
As we look at how Jesus showed love to these kinds of people we can imitate our Savior and ‘Learn to love the unlovely like Jesus did.’.
Please turn with me in your Bible to Mark 2:14-17.
May God speak powerfully to our hearts through His Word and use it to change our hearts and give us His love for unlovely people. This is God’s Word.
Levi (Matthew) Called
14 As He passed by, He saw [a]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 *[b]happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and [c]sinners [d]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 [e] 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.”
This passage starts off in a normal way showing Jesus teaching a crowd of people.
He was doing what Rabbi’s and itinerant preachers did, teaching God’s Word to these needy people.
But then Jesus did something no one expected and something which people were greatly offended by.
Jesus saw Levi, also known as Matthew, collecting taxes and He called Levi to follow him. Immediately Levi got up from his tax booth and followed Jesus.
Now to us this is just another example of how radical Jesus’ call on people’s lives was.
He called them and they dropped everything and followed after Him.
But unless we understand how a Jewish person would read and understand this passage and view Levi, we will not understand the radical extent of Jesus’ love and call of Levi.
So, let’s spend a few moments looking at what tax collectors did and how their Jewish people viewed them.
The Romans had conquered Judea in 63 BC, so they had been ruling Judea for over 90 years before Jesus’ ministry.
The Romans taxed the Jewish people heavily, but to collect taxes they didn’t use Roman officials, they used Jews to collect taxes from their own people.
These tax collectors would not only collect the taxes the Romans demanded, but they would collect extra taxes and so they became very rich.
The tax collector did this job with the support of Roman soldiers so the Jews had no choice but to pay up.
So, Levi, also known as Matthew, was probably a very rich young man, at the expense of his own people.
Now the Jews hated the Romans who had occupied their country and oppressed them, but the Jews hated tax collectors even more.
They saw them as traitors to their own people, people who supported the hated Romans and stole from their people.
Read through the Gospels you see tax collectors lumped in with the lowest of the low, with sinners like prostitutes and other notorious people who did not keep the Jewish Law.
No self-respecting Jew would ever be caught dead with a tax collector.
This is the environment that Jesus lived in.
Well, Jesus is teaching this big crowd walking by the sea and He looks right at Levi as he’s collecting his taxes and calls Levi to follow after him.
Everyone knew this man and everyone hated him, but in His amazing grace and love Jesus just called him to be His disciple.
People’s jaws must have hit the ground and Jesus current disciples must have been flabbergasted.
Jesus wanted this notorious sinner, this traitor to be His disciple?
This was an absolute scandal, but Jesus didn’t care what people thought.
Jesus saw past Levi’s exterior to his heart that was broken by sin and He loved Levi and called him to be His disciple.
Jesus not only called Levi to follow Him, but then He had dinner at Levi’s house.
Now no religious Jew would ever eat with tax collectors and sinners, but Jesus wasn’t concerned with what people thought.
He wanted to show love to Levi and these other sinful people.
Notice also that there were many tax collectors and sinners at Levi’s house.
Levi must have spread the word to his fellow tax collectors that Jesus had showed him love and kindness to him and called him to be His disciple.
Levi instantly became a faithful disciple of Jesus calling others to meet and talk to Him so they too could follow after Jesus.
This is the impact of God’s love on unlovely people.
When we show rough, unkind, broken people Jesus’ love it takes root in their hearts and powerfully affects them.
Some will come to saving faith in Jesus and let other unlovely people know about Jesus so they too can experience His love and be saved.
So, Jesus’ love for Levi had a profound impact not only on him, but gave Jesus many opportunities to eat, talk with and show radical love to others as well.
Check Your Own Pulse as you Check in to the Hospital
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 New American Standard Bible 1995
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one [a]according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ [b]according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [c]he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and [d]He has [e]committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We so often as human beings we will take for granted our being able to breathe properly, having the strength to stand, walk around, or the ability to see clearly.
Yes, the Lord is our Healer, the Lord is our Great Physician and He fully does miraculous things through His touch and His words, but He also has provided people with the minds and the abilities to work alongside Him to help others.
I am a retired Registered Nurse!
My late Mother was a Registered Nurse for 42 years.
I still remember quite vividly and quite physically my experience last July 2023 when I required that urgent Triple Bypass Open Heart Surgery to save my life.
I thank God for the skills of my Surgeon and his Cardio-Thoracic surgical team.
I thank God for the skills and compassion and care of the Nursing staff and the Nursing Aides, those calm, calming demeanors and words of encouragement.
It absolutely needs to be over-emphasized that Doctors and nurses, healthcare professionals, play an oversized key role in our society and around the world.
Inside and outside of the hospitals and healthcare facilities, they help keep communities healthy and are there in some of the most difficult times in life.
Who are some specific names of medical workers who come to mind?
Take a moment and write them down or create a mental list of doctors and nurses, healthcare professionals, who serve you, your family, or your town.
This reminds us that these are real people who are making authentic sacrifices every single day to go out of their way to meet those exacting needs of others.
Mark 2:17 tells us that the sick are the ones who need the doctor.
Ultimately we are all spiritually ill.
We all need the gospel of Jesus to set us free and to heal us from the eternal sickness that is death and punishment.
Sickness reminds us that health is a gift.
Our sin indicates that Jesus is our antidote.
Has there been a time in your life or the life of a loved one when sickness constantly ruled?
Maybe you never thought things would get better, or maybe they did not.
Perhaps you are still living in an ongoing battle with illness.
Even though our bodies can be physically worn, we are reminded by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
Our spiritual lives can become more healthy and fruitful even when our physical health is declining.
Today, I pray we will take some time to praise God for His kind gift of doctors and nurses and the vast diversity of Healthcare Professionals who care for us!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Exodus 15:26 New American Standard Bible 1995
26 And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You, that You are the great healer. I am thankful I can lay my burdens at Your feet. I pray for Your healing touch in my life. You are my Jehovah-Rapha, and Your grace is sufficient. In Jesus’ name I pray, Alleluia! Alleluia! AMEN.
Righteous Father, we thank You for being Jehovah Rapha, the Lord God who heals. Thank You for keeping our bodies healthy. Thank You for our health, for guarding our hearts, strengthening our immune systems and helping us to ward off infections and viruses. Thank you for our Heath Care professional whose God given skills and desires towards compassion and care for us We sing praises to You and Your Name.
May your favor be showered upon all of our healthcare workers, God. pray Give them favor and place a hedge of protection around their bodies to guard them from illness so that they can care for the sick. Protect their families and their homes from disease. And use them, Lord. Use them to your Glory in the healing of your Kingdom on earth.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 