Bible Text: Mark 2:13-17 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Mark | I wonder what the disciples said when the Pharisees asked them, “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  The disciples might have been wondering the same thing!  I can picture them turning to Jesus and saying, “The Pharisees raise a good question!  Jesus, why do you eat with sinners and tax collectors?”

We’re early in Mark’s gospel, and so far Jesus has only called a handful of disciples.  First were Simon, who we usually refer to as Peter, and his brother Andrew.  They were fishermen.  Jesus saw them casting a net into the Sea of Galilee and said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Mark tells us that “at once” Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed Jesus.  Shortly after that, Jesus called James and John, also fishermen, and they too followed.

In the short time these four men had been with Jesus, they saw some pretty remarkable things.  Jesus taught in the synagogue, and everybody said, hands down, he was the best teacher any of them had ever heard.  Jesus didn’t seem to just know ABOUT God.  He seemed to KNOW God.  When Jesus’ teaching was interrupted by a man with an evil spirit and Jesus was able to drive that spirit out, people were even more amazed.

That was the start of a very busy day for Jesus, and a day of more amazement for the disciples.  After leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to Peter’s house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law.  Keep in mind, healing on the Sabbath was against the law.  The disciples saw with their own eyes that, not only did Jesus have power over spiritual things, he had power over physical things, and that nothing, not even the Jewish law, was going to keep him from using that power for good.  That evening, after sunset, and Sabbath was over, and healing was no longer against the rules, the whole town gathered at Peter’s door, and Jesus healed many physically and spiritually.  He was so popular, the next day he had to sneak off by himself to have time to pray.

Jesus continued to do things that amazed his disciples.  He healed a man with leprosy, which was a terrible skin condition that sentenced people to a life of physical and emotional suffering.   Lepers were “unclean”—meaning, they had to live separately from the rest of the community.  This was very harsh, but it was the only way to protect everyone else from this incurable, communicable calamity.  When the leper saw Jesus, Mark tells us that Jesus did not rebuke the leper for breaking the rules and coming near him.  In fact, Jesus touched the leper before he healed him!  He welcomed the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people.

This facet of Jesus’ character is emphasized over and over in Mark’s gospel.  Jesus welcomes the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people.  Since medical science was very primitive, and effective treatments the exception rather than the rule, Jesus often had a crowd around him because they were desperate for healing.  It also meant people would go to great lengths to get close to Jesus.  Mark records how four friends made an opening in the roof above where Jesus was teaching and lowered their paralyzed friend down into the house so Jesus could make him well.  Jesus took that opportunity to once again shock the Pharisees and pronounce that the paralyzed man’s sins had been forgiven before healing his paralysis.  Holding authority over spiritual life and physical life. Willing to put people’s well-being above any rules or laws.  Welcoming the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people.  This is who Jesus showed himself to be right from the start.

But I wonder if Peter, Andrew, James and John thought maybe Jesus had gone a little too far by calling Levi to be a disciple.  Levi, whom we usually refer to as Matthew, was a tax collector.  He sat at a kiosk along the Sea of Galilee and served as a customs agent.  There was a very popular trade route between Europe and Africa that went right through Galilee.  The Roman government wasn’t going to miss out on an opportunity to levy taxes on the merchandise.  And some of that merchandise was no doubt fish that people like Peter, Andrew, James and John caught.  Tax collectors in Jesus’ day were notorious for cheating hard working people and exploiting the poor.  It was one thing for Jesus to heal Peter’s mother-in-law.  She was family.  It was one thing to heal the leper or the paralytic.  They were truly suffering people with no way on their own of becoming well.  But healing Levi?  Welcoming this tax collector into their merry band?  He was an enemy.  He was a Jew who made his living working for the Romans.  Levi would never have been invited to any party the fisherman threw!

But, amazingly, they found themselves at Levi’s house for a dinner party.  And when the Pharisees asked them, basically, what are nice guys like you doing in a dump like this, they had no answer.  The disciples were still trying to take in this truth, that Jesus welcomes the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people—whether we like those people or not.  The party is at Levi’s house, but it is clear that Jesus is the host.  They are all there because Jesus has invited them.  Jesus has called them.  And we can only imagine how tense and awkward it must have been for the fishermen to find themselves outnumbered by “tax collectors and sinners”, people who were easy to label and judge.

Today’s lesson gives me chills when I place it side by side with what is going on in our country right now.  I do not think it is my job to offer any kind of political opinions, except to say that I am proud that as United Methodists, our Church has always been a mix of Republicans and Democrats.  I value our diversity and love how we strive to work together for the common good, even though we for sure we have our disagreements.  But I think the events of the last couple weeks have a lot of us are wondering, Lord, how are we supposed to move forward?  How are we supposed to love our neighbors whose views may be polar opposite of our own?  How are we supposed to sit at the same table as people who are aligned with politicians we can’t stand?

This week I’ve had several conversations with conservative friends, family, and church members who feel judged and besmirched by the media and even by the greater society.  I have spoken with more progressive folks who feel betrayed by more conservative factions in our government.  In each case, my pastor’s heart was touched.  This may come as a surprise to you, but there is genuine hurt on all sides!  From my pastoral perspective, it seems to me we have a lot more in common than we think, and I don’t just mean because we are all Americans, or even that we are all United Methodists.

The disciples had no answer to the Pharisees’ question, “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Despite all they had experienced—the amazing teaching, the healings, the driving out of demons, the compassion—something inside of them choked on the idea that Jesus’ compassion could be lavished upon people they didn’t like.  People who should know better or who could do better or who were willfully choosing something wrong.  Jesus’ response must have hit the disciples like a huge punch in the gut.  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor,” he said, “but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  I wonder if Jesus looked right at Peter, Andrew, James and John when he said that.  They had each been called by Jesus, not because they were all fishermen.  But because they were all sinners.  They were just like Levi.  They were all unclean, unwell, suffering people in need of a Savior.

And friends, so are we. The good news is, Jesus is our Divine Physician who has come to make us well.  We are worshipping today because we have felt a call from God to follow Jesus into the abundant and eternal life the Holy Spirit wants to work in us.  But like we said last week, there is the call, and then there is always the anti-call.  And that anti-call often manifests itself among religious people in the form of exclusivity, self-righteousness, disconnection and judgment of each other instead of communion with each other.  That this is so common tells us that it is hard to prevent.  Maybe that is why our relationship with God is often described as a dance.  We have to follow God’s lead, step carefully, and make sure we are in time with God’s timing.  There is evil and injustice and oppression that must be resisted and made right.  But there is also the divine invitation to sit at the table with people who are just like us, unclean, unwell, suffering—in short, ordinary—all of us in need of a Savior.

As I have watched and read the news over the last couple weeks, one question keeps nagging at me.  “Lord, how can I be a peacemaker?”  This week, God answered my question with a question from our text.  “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Our answer to that question has a direct correlation with our ability to be blessed peacemakers.  If we can honestly answer, “Because Jesus welcomes the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people just like me!”, things change.  The people who irritate, confound, and even disgust us turn into our brothers and sisters.  Our humility transforms our enemies we would otherwise vilify, into people worthy of respect.

It’s interesting that Mark refers to this tax collector turned fifth disciple by his Greek name, Levi.  Levi is the name he would have used in his interactions with the Romans.  Levi is not the name The Christian church would go on to use for him.  Levi becomes known as Matthew, which in Hebrew means, “gift of Yahweh”.  Maybe what Mark was trying to show was that this fellow disciple whom they originally resisted, Levi, would go on to become a true gift not only to them but to the world.  The man they could not find the words to justify would find the words to help us all become justified.

Last week I told you that I hope you were feeling a call to read the gospel of Mark for yourself this winter.  I also said, don’t be surprised if you experience something of an anti-call in response.  This happened to me on Tuesday night.  I had spent a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday reading different commentaries on the book of Mark, and I was getting frustrated at the lack of agreement amongst scholars on just about every verse I looked up.  I was also spending a lot of time watching and reading the news, getting frustrated at the disagreement between the stories being told by different news outlets.  I got infected by all of this inconsistency.  I not only turned off the television in disgust, I remember thinking to myself, “Why bother studying the Bible?  If there is truth in there, it’s buried in a morass of detail and distraction.”  I was really discouraged.  The anti-call.

But last week when I said there is the call, and there is always the anti-call, but there is also always the Good News, and that Good News is not subject to editorial slants or political agendas. That Good News is Jesus, the True and Living Word of God.  And the Good News welcomes the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people.  The Good News in fact goes after unwell people, pursues them with love, woos them with hope, purifies them with truth, stills them with peace, and inspires them with joy.  I woke up on Wednesday morning with a strong sense that God is with me, and this is the sermon I should write.

I hope you feel a call today, whatever your political views, to follow Christ.  To know yourself as a sinner in need of a Savior.  To see yourself seated at the banquet only because Christ invited you.  To adopt a compassionate perspective for those who disagree with you.  And to resolve to be a peacemaker for Christ.  Jesus, our Divine Physician, has come to make us well and give us the strength to stand gracefully in the truth.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.