Date:   04/03/05

Text:   Mark 2:13-17   

Title:   Jesus—A Sinner's Friend

Theme: Jesus, the Lord of all came to the world and plunged into the circle of sinners.

Introduction:

  About a week ago, a news item in the City section of the Chronicle caught my attention. A 25 years old Chinese female, was charged with DWI. The police also found some pictures of herself on her cell phone. Later some officers tried to take advantage of the situation and now they were under investigation. As I was reading it, a question came to my mind; does anyone in this church know her? Does she have any friends that are Christians?

  These past few weeks we have been reading Mark's account of Jesus'' ministry. At the very beginning of the book, he proclaimed that Jesus is the son of God, the beginning of the gospel of God. Mark went on to show us what Jesus did. Jesus has authority in his teaching. His words are God's words. He has authority over sicknesses and evil spirits. He also has authority over the natural world. His healing and other miracles are to further demonstrate and affirm that he is the son of God.

  In our journey of faith, we are to let the Jesus in the Bible define who he is and not what I think he is. My knowledge and image of Jesus must stand the scrutiny of what is in the scriptures. Again, like I mentioned before, as we study this gospel, be prepared to meet a Jesus that we may not be familiar with, a Jesus that we never knew.

  Let's go into this passage.

I.   Jesus has the power to call sinners to be his disciples.

  Vs.13,14, “ 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.” Here we read about the calling of Levi. In order to understand the significance of this simple narrative: ‘ he said to him, ‘Follow me.' And he rose and followed him ' ; we need to know its background.

  In Kent Hughes' book on Mark, he wrote about the Roman Tax system. There a re some facts we need to know. First, it wa s a franchise system. You sent in your bid to get the license to collect tax for the Roman Empire . That is, you pay to become a tax collector. Secondly, there we re different kind s of taxes. There wa s the stated taxes. It include d the Poll tax. You pa id tax if you are male, from age 14 to 65, female, from 12 to 65. In other words, you pa id tax just because you were alive. There wa s the ground tax. It wa s 10% of the grain, 20% of wine or oil produced. In some locations, there wa s the fish tax, suggesting that fishing wa s a major business. There wa s also income tax which wa s 1% of annual income. These we re all very straight forward, clearly defined taxes, with little room for abuse.

  Then there we re the Duty Taxes. They include d tax for using the road and the docks; sales tax, import and export tax. This wa s the most abusive part of the tax system. The tax collector c ould stop any one at will to collect the different taxes. If you d id n't have money, he c ould loan you but with very high interest. Because of their work, they we re closely associated with the Romans, the foreign oppressor. To the Jews, tax collectors we re considered traitors and collaborators with the enemy ( ?? ). They were often grouped together with the sinners; the ones who did not keep the laws, they were the social outcasts, despised by everyone. And to one person of this background, Levi, Jesus came and called him saying, ‘Follow me', and he rose and followed Jesus. From this brief narrative, we can learn three simple truths.

1.   Jesus came to the rejects.

  He came to the ones no one liked. In the late 60's, president Nixon had a close advisor: Chuck Colson. He was known as the hatchet man for the president, meaning he would do anything for Nixon, even walk over his own mother's grave. He was known for his ruthlessness. When he became a Christian during the Watergate episode, the news media and the public were very skeptical of him. No, a person like him cannot be a Christian. There must be something up his sleeves.

  John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, was the captain of a slave boat, bringing slaves from Africa to England . When he became a Christian, his friends would not believe it.

  But this is how Jesus works. He specializes in coming to the sinners, the rejects of the society, those that are despised. If you go to the prison, in this and in many other countries, you will find many of the worst criminals becoming Christians while imprisoned. One of them, Karla Faye Tucker, the infamous cruel murderer who was executed in 1998 became a Christian while on death row. Why? Because Jesus came by to visit her. Let's move on.

2.   Jesus has authority over the sinners.

  When Jesus called Levi, he rose and followed him. Like Andrew and Simon, James and John, it was immediate and prompt. This Levi had a great affinity for money and power. But when Jesus called him, he was willing to give up the power and money and followed. There is that power in Jesus that when he calls, no matter who, will respond to him. This is what is known as the irresistible grace

  Even to this day, Jesus still has that authority when he calls. When he calls, it is difficult to resist his grace. Yes, there are struggles, but we usually lose and give in to him.

  He may be calling some of you this morning to come and follow him. Later I will give you an opportunity to respond to his call.

3.   Jesus has the power to see beyond what meets the eyes.

  He called Levi. People, including you and I may be asking, what good was it to call him? Why not call a Roman official, or even better, the Roman governor, or the Emperor. Call the powerful and the influential ones in the world so that there is more clout around them. When you call Levi, you have to explain to others why you did that. This Levi may become a liability to you, Jesus.

  In the year 1500, a huge piece of marble was dragged into the city of Florence , Italy . It was intended to form a statue out of it. The great sculptor, Donatillo, took a look, saw the imperfections in the marble and rejected it. So this marble sat in the courtyard as a useless block. One day, another sculptor saw the block and resolved to do something about it. Two years later, on 1/25/1502, all the top artists, including Leonardo Di Vinci, was invited to the city. When the veil over the marble was pulled down, everyone applauded and agreed it was a master piece. Michelangelo's David, is one of the greatest art work in the world today. Michelangelo saw something no one else did.

  Jesus saw in Levi something no one else did. Levi later changed his name to Matthew, the writer of the gospel according to Matthew. To this day, we are still reading his narrative of Jesus.

  When Colson became a Christians in the early 70's, who would have imagined that he would start a prison ministry 10 years later? Who would have seen that the hatchet man of Nixon, 30 year later, is one of the most eloquent spokesman for the Christian message? But God did. He also saw something in you and me.

II.   Jesus associates himself with the sinners.

  After Levi responded to Jesus'' call, he invited Jesus and his disciples to his home for meal. This is the first of 50 some times the term disciple is used in Mark's writing. Please note that Levi also invited many of his friends. Who were his friends? What do you expect from a tax collector and a sinner? Many more tax collectors and sinners. Jesus, the one who had demonstrated his authority in his teachings and miracles, now in the same house as the social outcasts of the day. In vs.15, “ 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. ” They reclined at the table. This means it was a very formal meal, or as known as table fellowship. To be together at a table fellowship suggested a very intimate relationship. We also learn that many of the tax collectors and sinner have followed Jesus. We are not given the details, but we know a very simple fact: Jesus was hanging out with the worst people in that society.

  The Pharisees saw him. They were the teachers of the Law. They were known to be strict enforcers of the Old Testament laws and regulations. They set very high standards for the first century Jews. They were good at catching people in their moment of apparent disobedience to the laws. However, you know, people with very high standards sometimes can be harsh on others and easy for them to be hypocritical. This is how people of that day perceived the Pharisees. But here, they asked, vs.16, “ 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?”” Why did Jesus have this table fellowship with the sinners? Shouldn't Jesus know better than this?

  And what was Jesus'' response? vs.17, “ "“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” What Jesus said was really common sense to everyone there. The doctor would go to the sick. The whole would attend to the fractured. The strong should care for the weak. And in one breath, he also clearly stated his mission: he came to call the sinners. In another gospel narrative, its recorded as: he has come to call the sinners to repentance. Jesus is saying, “If you think you are righteous, you are good, you really have nothing to do with me. I only go to the sinners, the ones no one likes.” That is why he hangs out with the sinners, because they are ones that need him. They are the ones who are sick and need the doctor.

  Our society, including the church tells us, if you want success, you need to surround yourself with successful persons. In order to have a successful church, you need to hang around those successful pastors. But not Jesus; He associates himself with the sinners, the losers of the world

Conclusion:

  This morning you and I have been reading this narrative together. As we read about how Jesus calls the sinners, don't we all suddenly realize that we, too, are sinners? Yes, Levi was bad, but how about me? Compare to the fellow down the hall, I am really not that bad. But if I stand before God, then, it is a different story. Oswald Chambers wrote that if the spirit of God gives me a vision of what I am apart from the grace of God, I will know that there is no criminal who is half so bad as I can potentially be. This Jesus of the 1 st century that we have been reading, suddenly jumps out of the book and gets connected with us. He has also come to sinners like you and me.

  He has come to you and me and called us to repent and follow him. Some of us have already responded to us, but may be not you.That irresistible grace has come by to visit you and today, now. This call demanded a response from Levi, and now it also demands a respond from you. Shall we pray?

  Now, as I read that Jesus' mission was to go to the sinners, the one who were sick. Then suddenly, I begin to realize where are my sinner friends? Yes, just several years ago, all our friends were not believers, including us. That is understandable, isn't it? Just like in a wedding banquet, if there are more than one pastor attending, guess where they would put the pastors? At the same table, of course. Birds of the same color flock together. Now, having become a Christian, we have been so busy fellowshipping with other Christians. We go to church functions and are involved in so many ministries, we hang around Christians all the time. We can testify to the statistic that within two years of a person's conversion, he would have lost over 70% of his non-Christian friends. Another few years later, no more non-Christian friends are left. When there is an evangelistic meeting at church, we realized that we don't have any non-Christian friend to invite. We have become a light among all the lights, and salt with all the other salts in a salt-shaker. The darkness is out there, the decaying meat is out there.

  But Jesus is different. He spent time with the sinners, the outcasts. . I read a story about Tony Campolo, he is a well know preacher and college professor at the Eastern University in Pa. He was in Hawaii for a conference some years ago. He couldn't sleep at night so he went to an all-night diner, where he overheard a group of prostitutes talking. One mentioned that the next day was her 39 th birthday. And another one said, “What do you want? A birthday party?” The first prostitute said, “I've never had one in my whole life. Why should I expect one now.” So Campolo decided to conspire with the owner of the diner to throw her a party the next night. A cake was baked and the cries of “happy birthday” stunned this woman. She was shocked that anyone would go to this much trouble just for her. When she left, Campolo offered to pray and prayed for her salvation, for her life to change, and for God to be good to her. The prayer stunned the owner and asked, “You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”

  How about you and I? Where are our non-Christian friends? Are we so busy with each other that we don't have time for them anymore?

  Remember that DWI young lady? Does she have any friends who are Christians? If there is just one Christian who is willing to hang out with her, her story maybe different. Shall we pray?