Mark 2:16

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

From Background Notes [BN] for March 3^rd/4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The origin of the Pharisees (Perushim) seems to be in the days after the exile in Babylon (500 B.C.E.) when they were known as the Hasidim.

During the days of the Maccabees, many of them led the movement to get rid of Greek influence in Jewish life. That intention continued into the days of Jesus. The right wing of the party was led by Rabbi Shammai. It advocated a harsh disciplining of Jewish life, excluding sick, weak and nonobservant Jews from the community. Some Shammaites were involved in hostile actions against the Romans. They were intent on building up a strong army of Yahweh by strict interpretations of Torah. The left wing of the party, led by Rabbi Hillel (in Jesus' day by Gamaliel), advocated a more moderate approach, leaving room for more than one interpretation of Torah and seeking some form of compromise with the occupying Roman power. It seems that the right wing led the opposition to Jesus.

Jesus' response is not to wait for the disciples to stumble around with an embarrassed reply. He quotes a well known Jewish proverb: “Who needs the doctor? Strong or sick?” In this way Jesus presents a whole new way of looking at people like the Levite and other non-observant Jews. "Fine", he says, "I accept that they are sick. But isn't that an even greater reason for us to bring them together around this table so that through the true teaching of Torah they can become well again? My being here, far from an infraction of Torah, fulfills its very purpose, namely, to restore the fallen people of God and make them once more fully participating members of Israel. You want to write them off and spend your time only with the 'strong'. I have finally come to finally call not righteous Israelites but sinful ones. At least with me they have hope of true recovery.

"These are powerful words: "I have come". They stand on a par with earlier words spoken in the presence of the paralytic: "Son of Man". Jesus is "the coming one", even as John predicted he would be. The king has arrived, he has come. And around him he gathers all those who stand in need of restoration. This Levite who once abandoned his priestly role for the corrupt profession of tax farming has finally been called back into the joyful, celebrating community forming around Jesus. And with him, many others have also decided to "follow Jesus" who had been written off as tax farmers and non-observant Jews. Jesus writes no one off, but celebrates with them in their return to the community of faith as his disciples.

In this way new disciples join with Jesus. They, like Matthew-Levi, take their place at the table where he invites them to come. They are hardly qualified by official standards to share in the kingdom of God, but that does not deter Jesus. Calling such persons is costly to Jesus, for it implicates him in the shabby side of Judaism— the side shunned by the Pharisees and the Sopherim. So be it, Jesus seems to be saying by his actions. Making disciples involves healing the sick of heart and life, and it means accepting the shame often associated with those of such despised professions as the one taken up by Levi. But just as Jesus needed to sit in the boat to call his original disciples, so he must also sit at the table where the needy of this world come to find the only true bread able to give them life. Such is the call of discipleship and the cost attached to those who want to be Jesus’ followers.  [BN, 8]

Join us this week in Study & Worship at ChicagoFirstChurch of the Nazarene –

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm