“In this three-part series, we are going to explore this question: What kind of people enter into God’s kingdom? We are going to ask this because the first time Jesus spoke in Mark’s gospel, he said, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). Jesus came. The time is fulfilled and, with him, came the kingdom of God. It is at hand. ”
Jesus' Kingdom Is for Sinners
“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.” (Mark 2:15)
A Going-Away Party
Now, the day of salvation in your life should be a day of celebration, and that's how Levi saw things. He invited Jesus to his house and invited his friends, many tax collectors and sinners. They gathered around the table and, as was their custom, reclined as they feasted together. It was a celebration, but also a farewell party. Levi had a new life, calling, and adventure in front of him.
Sinners
And, just in case someone thought Jesus' call of a tax collector was a temporary oversight, an exception rather than the rule, he went into the house and ate with Levi's friends. They are called tax collectors and sinners. For the religious leaders, it was offensive enough that Jesus called Levi, but now Jesus' offense metastasizes.
This is now policy: Jesus came to sinners. He makes zero effort to avoid them and seems to pursue and even prefer them. But who are these sinners? Why does Mark -- and Jesus -- give them this title?
It is possible these were the ruffians and outcasts of town. One would expect an unsavory sort of people to connect with the tax collectors, so perhaps Levi's friends all lived on the fringes of society. So maybe we should envision something like the "Mos-Eisley spaceport, where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" (Obi-Wan Kenobi).
It is also possible these were "sinners" according to the religious leaders' definition, people who did not abide by rigid pharisaic standards. In other words, common people. For them, the rules were just too tough, so they gave up. The Pharisees then referred to them as sinners, people living outside the strict standards set by their traditions. This is the more common view of the identity of these "sinners."
It is likely a mix of both types, however. People living in open rebellion, but also people who couldn't keep up with the legalistic codes of their leaders -- common people, non-Pharisees, all gathered together in Levi's home. This meant they lived sinfully rather than religiously. They didn't care what the religious community thought of them.
Old Testament Foreshadowing
This table is one of the most beautiful portraits of Jesus we have. There he is. No pretension. No judgment. Eating and drinking with the outcasts of society, the tax collectors and sinners. And, since Mark is presenting Jesus as the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah-Christ, this episode is meant to shock the reader.
But should we be shocked? All through the Old Testament, God dispensed grace to the sinner. He chose Noah, a man who succumbed to the debauchery of drunkenness after the flood. He chose Abraham, a man who often gave into fear and half-obedience to God. He chose Isaac, a passive man who resisted God's plans. He chose Jacob, a conniver and deceiver who spent the first half of his life manipulating everyone to his advantage. He chose David, a man who committed adultery and murder when seated on the throne of Israel.
This is the same God who chose Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, to become an ancestor of Jesus and a hero in Israel. This is the same God who chose to bless a widow in pagan Zarephath and a leprous commander of the evil Syrian army. This is the same God who chose to forgive the citizens of the barbaric city of Ninevah after their wholesale repentance after Jonah's preaching.
He even gave grace to Ahab, the most wicked king of Israel's history. After page after page recording the terrors of Ahab's life, when Ahab finally repented, God gave him grace (1 Kings 21:29).
Over and over again, God is presented as ready to forgive the sinner. He even says it's part of his name!
The Lord passed before (Moses) and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6–7, ESV).
The Church Age
And after Jesus ascended, God's reach to the tax collectors and sinners continued. For the first ten years, the church remained predominantly Jewish, but it reached the regular folks of Israel. Then, after a decade, the Spirit unleashed them upon the nations. The whole world began to hear the hope of the gospel message.
And that world was far different from the one the exclusively Jewish church had grown up in. The Roman world was a bastion of all sorts of sins. But that didn't stop the church-- and the gospel -- from going to the highways and hedges (Luke 14:23). They compelled people to come, preaching the love of Christ so that God's house could be filled.
And it worked! People began placing their faith in Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners submitted themselves to Christ. In places like Rome, Ephesus, and Corinth, the church was established. There's a little line from 1 Corinthians I love so much. After recounting various sins incompatible with God's kingdom, Paul said:
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11, ESV).
Notice that phrase: and such were some of you. Paul knew the Corinthian church members had been saved from darkness. They each had a past. The image is that of a new humanity started by Jesus!
The Messianic Banquet
But all that is a mere foreshadowing of the great marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). The song of heaven says to Jesus:
"You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God..." (Revelation 5:9–10, ESV).
As I said earlier, we've already learned quite a bit about Jesus' kingdom at this point in Mark. But now we learn Jesus' kingdom is for sinners. For this, we rejoice. Why? Because we are sinners!
(Friend of Sinners, Part 3 - available 9/1/20)
(Part 1 available here)
