Sermon Tone Analysis

Copyright January 22, 2023 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

One of the problems with serious illnesses (cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's etc.) is that you very often don’t see it coming.

You can be sick and not know it until a major event happen and at that point the disease has such a head start, radical and drastic action needs to be taken, and even then, it is often too late.

On the other hand, when you know you aren’t feeling well or that “something is off,” it doesn’t matter how many people tell you there is “nothing wrong.”

You know there is something wrong and we must push until someone listens to us or helps us.

We are going to talk about the healthy and unhealthy today.

However, the health we will talk about is spiritual health.

We will see that Jesus had a sharp eye for spiritual sickness.

He sees others in a way that others do not.

Our text is Mark 2:13-17

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.

14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth.

“Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him.

So Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

(There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)

16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.

I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

The Life of a Tax-Collector

I’m pretty sure that whenever good Jews walked past a Tax-collector they sneered at him.

Tax-collectors were not seen as true Jews.

They were seen as traitors because they were helping to oppress the Jews.

According to one source, Roman taxes totaled one percent of a man’s income.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it?

But there were other taxes: customs taxes, import and export taxes, toll bridges, crop taxes, sales tax, property taxes, and special taxes when there was a war, building project or campaign to finance.

There were so many taxes that it was impossible for the common man to keep track of what they owed.

This opened the door for the tax-collector to skim off the top.

In some cases, the tax-collector used extortion and gouged the people to line their own pockets.

This is why John the Baptist advised those repentant tax collectors who came to him to, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed” (Lk 3:13) Even Jesus noted their unpopularity when he said, in teaching about an unrepentant sinner: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector” (Mt 18:17)

Tax collectors were unclean by virtue of their relationship with the unclean Romans.

This means they could not attend synagogue or go to the Temple.

For most tax collectors, we have to imagine it was a very lonely life.

This is what makes the call of Matthew so remarkable.

Why would Jesus choose a tax collector?

(Why would He choose any of us?)

It is unlikely that this was the first time Matthew had seen Jesus.

Why would he respond to someone who was a stranger to him?

We are left to only imagine how he knew about Jesus.

Another remarkable thing is how Matthew responded as quickly as Peter, Andrew, James and John to the invitation of Jesus.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John all left their fishing business to follow Jesus.

However, they could always go back to fishing.

For Matthew, this was a “burn your bridges” kind of decision.

To walk away from his job as a tax collector was irrevocable.

Matthew was willing to bet his life on Jesus.

The invitation of Jesus was specific.

He did not ask him to sign a card, walk and aisle, raise a hand or do some work (like get baptized).

Instead, He asked Him to “follow Him.”

This was meant to alter the direction of his life.

It meant being willing to be instructed by Jesus and to learn (and put into practice) the lessons He taught.

The Confrontation

We are told Matthew invited Jesus and the disciples as well as “tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

(There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers)” to dinner.

Isn’t it interesting that it says there were many of this kind among Jesus’ followers?

I think this shows us that Jesus saw beyond the reputation of people.

He looked past their failures and saw their potential.

He wasn’t concerned about social standing, He was only concerned about the heart.

It is a sad reality that we are often blinded by superficial things when we meet someone.

It might be a bad feeling, some gossip we have heard, a person’s skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, or something in their appearance that keeps us from seeing the person that is beneath all these things.

In fact, some church growth formulas call for you to target some “types” of people.

That is not the way of our Lord.

Jesus saw (and sees) the heart of a person.

As his followers, we should work to see beyond the superficial.

It must be a deliberate choice.

We first have to be conscious of the way we are responding to someone.

Why do we draw the conclusions we do about people?

And then second, we have to squint to see beyond the superficial things and labels given to people.

I wonder how many people have been impacted in their life because they were labeled, “slow” or “a problem child” when in reality, they were just different, learned differently or even just bored?

One of the things I enjoy about shows like America’s Got Talent or Brittan’s Got Talent is that every once in a while someone comes on the stage and you immediately suspect this is going to be a horrible audition.

They have not sung a note or done a single thing and we are already drawing conclusions.

And then, something magical happens . . .

they begin to perform, and they are absolutely stunning.

At that moment our preconceived notions are shattered and for that brief moment we realize how shallow we are.

Unfortunately, there many people in our lives who never get the chance to open their mouths and prove how special they are before we dismiss them.

Jesus saw beyond the stereotypes.

If Jesus had embraced the stereotypes most of the New Testament books would have never been written.

The Pharisees (acting much like we might) drew immediate conclusions.

“How good of a teacher could Jesus be” they reasoned, “if he would spend time with such scum as this?”

The Pharisees (which means “separated ones”) were made up of Torah-concerned men who were concerned with the ritual purity of the people.

They focused on the rules that classified things, times, and persons according to degrees of holiness.

They wanted to be holy before God and urged others to likewise be holy.

They came up with many laws to help people keep the laws of God.

To the Pharisees, this dinner was defiling those who should be pure.

To Jesus, this dinner was a chance to make new friends, build new bridges, and hopefully transform some lives.

Jesus was not concerned about ranking people, He looked to save and transform people.

The Principle

In a sense, the Pharisees were saying to Jesus, “How could you be sent from God if you spend time with people like this?”

They shouldn’t have asked the question because Jesus was ready for them.

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.

I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

The first part of the answer would not have upset the Pharisees at all.

They considered themselves healthy (and maybe even a little superior).

And, they considered these people to be unhealthy or “sick.”

But it was the second part of the answer that must have stung.

“I have not come to call those who THINK they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Doctors have a hard time treating people who believe they are fine.

They don’t think they need medicine, they don’t need therapy, and they don’t even feel they need the unnecessary Doctor visit.

And when it comes to our spiritual lives, if we feel we are spiritually in good health, why would we need a Savior?

Sadly, I think sometimes the church is guilty of putting all our efforts to getting good people into the churches, when we should be trying to bring lost people (sick people) into the church.

But, what how do you define a sick person?