Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S7 || Answering the Call || Mark 2:13-22 || Session 7 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Can a socially shunned tax collector transform his life with a single invitation? Discover the powerful story of Levi, also known as Matthew, as he responds immediately to Jesus' call and experiences profound acceptance and change. We examine the dynamic actions of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, focusing on His mission to call sinners, not the self-righteous, and discuss how we, too, are invited to respond promptly to such a transformative call in our own lives. Join us for these thought-provoking insights, and may they inspire your own spiritual journey.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We do a verse-by-verse Bible study through the Word of God. Today we are in Mark, chapter 2, so if you have your copy of the Word of God, turn there. We've been looking at this gospel which, again, is a gospel of action, a gospel of going and doing. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We're going to dive in at chapter 2, starting at verse 13. Steve, can you read from 13 down to 17?.
Speaker 2:And he went out again by the seashore and all the people were coming to him and he was teaching them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax booth and he said to him Follow me. And he got up and followed him. It happened that he was reclining at the table in his house and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and his disciples for there were many of them and they were following him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? And hearing this? Jesus said to them it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Speaker 1:It says in verse 13 that he goes out by the seashore and is teaching and, as Mark's custom, he doesn't tell us what Jesus taught. He merely mentions that Jesus was a teacher. Mark is interested in what he does, what he has accomplished, and not so much the ideas behind it. Therefore it says he was teaching them, jesus was teaching and he was teaching everywhere. Then it has the story of the calling of Matthew. He goes and he finds Matthew, son of Alphaeus, and says follow me. So the sense here, steve, in this story does Matthew hesitate at all?
Speaker 2:Matthew doesn't hesitate. This is the seventh disciple that he calls, as we see here. It also says that Matthew is sitting at a tax booth, so that's key in that he is a tax collector of customs. He's one who takes and puts tariffs and collects money. That way, there were two types of tax collectors one of income tax, personal taxes for the people, and the other ones were these publicans that did tax collection on tariffs. Of the two, the ones who did tariff collections were the ones that were thought of the least among the people. They really didn't like them, because they felt that they were working in conjunction with the Romans who were occupying them and overseeing them.
Speaker 1:The tax collectors were generally Jewish people that had at least the population views that they had sold out to the Romans. Because the tax collectors had the power of the Roman soldiers to enforce the collection of the tax. They had the power of the Roman government to do this and of course no one likes taxes in any country in any age, but in this age especially, the Jews really hated the Romans. The Romans ruled with an iron fist and the end of a sword. The tax collectors had that as a power. What the tax collectors could say got enforced by very brutal Roman soldiers.
Speaker 2:I think that really goes to your original question. Did Matthew hesitate? No, I think one reason why he didn't hesitate was because they more or less were shunned by the community because of what you were just talking about. So here comes this man whose reputation had already started getting out of going through the countryside, healing and stuff like that. Here he comes and approaches you and says, hey, come, follow me, to me. I get a little bit of a sense where this is maybe a relief to Matthew, where he's been looked down upon for so many years because he is a tax collector. And here's this man doing all these miracles and things like that saying hey, come, follow me, be a part of my group.
Speaker 1:Matthew would have been wealthier than the average Jewish citizen simply because he had the ability to tack on whatever his fee would be and use the power of the Roman soldiers to enforce that. He would have had money in his pocket. He would have been more wealthy than the average person. But what we see here we kind of read between the lines is exactly what you said, steve. Money doesn't bring happiness. He wasn't really satisfied in his job. It doesn't bring meaning and purpose in life. All money does is give you the ability to buy a distraction, but it doesn't really satisfy it.
Speaker 1:Here's the question. I think we can apply this to our day. Jesus walks up and says follow me. He gives us the same request. Still today, the same request is to follow Jesus. He walks up to each one of us and says follow me Now. What happens, steve, if we hesitate? Follow me Now. What happens, steve, if we hesitate? Matthew didn't hesitate, he just followed. Well, what happened today? If we get the command, request whatever you want to call it from Jesus follow me. What happens if we hesitate? What's the risk?
Speaker 2:Well, the risk is that we don't ever follow him. The scripture says today is a day of salvation. Every time that we turn down a request to follow Jesus Christ, and that, in today's way, comes through people giving their testimony to us and then asking do you want to follow Jesus Christ? That's the way that it's done today. Every time that you turn away or turn that down, you risk number one never being asked that question again. Number two never yourself coming to the position where you will follow him. I think every time that you reject a request to follow Jesus Christ, believe in him. I think there's a little bit of a callous that begins to build up on people's hearts.
Speaker 1:Jesus walks up and says follow me. And it's that simple. What pulls us back is the world, the flesh and the devil. They want to keep us back. They want to keep us away from following Christ. Really, as you said, today is the day of salvation. We need to respond just as Matthew did Soon, as we hear the command follow me. It's really that simple. We should, then, do it immediately, simply because if we don't, then the distractions of the world could keep us away forever. Matthew follows him immediately. He drops what he's doing, he leaves the table. You almost get the sense. He sets the pen down and just walks off. That's the sense from the passage here. But the very next verse verse 15, what is the first thing Matthew does when he starts?
Speaker 2:following Jesus, he invites him over to dinner. So we see there that in Matthew's house and that's the terminology that is used here that he's in there with many other tax collectors. So he's invited his fellow tax collectors who have been shunned by the community just like he has, because they're tax collectors and sinners. One of the terms for prostitutes were sinners. There was kind of a grouping that they put in for these ladies who were prostitutes. This is kind of a strange environment in a way to see Jesus, some of his other followers who were with him, now sitting the dinner with these tax collectors and sinners.
Speaker 1:Tax collectors and sinners were people again that the more godly people, the more high society people would look down their nose at. That's the crowd that the good church people don't hang around with because they're of those people. You know who those people are. Right, they hang around with sinners and do questionable things. So good godly church people don't hang around with them.
Speaker 1:But here we have Jesus, no less than our Lord, hanging around with sinners, hanging around with the lower class, the people that the more righteous parts of society look down upon. That's who he's hanging around with parts of society look down upon. That's who he's hanging around with, matthew. The first thing he does he invites everybody he knows, all the other tax collectors and the sinners come meet my friend Jesus. That's what we should do as soon as we start following Jesus is introduce our friends to him, invite our friends over and say I've got somebody you ought to meet. His name's Jesus. Then, in the next verse verse 16, the critics are always present. The critics are there and they come up with a question. What's the question they ask once the critics see what Jesus is doing?
Speaker 2:The question is why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? It's a straightforward question to the followers of Jesus who are there. They're looking in and seeing what's going on. There were three stages that the Sanhedrin would go through if somebody came up and said they were the Messiah or there was some type of a movement that was going. The first was just to go and observe, and if it had a credence of something that was building, they'd come back to the Sanhedrin and report that. And the next step was to actually go and then start inquiring of the person themselves. At this point I think they're still observing and that's why they're asking the question of his disciples around him. They're not asking Jesus the question directly, but their question is just that why is it this man again? Why is this man that's going out doing healing and teaching with authority and other things? Why is he eating with tax collectors and sinners?
Speaker 1:One of the first things I think up here, steve, is that we have here our Lord doing something good. He's going to people that need a godly witness, the group of people. If anybody in the town needed somebody to come along and sort of nudge them over towards godliness, it would be this crowd. So he's out there doing ministry by reaching these people, but the critics look in the door and say why is he talking to those people? What I always think of is that there's always critics. There's always critics If we feel God has brought us to a ministry, there always seems to be somebody out on the sidelines throwing rocks saying why are you doing that?
Speaker 1:You ought to be doing something else. I think if we are to always listen to the critics, we'll never get anything done. If we stop ministry because somebody criticizes us, then we'll never do anything. I think here this is a lesson. We should keep doing what God has set us to do. If God has set us on a path towards ministry and we'll see this as we keep going through this in the next chapter there's going to be times where people, or different people, are trying to pull Jesus away from his ministry, and this is one of those, the religious crowd comes to Jesus and tries to pull him away from his ministry. In the following sections, his family is going to come up and try to pull him away from doing ministry and even the disciples are going to say Jesus, why are we doing this? He keeps the path because that's the one that God has set him on. What do you think their attitude is when they ask this question? Why is he eating with tax collectors and sinners? What's the attitude there? Why do you think?
Speaker 2:they ask that question? I think they ask the question with disdain. I don't think that the intent was a truly inquisitive, wondering question why is he doing that? I think it was one of disdain. This guy that you're following, this person that's doing all of this, why is he eating with the sinners and tax collectors? It was one of. That's not what religious people do. That's not what the Messiah would do. They don't eat with sinners and tax collectors because, after all, being pure, staying pure by following the Mosaic rules, was a way that they could then be in good standing with the temple and do the things of the temple. Going and eating with tax collectors and sinners, in a way, it was a way of making oneself unclean. I think it was a question that was asked with disdain, not really a question of true curiosity.
Speaker 1:So, make no mistake, the crowd that Jesus was sitting down at table and eating with were indeed sinners. These were people that were committing sins, that were not godly, that were away from the Lord. The people asking the question, the Pharisees there, were saying why so the religious crowd, the people that were trying very hard to be godly, looks in the door at Jesus eating with these true sinners and saying why is he doing that? As you said, it's more of a criticism. The idea here is strongly, he ought not be in there doing that. That's what they're saying. They're not just asking the question, they're saying he shouldn't be there. He shouldn't be in there with those people Because good, quote-unquote, good church-going people, good temple people, we don't go with those people. What happens with that Steve? That crowd never gets witness to, they never get a witness because we're not down there identifying with them.
Speaker 1:The next phase is, yes, we should indeed, as Christians, reach out to the unchurched and try to be winsome in a way, not just criticize them, but we should be winsome in a way that we would present Jesus to them and present godliness to them, so that they would want to get closer to Christ. Here's the practical, everyday question. Though the Pharisees here were indeed right in one sense that we shouldn't go out and allow ourselves to be tempted to sin. Right, we shouldn't be drawn towards the world to where we would get sucked into sin. How can we go out and witness to people like Jesus rightfully did, but see, he was perfect and I'm not? If I go hang around with sinners, then there's a strong temptation for me to go do the sin. How can I, on a practical sense, and how can everybody else in the church on a practical sense, go witness to people that are sinners in the world and in sinful situations and win them towards Jesus without me getting sucked into the sin.
Speaker 2:I think that it comes to the answer that Jesus gave. His answer is one that sick people need a physician, and I think that that's how we need to look at it. Once we become believers, we want our friends and family to become believers, and those are the people that we immediately go to. Most of those friends and family we don't necessarily think are doing bad things and we want to see them come to Christ. Outside of that immediate area, then, are people that are maybe not doing things that we think are the right things to do.
Speaker 2:I think we do kind of tend to shy away from them, but I think that we should look at them just like we do our friends and family, and look at everyone and say this person needs salvation, this person needs to be reconciled back to God. Therefore, we need to do what we can in order to witness to them, to do that, but yet going into it of saying I'm not going to get sucked in to the worldly things that they're doing, and I think that we do have to have that mindset. I am there representing Jesus Christ to invite them to believe in him, and in doing that, I'm the one that's in control of the question and I'm not going to get sucked in. I'm not going to befriend them to the point that they start influencing me. I think we need to keep the general perspective of that. We're there to influence them, for Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things we can do, just on a practical sense, is open the mirror of Scripture and look at ourselves honestly in the mirror and say which are the sins am I legitimately spiritually strong in that I'm not tempted to do? Which are the spiritual sins that I'm spiritually weak in that I'm not tempted to do? Which are the spiritual sins that I'm spiritually weak in and I am tempted to do? And the things that I'm spiritually weak in I really don't need to be going and being exposed to that because my flesh is weak and I might fall. Other sins I can be around all the time I'm not tempted by. Those might be the better area of ministry, but we just need to be honest with ourselves and not get sucked into sin ourselves. We also don't need to be like these people and never go and speak to non-believers simply because they're kind of sinful, right.
Speaker 1:That's not how Christianity works. With this whole idea again, matthew invites all of his friends. Jesus comes over. The Pharisees come to the door and say well, why are they doing that? If we look at verse 17, he says I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What does he mean there? What's the point of that?
Speaker 2:Well, all of these Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes, they felt that they were righteous before God because they kept the law. They did their best that they could to follow not only the Mosaic law but also these oral tradition, the oral law that the Pharisees brought to the table. They're thinking that we're a group of people that are righteous before God because we're keeping this law. These sinners and tax collectors that are there, they're not keeping the law of God and the pharisaical law. Therefore, we're more righteous than they are. I think in Jesus's answer back to them, it's a direct shot at them, so to speak, of saying I came to the people that need me and want me, versus other people who don't really think that they need me or really don't want me. What?
Speaker 1:he said was I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The idea here is that if people are convinced that they're righteous, they won't repent. They won't respond to a call to repentance because they don't think they need to repent. The people that realize, oh yeah, I'm a sinner and I do need to repent, those are the people that would respond. Think of it like this If you don't think you're sick, you're not going to go to the doctor, right? It's the people that say, yeah, I'm sick, I need help. Then I go to the doctor. If people know they're sinners, jesus is calling them to repentance. Now, were the Pharisees truly sinners? Well, yeah, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but they just didn't think they were. They thought they were righteous. That's why he's saying I'm not here to call the people that don't believe they're sinners. I'm here to call the people that realize, yes, I'm a sinner. Now, in verse 17,. And again back in verse 10 as well, these passages equate healing with salvation, right, because that's what he was doing here. He was saying to them in verse 17, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. So he says I'm calling them. Well, it's calling them to salvation. He's equating their healing with salvation. That's the picture, that's the parable, if you will. There's a parallel here in these passages between salvation and being healed of sickness. It's even mentioned in the epistles as well that we are called to be healed of our sin problem.
Speaker 1:A little bit of a quick note on theology here. Many theologians focus on the idea of dead and trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2.1 and other places. This type of theology says that lost people are spiritually dead, incapable of desiring to be saved. In Romans 2.11,. None seek after God. However, passages like what we just read in Mark 2 also have sickness as a picture of lost people. That's what he's saying here. I didn't come to call the righteous. It's not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. He's clearly, clearly using sickness as an illustration for the lost person. I just think we need to have a balanced view of that whenever we get to the idea of dead and trespasses and sins.
Speaker 1:The next passage let's move on and start at verse 18 and read down through verse 22, says this John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting and they came and said to him why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees were fasting. And they came and said to him why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and they will fast in that day. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will. They ask him, what were the Pharisees concerned with there?
Speaker 2:Well, they were fasting along with John the Baptist's disciples. So this was again a Pharisaical Judaism, a type of fast that wasn't necessarily a fast that had to do with any type of worshiping of God. They're asking him why aren't you and your disciples fasting the same way that the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples are fasting?
Speaker 1:What is it about fasting in particular that they were worried about? Well, fasting was this religious thing that they had developed. This didn't come out of the Mosaic law. It came out of the additions that the Jewish leaders had put onto the Mosaic law. They were about keeping rules, keeping traditions and doing religious activities. That was the fasting. Was this Jewish tradition? There was no Old Testament command to fast here. Fasting was this tradition. To them, fasting was a sign of doing things in order to be righteous. Now, there's a purpose for fasting. It's still a practice. That's a good spiritual practice today. For fasting, it's still a practice. That's a good spiritual practice today. But these people were saying okay, you're not fasting, there's a problem here. That's what they were hinting at. What was Jesus's response to that question?
Speaker 2:His response basically was that I'm here now, but there's going to be a coming time whenever I'm not going to be here. Now is the time for me to be doing my healing and preaching and proclaiming and teaching. That's the time and he uses the analogy of a bridegroom and association with a wedding. But that's his basic response is I'm here now. There's things that I need to be doing now in order to heal the people and show them that I am the Messiah, the one who has come. That's now. There's going to be a time whenever I'm not going to be here in the future.
Speaker 1:He uses this idea of the bridegroom in a wedding feast. Well, while the bridegroom's there, it's time for celebration, there's a wedding. Well, he's obviously making himself be the bridegroom and he is there. So he says now is not the time for fasting. When I'm here, when is the time for fasting? Well, it's in the scheme of biblical history, it's today. It's now in the church age, because Jesus has gone away. Now we fast. What should be our view of fasting today? Is there a benefit to it at all? What should be our answer to fasting? I think there is a benefit to it at all. What should be our answer to fasting.
Speaker 2:I think there is a benefit to it. I think the examples that we should use, though, are ones that we see like with Daniel, for example, and some of the other people in the Old Testament. They fasted because they were seeking the Lord. They were fasting on behalf of their nation or behalf of their people group. They were also, possibly looking for specific answers from the Lord. That way, it was something that was between them and God, and it was done for that particular purpose. So I think, in today's time, that we should fast whenever we feel compelled to fast, whenever we're trying to have a connection, a closer connection, a relationship with God or Jesus, and seeking something from him. I think that that's a good way to fast. Now. It doesn't mean that you might not have other reasons to fast. I think some people might do it more often than others, but I think, in today's time, that's something that is there.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes the act of fasting confuses people today. It's not the case that somebody who fasts more or fasts longer is more holy. That's not how fasting works. It's also not the case that even if I deny myself food, then somehow I'm more of a holy person. That's not what it's saying. Not at all.
Speaker 1:The purpose for fasting is one it can show a control over the flesh. If I can not eat when my flesh wants to eat, then I can not do other things when my flesh wants to do other sins that my flesh might want to do. If I can show a control over the food, then I can show a control over the other sins that my flesh does. The other reason is that when we feel the hunger pangs, then that would remind us to pray. Oftentimes in the Bible you'll see fast and pray because oftentimes that's set aside as a time of prayer. Every time I'm hungry my stomach says feed me. That reminds me I'm going to pray about whatever it is that I'm doing this fast over, so it helps us to pray. Then you can also transfer that control over to the prayer for whatever it is and avoiding whatever other sin that you're trying to avoid. That's why you fast and it's done today in the church age, and not when Jesus is here. What does he say is going to happen when he gets back? Marriage, supper of the lamb, right, we're going to have a nice feast when he comes back, so that won't be a time for fasting.
Speaker 1:Then he tells these two little stories. There's the new cloth on the old cloth. He says no one takes an old cloth with a tear in it and then sews a new cloth on it In those days. He's talking about cloth that would shrink when you wash it, right. So there's some types of cloth, like cotton, that when it's first used it'll shrink. You don't take an old garment that's already shrunk and you put a new piece of cloth on it that's unshrunk. If it shrinks, it just tears and makes the tear worse. And then the other one was the wineskins. You've got new wine and old wineskins. It's something you don't do because the new wine still has some fermentation going on. It builds up pressure and the old wineskins are a little weaker and it'll just break. Steve, I see two different reasons why he would tell those stories. But what do you say? Why would he give those two illustrations?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that there are two ways to look at it, and one is possibly talking about the old covenant versus the new covenant, the old covenant being the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant, of course, being initiated by Jesus whenever he goes to the cross with his death, burial and resurrection.
Speaker 2:That's spoken of in Jeremiah 31. The other way to look at it is the actual Mosaic law that was given versus this oral tradition that the Pharisees had come up with, these 1,500 other laws from the Mishnah that were kind of fencing around the original 613 laws from the Mosaic laws. In that old and new perspective, I think Jesus possibly is saying that, look, you don't take the old things and put new things in old things, because the new wine is going to rip the old wineskins apart. The new patch is going to rip the old clothing whenever you wash it. They're not compatible with each other and I think that's basically what he's saying. The old and the new are not compatible with each other. So whether you take the one of the new covenant and the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, or the Mosaic law versus the Pharisaical law, the general gist is they're not compatible with each other.
Speaker 1:They're not compatible with each other, because the new one is a covenant of grace. It's a covenant of principles. The old one was a covenant of rule keeping. We have to fast so many times. We have to keep this rule and that rule. That's the old cloth, that's the old wineskin. The new one is we are in the age of grace. We work off of love.
Speaker 1:A system of love is not going to fit into an old system of rule keeping. The other possible way of looking at it is the idea of a regenerated Christian. Regenerated Christian doesn't need nor want, nor can use a set of rules to try to keep them righteous, because we have the New Testament, holy Spirit, the principles that will keep us righteous. The new life in Christ will not fit into the old life of rule keeping and law keeping, and Christ will not fit into the old life of rule keeping and law keeping. So that's what I think he's saying here Tremendous, tremendous lesson. We'll pull it to the curb for today, but there's more great things to reason through in the Gospel of Mark and we trust that you'll be back here with us next time to do that.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
