Jesus ate with sinners because he came to rescue them. In Mark 2:13-17, he calls Levi, a despised tax collector, to follow him, then shares a meal with Levi’s disreputable friends. When religious leaders object, Jesus explains that doctors are for sick people. There are really only two kinds of people: those who know they need a Savior and those who think they don’t. Jesus came for the first group.
Setting the Scene in Mark 2:13-17
This is the second of five conflict stories Mark collects in chapters 2 and 3. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins. Now he shows who he is willing to forgive.
The setting is the shore of the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum. A major trade route, often called the Via Maris, passed nearby, connecting Egypt to Damascus. Capernaum also sat near the border between the territories of Herod Antipas and his brother Philip. That made it a natural place for a customs booth, where tax collectors charged tolls on goods passing through.
Calling a Hated Man
As Jesus walked along the lake, he stopped at that booth.
Mark 2:13-14 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
Levi is almost certainly the same person Matthew’s Gospel calls Matthew (Matthew 9:9). To understand how shocking this call was, you have to know how people felt about tax collectors. The system worked by contract. Tax collectors paid for the right to collect tolls, then charged whatever they could get away with to turn a profit. They worked on behalf of Herod and, ultimately, Rome. Many Jews saw them as greedy traitors who had sold out their own people. Later Jewish writings group tax collectors with robbers and murderers, and they were often barred from serving as witnesses in court because they couldn’t be trusted.
When the fishermen left their nets in Mark 1, they could always go back to fishing (and they did, in John 21). When Levi walked away from his booth, there was no going back. Someone else would take his contract. His decision was immediate and costly, and it showed that something in his heart had changed.
A Scandalous Dinner Party
Levi responded to Jesus’ call by throwing a party.
Mark 2:15-16 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 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?”
In the ancient Middle East, sharing a meal meant much more than it does today. Eating together was a sign of acceptance, friendship, and even solidarity. You didn’t share a table with just anyone. That is why the Pharisees were so offended. “Sinners” referred to people who were known for immoral lifestyles or who didn’t follow the strict purity rules the Pharisees considered essential. By eating with them, Jesus was publicly identifying with people respectable religious leaders avoided.
The name “Pharisee” likely comes from a word meaning “separated ones.” The Pharisees were deeply committed to obeying God’s law, and many were sincere. But their passion for purity led them to draw sharp lines between insiders and outsiders. They believed holiness meant keeping your distance from sinners. Jesus showed that true holiness moves toward sinners with grace.
The Doctor Came for the Sick
Jesus answered the Pharisees with a simple illustration.
Mark 2:17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
You don’t go to a doctor when you feel fine. You go when you know something is wrong. Jesus came as the Great Physician for spiritually sick people. But notice the irony in his words about “the righteous.” Jesus wasn’t saying the Pharisees were actually healthy. The Bible teaches that everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23). He was saying that people who think they are righteous don’t believe they need a doctor, so they never come to him for help.
In Matthew’s account of this same story, Jesus adds a line from the prophet Hosea and tells the Pharisees to go and learn what it means (Matthew 9:13).
Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
God has always cared more about a merciful heart than about religious performance. The Pharisees were careful about rituals but missed the heart of God, who loves to show mercy to people who don’t deserve it.
Two Kinds of People
We usually divide people into good people and bad people. Jesus divides them differently: those who know they are sick and those who think they are healthy. The apostle Paul understood which group he belonged to.
1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
The good news is that Jesus doesn’t require you to clean up before you come to him. He welcomes people exactly as they are and then begins to change them. Levi left his booth a tax collector and became an apostle and, according to early church tradition, the author of a Gospel. That is what grace does.
This passage also challenges those of us who already follow Jesus. Who do we eat with? Churches can easily become clubs for the healthy instead of hospitals for the sick. If Jesus spent time with people others avoided, his followers should too. That doesn’t mean joining in sin, but it does mean building real friendships with people who are far from God, so they can meet the Doctor through us.
The Takeaway
Jesus eats with sinners because he came to call them. He welcomed a despised tax collector and his friends, and he still welcomes anyone who admits their need for him. The only people Jesus can’t help are those who insist they don’t need help. So come to him honestly, and then follow his example by making room at your table for others.
