MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 2:13-17

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THE GREAT matter which engages our attention in this passage in Mark's Gospel is the difference of attitude between Jesus and the Pharisees. This is important because it is crucial from the point of view of personal salvation, and also from the point of view of the right attitude of the church towards other people who don't come up to the standards of the law of God.

But before we come to this important matter let us notice two things. The first is that again we find Jesus engaged in teaching, and see again that this was the chief concern of his ministry. In fact Jesus is continuing his teaching when he answers the criticism of the Pharisees. These days there tends to be an impatience with teaching, and there is a feeling that all have a contribution to make, and the way of learning is best done by discussion. There is no doubt that discussion is a valuable means of clarifying learning, but it can't take us further than we are at the moment. Discussion so often degenerates into just going over our ignorance and prejudices. We need to be taught so that our understanding may grow and be extended.

The other preliminary thing to note is the effectual call of Matthew or Levi as he is called in this passage. It is easy enough to read the account and miss the extraordinary character of what happened. Can you imagine a person in a lucrative and congenial employment, leaving it simply because someone comes and asks him to do so? Yet that is precisely what happened to Levi. This is an example of the effectual saving call of God to salvation and obedience. This is seen to be the case in the story because Jesus was sitting down with Matthew's friends afterwards, and it is plain the conversation was concerning God's way for them all in contrast to the way they were living at present. It is only by the saving and effectual call of God by his Spirit that anyone is saved from their sins, and believes in Christ as saviour, and thereafter lives for God. If we are Christians we need to humbly and continually thank God for his call to us, which was solely due to his sovereign grace and love. We would not be Christians otherwise and enjoy the blessings of the Gospel.

Out of Jesus consorting with Matthew and his friends came the criticism of Jesus by the Pharisees. The Pharisees would never have contemplated socialising with such people as Matthew's friends, because their way of life was so contrary to the law of God as they knew it. They felt, no doubt, that they were condoning sin by such an association, and to uphold God's moral law they needed to make the importance of keeping the law plain by avoiding contact with these people, and that such living was sinful and opposed by God. There was a further result of this attitude. The Pharisees began to think of themselves as righteous and the ones who, by virtue of their exemplary lives, were in God's favour. They believed that God was particularly pleased with them because they were so good. They believed they deserved God's blessing and favour. They had begun to look down on others in pride.

The same attitude is seen today in church life. There is moral indignation against those who transgress the law of God as these self-righteous people see it, and a readiness to condemn and reject people on the basis of their behaviour. This is done for the commendable reason of seeking to uphold moral values, and make plain what sin is, but very soon such people are believing that they have a special right to God's favour because they are so good.

Jesus was not like this. He did not feel that it compromised his Father's glory to associate with sinners. Even though he hated their sin, he loved them even though he knew better than any other exactly how bad these people were, and how evil sin is. He associated with them because he wanted to help and bless them.

The way of the Pharisee simply alienates those who see they are despised and condemned, and gives the sinner a totally wrong view of God, as a deity who is ready to condemn them unless they change their ways and pull their socks up and earn his favour. Whatever Christians who hold this moral high may say with their lips concerning the freeness of the Gospel, their actions and their condemnation say something quite different, that God will only love if we are good and the way to God's favour is by our doing good. In contrast the way of Jesus, never gave the impression that sin was good or to be something we can be indifferent to. In fact quite the reverse. The people Jesus associated with knew Jesus loved them, and that he did not look down on them, and that he cared for them. They learnt in this love that Jesus was ready and willing to do everything to deliver them. Thus they responded in faith and obedience, and found a new desire to please this loving Saviour.

This must be our way as we relate to people. They must see Jesus in us as we love them as Jesus loves them, and as he has loved us. This way we come beside people freely acknowledging that we are just like them, the only difference being that we have experienced the forgiving love of Jesus, and this has blessed our lives.

The great danger of the self-righteous way and the way of moral indignation is what is illustrated in the experience of the Pharisees. They felt they were healthy spiritually, and so felt no need of Christ, as Jesus points out in this passage. They received nothing from Christ because they were supposed to be righteous, and Jesus only came to help the spiritually sick. The way of self-righteousness excludes a soul from salvation, and places people totally under the law of God which, however righteous they may feel they are, they have broken and so they must be condemned.

The desire to uphold the law of God in the way of the Pharisee is the reason, I believe, the church is rejected by the world. Jesus is totally obscured by this way of life.