Mark 2

Mark 2

Beginning with His baptism, Jesus’s ministry gains notable popularity quickly in the region of Galilee through Mark 1. Traction is enough for the religious leaders to take note; in chapter 2, we see the first encounters of the teachers of the law, called Pharisees and Scribes, opposing Jesus’s ministry. Mark 2, and the beginning of chapter 3, are what John MacArthur has dubbed the “challenge episodes” in which the Pharisees primarily questioned Jesus’s authority as the Son of Man. As Jesus is bringing teachings and miracles that prove His authority (Mark 1:27), in return, they challenge the religious leaders' notions of righteousness as a means of status, or rather, their source of socio-political power. God’s ability to forgive sin or His Lordship over the Sabbath was not in question by these men, but their hang-up was accepting this Nazarite is, in fact, God in the flesh; that He is who He (and these miracles) say He is.

In true righteousness, Jesus drew near to those who were sick and broken, the outcasts and rejects of the community. This made the Pharisees and religious leaders noticeably uncomfortable. When Jesus is sitting at the table with the tax collectors and the ‘sinners’ (or irreligious), in questioning why He’d do such a thing, they don’t even speak to Jesus directly, instead, they have to ask His disciples (v.16). Clearly still in ear-shot of the conversation, Jesus responds with a profound statement.

“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’” (Mark 2:17).

The kingdom of God coming to earth to dwell among sinful man is a wildly invasive act, a misunderstood concept in practical effect by religious leaders. Yet Jesus’s statement here not only clarifies some things for the Pharisees and religious leaders, but also for His disciples, and ourselves.

Initially, I read this as a call out to the Pharisees. Of course, everyone except Christ has fallen short; everyone is sinful and, therefore in desperate need of Jesus to save them from the penalty of sin. Yet the Pharisees believed so much in their own standards of attaining righteousness they did not believe themselves to be in need. After all, if you don’t know you are sick, why would you go to the doctor? They had systems, titles, and an entire set of cultural norms to convince themselves they were righteous, or at the very least, ahead of the rest in being so. Jesus challenges their pride and arrogance much more directly later on and in the other Gospels alike, yet there is something being said of God’s people more broadly here.

On the other hand, Jesus is making a statement about His people who are also standing right there. His people are those who know their need for Jesus. Luke 5 in the NIV says he got up and left everything behind him. Following Jesus is not some hypnotic event; rather, a conscious decision people make. Meaning Levi likely had forethought, leading to a readiness and willingness to receive Jesus’s invitation to new life and respond with the abandonment of his old ways; repentance. He was possibly already convicted of his sins and knew he was in need of forgiveness; that is, Christ. The disciples are sometimes glorified as the pioneers of the early church, the role models we look to. We read how they encouraged, corrected, and trained the churches all throughout the epistles and Acts. Yet every single one of them became as we know them today because they came to accept the reality of their sinful state and said, “I am sick, and I need a doctor.”

We are sinners in deep need of the forgiveness found in Christ alone. Whether we have been in ministry for years, or we’re just getting our feet wet as Jesus’s disciples, are we humble enough to abide in our need for Him? Or do we let our achievements get in the way, and lean more heavily on what we’ve done than the grace we’ve received from our Father?

Questions:

How does this view of the disciples challenge or encourage you?

What statement of Jesus’s authority from this chapter stands out to you?

What does it look like to cultivate humility in being Jesus’s disciples?