Scripture Reference: Mark 2:1-3:6
What Does He Think He Is Doing? – Continued
Please read Mark 2:13-22 for the background to this section.
From Last Lesson: We have seen Jesus meeting outcasts before. We saw that Jesus is not bothered about the barriers that cut people off, not in the least.
But now the picture is worse. In this story, Jesus meets a tax collector named Levi and, astonishingly, He holds out His hand to him as well. Elsewhere (see Matthew 9:9-13), Levi is known as Matthew. That isn’t a mistake; it simply reflects the fact that people often had more than one name, even in those days, in fact we have examples from inscriptions which list both first names and surnames. Whereas the man in the earlier story had no choice about his leprosy, it was hardly his decision to become an outcast, Levi has made exactly that choice for himself. He has volunteered to do the dirty work, knowing full well what the consequences will and would be.
We need to see this from the point of view of an ordinary Jew in Galilee. Levi is in the pay of Herod Antipas, who rules Galilee under Rome’s overlordship. So, unlike Zacchaeus, that other famous tax collector down south in Jericho (see Luke 19:1-10), Levi does not work directly for the Romans. Most likely, Jesus encounters him on the edge of Capernaum, on the northern shore of the Lake of Galilee, at the point where people coming in from the neighboring territory enter Antipas’ realm. There they will come across Levi collecting customs duties on whatever they are carrying. Now that may sound innocent enough, until you realize how these tax collectors actually operated. Levi will have paid a fixed fee to buy the tax franchise for that spot. It was a bit like paying to run a burger stand at a carnival or state fair, only rather more sinister, because he was now free to charge people whatever he could screw out of them in order to increase his profits.
For our ordinary first-century Jew, then, tax collectors were offensive in at least three ways. Firstly and most obviously, they were notoriously dishonest and corrupt. Secondly, they were objectionable because their job brought them into constant contact with Gentiles, who were regarded as unclean; that meant the tax collectors were likely to be permanently unclean as well. The Talmud, that great multi-volume compendium of rules and commentary, lists tax collectors along with murderers and robbers and disqualifies them as witnesses in court. Thirdly, they were “quislings,” working for the establishment, for the Herod’s, who were known as a gang of criminals and were only puppets of the Roman overlords. So anyone with an ounce of patriotism, even if he had no time for religious rules, was still going to hate these people.
This is the man Jesus meets as He makes His way from the side of the lake back home to Capernaum, no doubt still followed by a considerable throng. Levi sits there by the road ready to demand payment from any likely-looking victims; we can imagine everyone shuffling past on the other side of the street. But Jesus is different. He walks up to Levi, this “quisling,” and simply says, “Follow me.” You can almost hear the sound of jaws dropping. But Levi actually gets to his feet and goes with Jesus. Much remains unsaid in Mark’s account. We don’t know what runs through Levi’s mind. We don’t know what else is said. But we do know that Jesus has called and Levi has responded.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 