1 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:14,480 Hi everyone, welcome back to the Logical Bible Study Podcast, 2 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,000 where we're providing an exegesis of the gospel from 3 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,760 today's Mass. So we want to have a look at 4 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,000 what was the original author trying to convey to his audience 5 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,280 and then go from there. So we're continuing our 6 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:30,280 exploration of the gospel of Mark. 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:34,320 And today we're looking at chapter 2, verses 13 to 17. 8 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:40,280 Jesus went out to the shore of the lake and all the people came 9 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:45,960 to him and he taught them. As he was walking, he saw Levi, 10 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:50,440 the son of Alpheus, sitting by the customs house, and he said 11 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,440 to him, follow me, and he got up and followed him. 12 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,240 When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax 13 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,920 collectors and sinners were also sitting at the table with Jesus 14 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,600 and his disciples, for there were many of them among his 15 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,960 followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee 16 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:14,960 party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they 17 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:19,120 said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and 18 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,160 sinners? When Jesus heard this, he said 19 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,880 to them it is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the 20 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,880 sick. I did not come to call the 21 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:38,560 virtuous but sinners. So the sitting here in verse 13, 22 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,040 he's still in Capernaum, which is his hometown. 23 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,400 So at this point his ministry is basically all just operating out 24 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,240 of Capernaum, his little town on the on the lakeside, the Sea of 25 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,200 Galilee and the surrounding towns. 26 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:55,120 He hasn't gone to Judea or Jerusalem yet so he walks out 27 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:57,560 onto the lake and it's if you go to Capernaum today, it's 28 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,440 literally right on the lake. So he doesn't have to walk far 29 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,920 and but it is a wide open space. It's kind of like a little beach 30 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:08,360 shore area there and he could have taught the crowds from that 31 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:13,960 beach as he's walking along. So he probably did some teaching 32 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:16,120 for a while and then walked a little bit further along the 33 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,880 lake. He sees Levi son of Alpheus. 34 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,400 So Levi's also called Matthew, but not in the Gospel of Mark. 35 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,520 It's only in the Gospel of Matthew that we work out that 36 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,720 Levi is also called Matthew, and that is the same guy as the one 37 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,760 who wrote the Gospel of Matthew, and he's identified as the son 38 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:39,480 of Alpheus. Whenever you see the son of 39 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,600 someone in the gospel, that's usually just a way of, well, in 40 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:46,040 that culture, that's how they're designated exactly which person 41 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,120 you were talking about. They didn't have surnames, so 42 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:54,560 they would either just say, you know, John, son of Joseph, or 43 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,160 John from Nazareth. That's how they identified the 44 00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:59,920 person. So Jesus didn't have a surname, 45 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,360 but you could identify Jesus. If you're a person. 46 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,360 That time you wanted to ask about Jesus, you would ask about 47 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,960 either Jesus, son of Joseph or Jesus of Nazareth. 48 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,080 That's how you would identify the person. 49 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,520 So Levi here is the son of Alphaeus, and he's sitting by 50 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:20,520 the customs house, so you can imagine him sort of sitting in a 51 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,760 little stall kind of thing. Another translation of customs 52 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:27,800 house is tax office, so he's a tax collector and he's sitting 53 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,360 by a little stall. And it appears that this store 54 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,880 was located in Capernaum because it's a strategic spot to put it. 55 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,600 It's on a major highway, a major trade route that a lot of people 56 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,120 would have gone through. So the Romans have put a tax 57 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,800 booth there to maximize the number of people who have to go 58 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:49,480 through and pay taxes. So tax collectors, Tax 59 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,960 collectors were Jews, but they're appointed by the Romans. 60 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:55,600 So it's people who are willing to cooperate with the Romans. 61 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:00,000 And their job is to collect taxes from the Jews to give to 62 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,480 the Romans, because the Romans in control of this part of the 63 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,200 world. So the Jews legally have to pay 64 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:11,440 taxes to the Romans. So the Jews did not like tax 65 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:13,840 collectors, even though the tax collectors themselves were 66 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,079 Jewish. The rest of the Jews didn't like 67 00:04:16,079 --> 00:04:19,240 them for three reasons. Number one, they work for the 68 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,120 Romans. That already puts them in the 69 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:25,440 bad books, #2 The tax collectors take people's money. 70 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,280 If you have a tax collector at the door, it's they're going to 71 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:32,360 take your money. And #3, a lot of tax collectors 72 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,200 were corrupt and they kept money for themselves, so they actually 73 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,880 took more tax than they should have from the Jews. 74 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,160 So since they're working for the Romans, most Jews automatically 75 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,760 assume that if you're a tax collector, you're a Sinner. 76 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:51,160 Anyone who cooperates with the Romans is not doing God's will 77 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,320 in their eyes, so they are sinners. 78 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,960 But Jesus sees him. He, probably being the Son of 79 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,720 God, knows that this guy is going to be one of his 80 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,520 disciples. He looks at him sitting in the 81 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,160 tax booth, and he says follow me. 82 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,960 That's all he says, follow me. And Levi gets up and follows 83 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,720 him. So it's not clear whether Levi 84 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,600 knew who Jesus was, though he probably did, and he probably 85 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,120 heard him teaching as he went along the lakeside. 86 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,800 But something about Jesus made Levi leave his livelihood, just 87 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:24,520 as the fishermen did. Remember, they dropped their 88 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,400 Nets straight away. They left their job behind and 89 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,880 went after Jesus. Same thing here with Levi. 90 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,200 Now the scene changes. We're sort of looking later at 91 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:38,000 the day or probably late, a few days later at dinner time, verse 92 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,560 15, when Jesus was at dinner in his house. 93 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,960 And that can be a bit confusing in terms of working out whose 94 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,520 house they're having dinner at. But of course, Luke's account 95 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:50,640 makes it clear that this is occurring in Levi's house, and 96 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:53,960 it says that many of Jesus followers are there, But there's 97 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:56,840 a distinction here made between disciples and followers. 98 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,000 So he's got his inner circle of disciples, although he hasn't 99 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,000 named the 12 apostles yet, but he has disciples and then he has 100 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,560 people who've been following him for a while and they're called 101 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,800 followers. So followers are probably people 102 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,560 who are sort of trailing along, but they're following him most 103 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:17,040 of the time or full time. They're following him, but 104 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:19,480 they're not part of his inner circle. 105 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,600 So we learned that by this point, this followers, this 106 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,760 group of followers has some tax collectors and sinners in it. 107 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:30,400 There's some sinners who are following Jesus around. 108 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,520 When it says sinners, we don't really know what sin they 109 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:35,840 committed. But that's a generic Jewish term 110 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:40,200 that describes all those who the rest of the Jews think are not 111 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,520 doing God's will. So it could be a prostitute, it 112 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,560 could be a robber or a tax collector. 113 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:50,800 They're all called sinners. Verse 16, the scribes of the 114 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:52,960 Pharisee party are there in the house. 115 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,600 So the Pharisees are sort of the leaders of the common people. 116 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:00,080 They had all sorts. As you know, probably they had 117 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,000 all sorts of rules about who counted as holy and who counted 118 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:04,840 as a Sinner, and most people listened to them. 119 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:09,080 They had a lot of influence. The top ranking Pharisees are 120 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:12,360 called scribes. And so here we have the scribes 121 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:14,720 of the Pharisees. And by the way, scribes just 122 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:20,240 sort of a reference to the fact they could read and write about 123 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:22,520 the Old Testament. So they're experts in the Old 124 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:27,400 Testament. So these scribes say to his 125 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:29,840 disciples, and it seems like they're asking a genuine 126 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,440 question. Not sure why they didn't ask 127 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:35,480 Jesus directly. Maybe Jesus is busy. 128 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:37,840 Maybe they haven't got the courage to ask Jesus, but they 129 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,400 ask his disciples. So they ask his inner circle who 130 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:47,680 are also there in the house. Why does he eat with tax 131 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:50,000 collectors and with sinners? And so their line of thinking 132 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,000 here is if Jesus is indeed sent by God, why does he associate 133 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,560 with sinners? And they probably they actually 134 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:58,920 want an answer. They want to know. 135 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:03,480 It's not a trap question. Why does he associate with 136 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:08,560 sinners when he and the original reading here is wired? 137 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:12,920 Does he eat with sinners? So if you're eating with someone 138 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:15,640 in that culture, it's a mark of acceptance. 139 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:18,680 If you invite someone into their house, into your house, and you 140 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,760 eat with them, that's considered to be accepting. 141 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,160 And so Jesus here, by eating with sinners and tax collectors, 142 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:28,800 is essentially saying that he accepts them, which is fairly 143 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,000 radical if he's supposed to be God's messenger. 144 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,720 The fact that Jesus accepts sinners, we can tell here, as 145 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,559 Christians doing theology, that this is an indication that Jesus 146 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:44,360 calls people to repentance and that his power to call people to 147 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,240 repentance is working. Many of the sinners want to 148 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:48,960 repent, and so they're coming to him. 149 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,320 Now Jesus overhears the question and he answers the question in 150 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:57,400 verse 17. He says it is not the healthy 151 00:08:57,400 --> 00:08:59,480 who need the doctor, but the sick. 152 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:02,720 Now, if that's all he said, we'd have to unpack that statement a 153 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:05,480 bit. But the second sentence explains 154 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:07,080 the first. So whenever you're looking 155 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,240 particularly at parables, but whenever Jesus says something, 156 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:12,800 if he says something a little cryptic or a little 157 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:18,040 metaphorical, just read afterwards to see if he explains 158 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:20,280 it a bit later on. Because if if he explains it, 159 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:22,040 that's the explanation you want to go with. 160 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:24,560 And here he does the very next thing. 161 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:27,920 He tells us what he means by healthy and sick. 162 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:33,080 He says, I did not come to call the virtuous or righteous, but 163 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:38,240 sinners. So Jesus here tells us that it's 164 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:40,680 a metaphor. Just as the healthy don't need a 165 00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:45,520 doctor, the sick do well, the righteous don't need God's 166 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,840 forgiveness. Sinners need God's forgiveness. 167 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:52,520 That's Jesus whole mission. Jesus whole mission is to get 168 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,240 those who have wandered far from God to come back to Him. 169 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:02,280 Now often when I used to be a part of a Protestant background, 170 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:06,080 you'd pastors and teachers would tend to make statements that 171 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:10,920 implied that at the time of Jesus, no one was right in God's 172 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,440 sight, no one was righteous. I don't think that's the case. 173 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:18,640 And I think that this teaching here, added together with others 174 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:22,240 such as the prodigal son, tells us that there are at least some 175 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:25,600 people at the time of Jesus who are righteous, who don't need to 176 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:27,760 be called to repentance because they're already doing the right 177 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:29,480 thing. And I think that's the best way 178 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:33,280 to understand this text, is that just as the parable of the 179 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,520 prodigal son says, remember the older brother, the father says 180 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:41,000 of the older brother all that you have, sorry, all that I have 181 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,520 is yours because he's already in the Father's favour. 182 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:47,240 I think some people at the time of Jesus were already in God's 183 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:50,840 favour and the Messiah has not come primarily for them. 184 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:54,680 He's come for those who need to repent, so it's not like 185 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:56,880 everyone in Jesus time was a Sinner. 186 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:00,240 No one was in God's favour, but a lot of people needed to come 187 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,040 to repentance. That's not the only way of 188 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:05,400 understanding that. Some other scholars would say 189 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:09,320 that actually everyone is a Sinner, no one is righteous. 190 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:13,760 And what he means here is that he's only calling those who 191 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,920 accept that they are sinners, whereas the Pharisees don't 192 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,280 accept that they are sinners, so he's not calling them. 193 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,280 That's another interpretation. Pick whichever one you like. 194 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,520 Both of them could be legitimate. 195 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:29,600 So that's our passage. And there's a few catechism 196 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,240 references to this passage today, and they're actually 197 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,840 quite similar to yesterday. So just as the healing of the 198 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:39,720 paralytic which we heard about in yesterday's podcast tells us 199 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:43,880 about Jesus power to heal, we hear from similar paragraphs 200 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:48,200 today from the Catechism. Because Jesus here tells us that 201 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,840 he has the power to heal sinners and to call sinners. 202 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:57,480 So one of them is paragraph 545 which is about the Kingdom of 203 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:00,400 God. It says Jesus invites sinners to 204 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:03,600 the tale of the Kingdom I came not to call the righteous but 205 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:05,680 sinners. He invites them to that 206 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:09,160 conversion without which one cannot enter the Kingdom, but 207 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:13,120 shows them in Word and deed. His Father's boundless mercy for 208 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:17,440 them and the vast join heaven over 1 Sinner who repents. 209 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:21,880 So in that paragraph you hear this text in Mark Two being 210 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,800 paired with the prodigal son in Luke. 211 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:32,120 There's a reference here in paragraph 1484 which is about 212 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,960 the sacrament of penance. It says Christ is at work in 213 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:39,320 each of the sacraments. He personally addresses each 214 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,640 Sinner. My son, your sins are forgiven. 215 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:46,560 He is the physician attending each one of the sick who need 216 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:50,200 him to cure him, to cure them. And so you'll hear. 217 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:53,600 You'll hear there the connection to Mark Chapter 2, where Jesus 218 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,600 is the one who has come to heal the sick. 219 00:12:56,680 --> 00:12:58,440 There's a couple of other references, and I'll put all 220 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,080 those in the show notes, OK. Hopefully you'll learn something 221 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:06,240 new from this podcast today, and please tune in again tomorrow.