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What Was Jesus Doing?
“Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ’Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples - for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ’Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ’Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’”
Mark 2:13-17
In today’s Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer, we find Jesus doing one of the things that was most like Him — namely, sharing a meal with tax collectors and sinners.
The scribes and Pharisees were quite right to be shocked. After all, they knew the Psalm: “I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” (Psalm 26: 4-5) For them, to eat with sinners and tax collectors amounted to accepting their sinful actions. What was Jesus doing?
If we pause to consider what it really means to encounter the Holy One of Israel, we may be shocked too. In the famous call narrative of Isaiah, the prophet sees a vision of the Lord on a throne in His temple, high and lifted up, with six-winged seraphs crying out, “Holy, holy, holy!” And Isaiah immediately is struck with dread: “Woe is me! I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips!” (Isaiah 6:1-7)
As Isaiah felt in his bones, simply to be in the presence of God is to know that only the righteous can stand in His holy presence. In truth, the sinners and tax collectors sitting with Jesus were in the same situation as Isaiah, but they did not know it. Somehow, they were reclining at table with the Holy One, the Almighty and Eternal King, but they were not undone. What was Jesus doing?
Jesus no doubt knew another Psalm: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness.” (Psalm 130:3-4) As we have seen elsewhere in Scripture, God’s judgment against sin is very real. Yet in Jesus, God has fulfilled all righteousness for us. What was Jesus doing? He was doing everything that God created us to do and He was doing it all in our place, for us. As Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases.” (Isaiah 53:4) In Christ, we sinners are forgiven and set free to follow Him.
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