(Mark 2:13-17)
The story of the call to Levi (Mark 2:13-17) is a concrete example of the biblical idea of grace. Levi was a tax-collector. Tax-collectors were so despised because they not only collected regular taxes from the people for the Temple but they also gathered a further tax for the Romans. They were hated by their own because they were in the employ of an alien occupying power that did not believe in the God of Israel. Furthermore, they were also often detested because so many were corrupt. Many Jews considered them to be beyond forgiveness, because their cheating and swindling went beyond calculation (see Luke 19:8). They were part of an imperial system that held the peasant masses in a situation of grinding poverty.
Yet Levi, who was hated and reviled, was called by Jesus to follow. In Markan terms, this means that this person was called to be a disciple; part of the inner circle of Jesus’ charismatic missionary community. This call to a tax-collector, considered as the worst kind of sinner, is representative of much of Jesus’ ministry. Even a cursory re-reading of the Gospel stories will quickly remind us that Jesus continually called the most unlikely people to be part of his company. In other words, he had a bias. This bias is evident in this simple yet profound story about Levi.
In Jesus’ overall ministry we see a grace that was offered to all, but which was directed primarily to those whom the establishment regarded as beyond the realm of respectability and salvation. In Jesus’ ministry we gain insight into the heart of God. Jesus revealed that God’s grace is totally unconditional. There are no limits to God’s grace. God’s grace is inversely and exponentially proportional to the degree to which religious and powerful people put limits upon that grace. The more the Church or any other groups or individuals set up barriers between who is in and who is out, the more God’s grace is biased in favour for those on the outer. God’s love, concern and desire for justice extends on infinitely for the poor, the lost and the oppressed; in short, all those whom the winners in our culture discard. A Christian recently challenged me about the idea that God could have a bias. “Where does the Bible say that?” the person asked. We are slow learners at times. We get bogged down with our arguments and debates over theories of inspiration and interpretation, while we miss the major biblical threads. All four Gospels testify to Jesus’ bias in their presentations of Jesus’ life, ministry, teachings, death and Resurrection.
If Jesus is our window on to God, then the only conclusion is that God has this same bias, this same emphasis, this same compassion for those who are the casualties of the dominant cultural, political and religious order. Jesus went out of his way for the so-called bad guys. And many of these were women who had no rights according to the culture of the day. So too God has special compassion for the notorious sinners. In the story about Levi, Jesus bias is explicitly articulated: ‘The righteous have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’ (Mark 2:17). Here is the bias in a nutshell, in a statement that summarises much of Jesus’ teaching. His teachings always reflected the method of his ministry of grace and love.
A mentor and teacher of mine, the late Dr Athol Gill, wrote: ‘The ministry of Jesus was directed especially to those who were considered to be beyond the realm of salvation according to the theology of the day: lepers who had to live outside the camp, regarded as unclean and denied fellowship with others; Gentiles who had no share in the privileges of Israel; women and children who had no status within the community; notorious sinners, despised tax collectors, drunkards and prostitutes. The ministry of Jesus was open to all, but it was directed primarily towards the oppressed and the outcast, for it was a ministry of grace and love.’
Welcome to the grace dimension of Jesus. A grace that causes the tables to be turned; where the last are first in this Kingdom of God, and the first, last.
Do we display the same grace in our attitudes, values and lifestyle? Is the bias of Jesus reflected in our church? If it is not, then is our church really a church of Christ? The Good News of Jesus of Nazareth is that we are especially called to follow if we are one of the bad guys. The Good News is that we can join forces with Jesus right now and begin to offer love and salvation to those who are rejected and reviled in our communities. When we do this, Jesus promises to be with us always, to the end of the age.
Grace and Peace,
KIM THODAY, HEWETT COMMUNITY CHURCH OF CHRIST, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Discussion
No comments for “Jesus Loves The Bad Guys!”