Simply Jesus | Jason Helveston - Mark 2:13-22

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to Mark, He went out again beside the sea, and all

the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.

And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus,

sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me.

And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in

his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with

Jesus and his disciples. For there were many who had

followed him. And the scribes of the

Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax

collectors, said his disciples, why does he eat with tax

collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said

to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but

those who are sick. I came not to call the

righteous, but sinners. Now John's disciples and the

Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, Why

do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,

but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the

wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they

cannot fast. The days will come when the

bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in

that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk

cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away

from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

And no one puts new wine into old wine skins.

If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is

destroyed. If the wine is destroyed, so are

the skins. But new wine is for fresh wine

skins. The Gospel of the Lord.

It is a tremendous joy to be with you today.

Aaron and Laura have become dear friends of ours, sources of

wisdom, of sanity and of courage in the work that we are about

just building our lives in a city like Chicago.

And so I'm deeply grateful for their friendship.

And I think from the moment that we first met, which I think was

a shared meal at Owen and Engine, which no longer is there

on Western, but actually Tuesdays and Wednesdays does at

BC Beer in Logan Square. I don't get any money for this,

but I'm just saying if you missed those burgers, they're

still available a couple of times a week.

But from the moment that we met, their kindness and love for the

Lord has really marked us as a couple and as a family.

And so really grateful to be here because of that.

But also, when my family first moved to the city, we didn't

have a place to sleep yet. And Bill and Mindy Meyer gave us

a bed. And so seeing you like so much,

I'm really grateful for the ministry and love and the life

that you have built in this city that my children don't know it,

but we're here because of people like you, because you gave us a

place to sleep. You spoke truth to us.

We had a long ride to Geneva, one that you reminded me of.

That was a long time to spend with us and you did it you.

So thank you. Thank you for that.

And if you want a really funny story about that moment, come

see me afterwards and I'll share that one off the record.

Lastly, I'll say what you're doing is a miracle.

To exist as a gospel teaching Jesus loving church in Chicago

today is nothing less than a miracle.

And you being here today is a testimony that the resurrection

is real and that Jesus is alive and that the Kingdom of heaven

is showing up on earth as it is in heaven.

And so I'm really, really grateful.

There were so many times I was standing over there, not really

sure I'm I'm like non denominational.

So all of this is amazing to me. Like everything.

It's like this is incredible. This is what heaven is like.

You know, I start to feel over there, but I smiled so many

times because it does my heart so much good to know that there

are brothers and sisters in this part of the city doing what you

are doing. Continuing to show up,

continuing to speak the truth in love, continuing to confess your

sins one to another. Continuing to walk in the light

as He is in the light, even though that gets harder and

harder and harder and harder. So I thank God for you.

I thank God that I get to call you brothers and sisters.

One of the surprising things that has fallen out of the

mainstream, I wonder if you've noticed this, is grace.

Grace is no longer part of what it means to be human.

It's no longer really cool to be kind, if you will.

What is in vogue is to hold your ground in an argument and even

clap back at somebody when they come at you.

It's righteous to cut people off who have wronged you and are no

longer good for your well-being without much thought.

It's socially acceptable to disassociate from people who we

deem lower than ourselves. We we may send aid to them, but

we don't want to be their friends in such an environment.

What Jesus is going to offer us today is an invitation to the

counter culture. On this final Sunday of the

church year, the liturgical calendar before Advent begins,

we're reminded that Christ's rule is not like the kingdoms

and cultures of this world. To feast at his table is to join

his Kingdom. And what that means, the hard

reality, the hard truth of that invitation is it means we have

to leave behind the meals that we are already enjoying.

We have to leave behind a life that we are already living and a

life, if we're honest, we prefer to the life that Jesus offers.

And that's the difference between Jesus and the powers of

this age. If we could simply summarize all

of what he represents in all of this world represents, the

singular distinction is grace. So that's what I want to talk to

you about today as your brother, as a fellow minister of the

gospel. Like you all, I want to talk

about grace. I want to talk about what it is,

why we resist it, and how we can build our lives on it.

We'll do that by organizing our time this way.

We'll look at the nature of grace and the resistance of

grace and finally the power of grace.

So we'll look at the nature of the resistance and the power.

Let's pray and ask for God's help.

Heavenly Father, my friends, my brothers and sisters and myself,

we've we've entered into the space in this moment with a ton

of things in our hearts and minds.

And if they're impulse is anything like mine, I sometimes

believe the best thing I can do is pause all of that before I

walk through the doors of the church and at least have a 90

minute respite from that and then get back to it after lunch.

But I thank you that your word and your gospel is better than

putting our burdens on pause. I thank you that through Peter

you said we could cast all of our cares on you because you

care for us. And so as we come to your word,

that's what we desire to do because where else are we going

to go? You've got the words of eternal

life. And so would you speak to us?

Would you like a loving father comfort us, Help us to see and

savor the beauty of your son Jesus that we might enjoy grace

today. I ask that in Jesus name.

Everybody agreed and said Amen. Before we jump into our passage

today, we should understand something about tables.

In this era of a DoorDash and meals in front of screens, I

think we missed the magnitude of tables today.

No shade, but that's just the reality.

See, in the ancient world of Jesus, tables were a place of

intimacy and love and acceptance.

To share a meal with someone was not just to simply fill your

stomach, it was to fill your soul.

The scholar Dennis Smith explains the table fellowship in

the ancient Mediterranean was more than food consumption.

From Plato on down, banquets held an important place in

creating community, sharing values, and connecting with the

divine. Tables were sacred.

And so the setting of our scene today is no small detail.

It's around a table. Look at verse 13 with me in Mark

Mark 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. He went out again beside the

sea, and all the crowd was coming to him and he was

teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw

Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.

And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him.

And as he reclined a table in his house, let's pause there.

Notice the table is the first stop in the life with Jesus.

We see this all the time as Jesus calls people to life with

him. Jesus says follow me.

They follow him and then they're like, let's go eat.

Isn't that fantastic? I love that gospel.

That is such a good gospel. And in this case, Levi also

calls a bunch of his friends to join them in this meal.

Watch as Mark continues in verse 15.

In the second-half, he says as he reclined a table in his

house. Many tax collectors and sinners

were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were

many who followed him and the scribes of the Pharisees when

they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors said

to his disciples, why? Why does he eat with tax

collectors and sinners? Now many of you are familiar

with that phrase, tax collectors and sinners.

It's not a compliment. Tax collectors were viewed as

traitors in the Jewish community because they were financially

benefiting from Roman occupation And sinners were was a term

rather used by religious elites as sort of a catch all for law

Breakers. But it's even more offensive

than that. New Testament scholar NT Wright

explains that when the Pharisees spoke of sinners, they were not

simply describing moral failure. They were operating a social

system in which certain people were excluded from the life of

Israel. These were spiritually and

socially ostracized people. That's what that word means.

Now let's be clear. This seedy group of people

didn't catch Jesus by surprise. It's not as though he got

invited to Levi's house and then he realized who was on the guest

list. And he was like, Dang it, you've

been there before, right? You showed up at the house and

you're like, I did not know she was invited.

I did not know he was coming too, right?

This is why people invented RSVPS.

Did you know that? It's true.

Now this is highly intentional. Look at verse 17.

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have

no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

And he says this to us today. Church, I came not to call the

righteous, but sinners. Jesus was eating with all of

these people on purpose. He says This is why I came.

This is who I came for. Remember, the table is about

intimacy and identification. Jesus is sharing this table,

this fellowship, this connection, this identification

with tax collectors and sinners on purpose.

But notice Jesus didn't just come to be close to them, not to

just associate with them. He didn't just come to be close

to undesirable people. By identifying with them, Jesus

is claiming the role of Savior in their life.

Did you notice that He's not just there to eat with them,

He's there. He says to call them.

He's come to heal them. My brothers and sisters, that's

grace. The nature of grace is this

brilliantly unexpected, surprising, intentional, and

undeserved intimacy and healing that we have in God.

Saint Augustine understood grace through the language of love.

Perhaps you have enjoyed his writings before.

He said that God loved us even when we were unlovable, not

because we were good, but that we might become good.

See, God loves us and something amazing happens when He loves

us. It changes us.

We become different by loving us.

Jesus is claiming the role of Savior in our life as well.

When Jesus shares a meal with someone, it changes them

forever. That's the nature of grace.

It's the unmerited identification and transforming

love of God. Now here's our question.

Who wouldn't want to share in that meal?

Who wouldn't want that kind of connection and power?

Why would anyone refuse such love and grace?

Well, we're about to find out. See, there's this wonderful

juxtaposition in this story. Did you pick up on it?

Lots of people were at Levi's house for this meal, but not

everyone is eating. Look at verse 18.

Now when John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and

people came and said to him, why do John's disciples and the

disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

Church. Who is the worst person to have

at a dinner party? Someone who's fasting.

It's the worst, right? No, no, no, I'm fasting.

I'm fasting. OK, we get it.

We get it right? You're super spiritual.

The only other person that might be worse is someone training for

a marathon, right? Because they're like, no, no, I

can't eat that. I can't drink that.

I'm training like, we get it. We get it.

You're amazing. I digress.

This is crazy. Let's not miss this.

Jesus has just said that when he eats with people, he loves them

and he transforms them. He heals them.

Then Mark says and tells us that John's disciples and the

Pharisees disciples aren't eating.

They aren't reclining at the table of grace.

They aren't sharing this meal. Now, what does this tell us?

Well, it tells us that despite their religious reputation and

spiritual zeal, they were resistant to grace.

They were resistant to grace, and I think we need to be honest

and vulnerable for a moment and realize that their refusal to

recline at the table, to relax and to receive, to rest in this

moment exposes something in us to we're also resistant to

grace. And I think our resistance is

demonstrated, revealed in two aspects of this story.

The first, like the Pharisees, we don't think we're sick.

Do you know what religious people struggle with the most?

What their biggest problem is? We might presume that it's their

view of God, but I think it's their view of sin.

Most people only think about sin.

And perhaps you can identify with this as the things we do,

say or think that break God's rules that are contrary to his

character. This is why we resist race,

grace. We don't think we need it.

We don't think and say and do that many bad things.

We're good people, so we don't think we need grace or we don't

think we at least need it as much as the next person, right?

You see somebody else who they, they need grace.

I just need a little edit, just like a little little change.

In other words, we think we're already righteous.

We believe we're already well, and Jesus didn't come to heal

the righteous, so we don't think he's here for us.

The problem is, of course, that's not how the Bible talks

about sin. So we got to get clear on sin,

about what it is, and of course the nature of sin.

We could talk about this in a lot of different ways.

Let me give us 3 metaphors that the Bible give gives us for sin.

First, sin is bad soil. Fundamentally, sin is about what

we trust, what we love, what we desire more than God.

In the middle of their morbid sin, the prophet Jeremiah warned

God's people this way in Jeremiah 17.

Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and

makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

Hear this. He is like a shrub that is in

the desert and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched lands of the wilderness, in an

uninhabited salt land. According to Jeremiah, sin is

bad soil. It's anything and everything we

sink our lives into for safety, for provision, for comfort, for

strength, for a break, for justification, for healing.

Like bad soil, though, sin never nurtures our lives.

Sin never produces life. It only produces dead fruit and

lifelessness. The second metaphor that we get

is that sin is blindness. Many of us, perhaps are familiar

with David's story. The king, the greatest king in

Israel's history, and yet at the center of his reign is a story

of utter blindness. He not only committed adultery

and stole someone's wife and killed her husband, but it seems

as though he remains completely unaware of his indiscretions.

In many ways, David's life is a cautionary tale of self

deception. That's why the prophet Samuel

had to tell him a story. You remember this.

There was this guy who stole a sheep.

And David's like, that guy sucks.

Let me tell you what I'm going to do with him.

He deserves to die. And then what's Nathan say?

You're that man. It's you I'm talking about.

Sin is blindness. David's lust for sex and power

blinded his conscience. Lastly, sin is slavery.

See, we often consider sin is isolated, usually disconnected

from events and decisions that we mostly have under control.

This is perhaps Satan's greatest lie about sin is you've got

this. It's totally under control.

It's one of the great lies we believe about sin is that we

control it. But what the Scriptures teach us

is that sin controls us. See, addiction isn't the only

form of slavery. All sin is addiction.

All sin is slavery. Jesus says everyone who

practices sin in John 8 is a slave to sin.

Sin takes control of us in many ways against our will.

It's why the apostle Paul says I do what I don't want to do, and

what I want to do I can't do, and why God told Cain, sin is

crouching at your door and its desire is contrary to you.

Sin is slavery. So without this understanding of

sin, the Pharisees look at the behavior of others.

They look at their station in life, they look at their

connection and their religious practices and their habits, and

they conclude they're not really that bad.

They weren't sinners. And then they looked at Levi.

They looked at Levi go this dude does not have his life together.

They looked at his actions, his lifestyle, and they conclude

that's a Sinner. But their evaluation of health,

of righteousness, was faulty. Do you see?

Their problem was their view of sin, which then spoiled their

view of Jesus and the feast that Jesus was laying before them.

And so they don't eat it. Sin isn't simply what you think,

say, and do. It's what you trust.

It's invisible to you. It's controlling your will.

It's almost like we need each other to identify sin in our

lives. Everyone in this story is a

Sinner. Everyone in this story needed

grace, and so do we. Emmanuel Anglican Church.

We need that. We need grace.

We need grace so that we can be uprooted from bad soil that's

killing us. We need grace so we can open our

eyes to the truth. We need grace so we can be freed

from bondage. But there's another reason we

resist grace. I think it's why Levi and his

friends and most people in Chicago tend to hesitate or

disbelieve the gospel. We don't trust that love really

makes a difference. See, for some of us, we may not

think that we're sinners. For others of us, we may not

think love is going to make a difference.

See, religious people don't think they're sick.

Modern people don't think they can be healed.

Now, this might be surprising to us, so let me explain.

Imagine you're sick. And you grabbed a cup of coffee

with a friend and she's telling you about the incredible medical

treatment that has saved her mother's life.

Imagine how you might feel because you have the same

sickness as her mother. You'd be ecstatic.

You'd be ecstatic. You'd be so excited.

But the problem is, you've heard stories like this 1000 times.

The problem is, since you've been sick, everyone has been

telling you incredible stories of healings, and you've tried

them all and none of them is working.

None of them is healing. You.

To this friend's message sounds just like every other empty

promise. Chicago is filled with empty

promises. College grads from all over the

country come to Chicago to find healing.

We're looking to heal our sickness of grief, of

loneliness, of anger and insignificance and poverty.

Many people born in Chicago stay here to heal family trauma and

to alleviate the pain of feeling forgotten.

The problem, of course, is that the city is a terrible

physician. With all the good this city has

to offer, nothing within its limits liberates your soul.

In fact, it only makes matters worse.

And so to hear that Jesus is their healer, to hear that Jesus

is our healer, can be hard to believe.

Can this Love Actually make a difference?

Can this remedy actually be any different?

The thing underlying that for me, and I imagine for others as

well, is shame. Shame is the voice that tells us

love won't work. Shame has gripped many of our

friends and neighbors. So many have settled for false

gospels that tell them they can fix themselves.

Shame says it's all up to you. Perhaps you can relate.

Daily, we're invited through media education to uproot our

own lives from damaging relationships, to open up our

own ignorant eyes, and to unshackle ourselves from

addictive cycles and unhealthy habits.

See, identity in the modern age is isn't about being shaped and

changed, is it? It's about discovering what's

underneath the surface that is being oppressed, where there is

pain on top and no outside influence can touch it.

See, modern identity isn't about transformation.

It's about self discovery and self definition and then self

promotion. See, the gospel says who you are

in Christ is made in community through God and who we are in

the modern age as we go outside of community, then tell

everybody who we are and here's how you got to talk to me.

Here's who I am. It's like when Harvard, the

Harvard's psychology professor, answered a student's question.

But how to rid a patient of hatred and hostility toward a

parent? The professor said.

I think the therapist in this case would say lots of luck.

To ask that his hostility magically disappear isn't

realistic. He'll have to learn to live with

it and hopefully not be driven by it.

If you guys are looking for a changed heart, I think you're

looking in the wrong department. Most people know there's

something wrong with them. Most people, like Levi, realize

they're sick. However, they're just not

convinced anything can make a difference, especially love.

Religious people then resist grace because of pride.

Modern people resist grace because of shame.

Religious people misunderstand sin.

Modern people misunderstand love.

So where's your heart this morning?

Maybe like the Pharisees, you've slipped into believing you're

above reproach. Or perhaps, like the tax

collectors and sinners, you think your sickness is too

developed or your habits too ingrained or egregious.

Nevertheless, Jesus makes room at the table of grace for both

of you. He does so by answering the

question. He shows us the power of grace

overwhelms our resistance. Remember, their question is

essentially why are you eating? Why are you enjoying this meal?

Why aren't you fasting like us? Jesus answers with a set of

metaphors, parables really, that convey the same idea.

Look at verse 19 And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests

fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they

cannot fast. The days will come when the

bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in

that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk

cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away

from it, the new from the old, and of worse and of a worse tear

is made, and no one puts new wine into old wine skin.

If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is

destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine skin is for fresh

or new wine is for new. For fresh wine skins.

First metaphor is a wedding celebration, new life, fresh

beginning. Another is about new wine, a

drink of celebration which comes in a fresh container.

What Jesus wants both the proud and the shame to hear is that

eating and drinking at his table makes something new happen.

You see, in both marriage and winemaking, the old must be

abandoned entirely or a new life will be completely spoiled.

In fact, that's the power of the new life.

A new life can overwhelm the old one.

You get a new name, You get a new trajectory.

You get new joy. You get a brand new life.

The old way is feast is a feast of pride and shame.

The new is a feast of grace. It's not powerful because it's

new, not because it's novel, not been thought of before.

It's not like how we treat the month of January, right?

I'm definitely going to be different this year.

No, you're not. It's the same thing every year.

Just wait till January 21st and we'll move on to something else,

right? Ultimately, Jesus is saying I

got something better for you than January.

Ultimately, what Jesus is telling all these dinner guests

is not that He has grace to give them, or that He has a party to

invite them to, or that he has some new drink to offer them.

He's telling them that he is their grace.

He is the groom. He is the wine.

He is the power of grace. You see the in the Gospel, the

story of Jesus gives us a clear picture both of sin and love.

Sin is so severe that it will cost Jesus his life.

Sin is so beyond us that we need a Savior from outside us, a

physician who is not infected by the same disease.

But that's not all. We also see that His love is so

great that he didn't just invite us to the wedding, He made us

the bride. We witnessed this in the way

that Jesus brings the cure. This is what makes love

transformational. The way Jesus heals us is by

becoming wounded for us. He's the physician who allowed

himself to be infected by the disease.

So Paul told the church in Corinth, for our sake he made

him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become

the righteousness of God. That's the power of grace.

Perhaps This is why of all the ways Jesus wanted to communicate

and teach us to remember his death and resurrection, what did

he choose? A table, a meal, he chose bread

and wine. The table of Jesus is always a

wedding and a funeral. It's the power of love over sin.

It's the death of pride and shame.

And it's an invitation to grace. And we pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that your good news is just

that good, that it gives us healing from sin and it gives us

grace through love. So, Father, may we confess our

sin and know that you are faithful and just and powerful

and good to extend grace to us and to purify us of a guilty

conscience so that we might become people of grace.

We love you. We thank you in Jesus name,

Amen.