Don't Be a Pharisee
Mark 2:13-17
Message #7
When the Gospel of Mark really wants to make a point, Mark strings similar events together to make sure we “get” what he’s getting at. Last week in our message titled “Reaching Jesus by Force,” we saw the first head-to-head confrontation between the authority of Jesus and the arrogance of the Pharisees.
But that was just the first of five events that Mark strings together to make sure we understand the significance of the ongoing confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. And as I mentioned last week, this confrontation is what Jesus actually uses for him to ultimately reach the Cross, which was his real reason for becoming a man.
But through these five back-to-back confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees, we have a huge, huge lesson to learn from the Pharisee… Don’t be one! Don’t be a Pharisee.
So, like last week’s message, there are actually two lessons in our text today, and our first lesson that leads to our second lesson starts in Mark 2:13.
Mark 2:13 (NLT)
13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.
Jesus is still in Capernaum. The four men who dug through the roof in our last message are back at the house doing some roof repair. So, Jesus goes for a walk to teach the crowds who were coming to him. And Mark 2:14 continues.
Mark 2:14(a) (NLT)
14(a) As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth . . .
This Levi is Matthew, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, and this Levi (Matthew) was hated, not just by the Pharisees. He was hated by all good Jews, which is really interesting when you realize that his gospel was written specifically for the Jews, who hated him, to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah. But here in Mark, he is just a hated and despised tax collector.
Tax collectors were hated because they worked for Rome. They collected taxes from the Jews and from those who traveled the Via Maris, which was a major trade route from Egypt to Mesopotamia and passed right at the edge of Capernaum. And not only did Matthew and the other tax collectors collect taxes for Rome, but they lived on the “extra” they collected.
In other words, the more they collected from their fellow Jews, the better they lived and it seems all tax collectors, including Matthew, lived very well. The trade-off was they would be excommunicated from the Synagogues and aggressively shunned by the Jewish leaders and by their own families. And the only ones who would associate with the tax collectors were the worst of sinners – those who had nothing to lose by being seen with a tax collector.
And so, the beginning of Mark 2:14 has Matthew (Levi) sitting at his tax collector’s booth, which was a raised platform on the edge of the road from which he collected taxes (and hate) from those who passed by. And then… Jesus walked by. And in Mark 2:14(b), we read a very direct statement.
Mark 2:14(b) (NLT)
14(b) . . . “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
Listen, we can read that easily – actually too easily – because this is a massive bombshell of an event. The four fishermen that Jesus called in Chapter 1 were bad enough. Jesus started toward the low end of the social barrel with the fishermen. But now he’s gone past the bottom of the social barrel down into the dregs of society. Jesus just called the worst of all “white-collar” sinners to be his disciple. He called a hated, despised tax collector, and Levi (Matthew) just got up and followed him!
This is incredible; no one would have guessed that Jesus would have gone this low to call a disciple. And then it gets worse.
Mark 2:15 (NLT)
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (and then, Mark drives home our first point) (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)
This is our first lesson today; There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers – hated, despised sinners.
Jesus, it’s bad enough you called this tax collector, but now you go to his house that government corruption paid for? And then, you join other tax collectors and miscellaneous disreputable sinners for dinner? And Jesus says, Yeah, you got a problem with that?
Levi, like most tax collectors, was most likely wealthy. But it was corruption wealth, like gangster wealth, and so his only friends were others like him. And he probably just wanted all his disreputable sinner friends to meet Jesus and his disciples, and he probably wanted his friends to know why he was leaving his life of government corruption to follow this radical new Teacher of God. But this presented a huge problem for the Pharisees.
The first lesson today is the fact that Jesus would do that, that Jesus would go. And he did it for a purpose. It wasn’t like he saw Matthew sitting on the side of the road and thought, “Hey, you’re as good as any.” Every disciple is a picture, is an illustration to us, and Matthew’s illustration is the worst of “clean sin.” Like white-collar sin. This is not a leper. This is not – in our day – someone who looks clean on the outside but we know they are corrupt to the very core. This guy is bad to the core but lives like he’s successful. The first lesson is that Jesus would specifically seek after that person to follow him, to be a disciple.
The second lesson comes in the Pharisees. Primarily this was because there was a belief at that time (and still somewhat today) in that part of the world that when you eat with someone, you are actually sharing life with them.
When you enter a home in the Middle East, you become family, because people don’t just come in and out of homes. It’s a family situation. If you sit down and eat with someone, there is a connection, a communion made. They consider it to be sharing life. They are sharing life with you if they share their food with you, which is part of what forms the basis for us sharing life with Jesus when we take communion. This is a cultural basis for sharing communion, where we share life with Christ.
When you sit down with someone and you’re tearing bread (they don’t have the germophobe thing like us) you are tearing bread off the same piece of bread. You are dipping it in the same wine glass. You’re eating together, maybe even sharing the wine glass, you’re sharing DNA. You’re becoming one with that person. This is the problem that the Pharisees had with Jesus with this dinner scene. In a sense, Jesus was becoming one with the worst of the worst of the sinners.
And so, the Pharisees saw this dinner scene as Jesus sharing life with these disreputable sinners. And so, we read in Mark 2:16,
Mark 2:16 (NLT)
16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
When they say “Why does he eat with such scum?” what they are really saying is, how can Jesus be sharing life with these sinners? They’re accusing Jesus, to some extent, of “becoming one” with the worst of the sinners. Which, if you can focus on the spiritual side of things, in a way, Jesus was preparing to become one with them.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus was preparing to “take on” the sin of the very worst of all sinners – like us – and pay the full penalty for our sin, in our place. But the Pharisees were thinking no such thing. They were thinking only out of their religious self-righteousness. And guys, right here is where we have to turn the Pharisee mirror on ourselves right here in Mark 2:17.
Mark 2:17 (NLT)
17 When Jesus heard this (their question, Why does he eat with such sinners?), he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call NOT THOSE who THINK they are righteous, BUT THOSE who KNOW they are sinners.”
Guys, if we could truly take in this one verse, it would radically transform our lives.
And maybe you could hear the Pharisees responding to one another. Uh… wait a minute… did he say those who think they’re righteous – is he talking about us? Some religious teacher this guy is? He comes to the sinners? And ignores us who are righteous?
Let’s read the last line of verse 17 one more time.
Mark 2:17(b) (NLT)
17 [Jesus says] . . . I have come to call NOT THOSE who THINK they are righteous, BUT THOSE who KNOW they are SINNERS.”
Please listen carefully right here. If this statement from Jesus is true, then why do we all try to act like we’re righteous?
Isn’t it the wrong side of the line? Certainly, we’re not doing it for Jesus. Because Jesus isn’t impressed, in fact, he’s offended. Read Matthew 23, and you’ll see how offended he is about the Pharisees. It’s not because we think, oh, if we look and act righteous, then Jesus will approve of us and accept us. No, it’s the opposite! We do it for the same reason the Pharisees do it. If we understood this sentence, we would never think to ourselves, well, I have to clean up. I have to look right. I have to look like and act like a Christian. We would say, man, that’s the last thing I want.
If we really understand that Jesus is so offended by that, we would say, no, no. We would walk around with a big sign: SINNER! I know I’m a sinner! I need Jesus!
Do we not want to be called by Jesus? Because he said, he didn’t come to call those who think they’re righteous. Do we not want to commune with Jesus? Because I guarantee you (except for some small cases where a couple of Pharisees did get saved – Nicodemus for sure), he didn’t ever have a meal like this one with the Pharisees. Why do we want to be one?
Do we want to be Pharisees who put on the righteous mask and parade it around church? When was the last time a Christian said to you, Man – I am a sinner, by nature and by choice? My heart is deceitfully wicked and my pride is my worst sin of all. My pride distorts everything I think about myself and about my own actions. My heart has deceived me and sin has trapped me, and I’m living in sin and I need help. And no matter what I am doing all week, when I come to church, I do my best to look and act like a good Christian.
When was the last time you heard a Christian say that? Right? We don’t say this stuff, but it’s true. It’s true. We’re so focused on looking and acting like a Christian, and our pride has us so deceived and our deceitful heart has us so deceived that we’re living in sin and acting like a Christian. Acting righteous and being driven by our own sin. Guys, if we really don’t want to be a Pharisee, at some point, we have to admit that we have Pharisee tendencies in our own lives.
This is critical because Jesus didn’t want to have anything to do with those who thought they were righteous or those who wanted to look righteous. Jesus came to call and even be one with those who know they are sinners. Maybe it's because a prideful, self-righteous heart is often closed to the truth of God’s Word, and to the power of Jesus Christ. But a person who knows just how badly they need Jesus, that person is ready to receive God’s Word and receive his power to be transformed.
So… don’t be a Pharisee!
We’re going to see three more conflicts in a row between Jesus and the Pharisees (five total), and there’s one thing that’s consistent in every one of these five conflicts with the Pharisees. The common denominator is prideful self-righteousness.
And before we start thinking about the uptight, legalistic churches where polyester suits are still in fashion, please hear me when I say – thinking that someone else as a Pharisee is a very Pharisaical thing to do! What’s that old saying we used as kids? “Takes one to know one.”
So, now that we are all in the cross-hairs, the question is, how do we avoid becoming a Pharisee? How can we guard against acting like a Pharisee?
Let me start by giving you the top two traits of a Pharisee.
#1) A Pharisee always thinks he (or she) is right
#2) A Pharisee always wants others to see him (or her) in the best possible light
And so, they always wear a mask when they’re around other Christians.
#1) A Pharisee is always right
#2) A Pharisee always wears a mask around other Christians
Don’t be a Pharisee!
So, how do we guard against being a Pharisee? Two words: brokenness and humility.
We guard against being a Pharisee by making sure that brokenness and humility are primary character traits in our lives because these two character traits especially mark those who truly know their need for Christ.
Brokenness is coming to the end of your “self.” Brokenness allows us to see our tremendous need for a Savior. A man (or woman) whose pride has been broken is quick to repent in order to stay very close to their Savior. They don’t sweep sin under the rug pretending to others that it’s not there. They don’t try to make excuses for their sin, justifying it to others. Instead, they rush into God’s presence, repenting of their sin, and relying on God to give them the strength to cling to God’s love and God’s will.
And brokenness produces humility. Until our pride is broken, we will not humble ourselves before God or other Christians. True humility is not being concerned about self. It’s not thinking of self.
Brokenness and humility are the double character traits that bring a person to surrender, repentance, and ultimately victory. And these two radical character traits (brokenness and humility) must continue to grow in a Christian their entire life.
As we go through the next three head-to-head conflicts between the authority of Jesus and the arrogance of the Pharisees. I want to talk more about how to not be a Pharisee. But for today, let’s leave with two truths.
#1) We CAN be Pharisees – and we might actually BE a Pharisee today
#2) We Can be HEALED of being a Pharisee through the miraculous “double remedy” of brokenness and humility.
Let me close with a verse that was a famous worship chorus in the ’80 s.
Micah 6:8 (NKJV)
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
This is the antidote to being a Pharisee. With our pride broken, we walk humbly with our God.
Start by being honest with just yourself and God… brutally honest.
#1) God, do I always want to be right?
#2) Do I wear a mask around other Christians in order to try to look right to them?
Lord, save me from being a Pharisee. Lord, help me to live in brokenness instead of pride and help me to live in humility instead of arrogance.
But that was just the first of five events that Mark strings together to make sure we understand the significance of the ongoing confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. And as I mentioned last week, this confrontation is what Jesus actually uses for him to ultimately reach the Cross, which was his real reason for becoming a man.
But through these five back-to-back confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees, we have a huge, huge lesson to learn from the Pharisee… Don’t be one! Don’t be a Pharisee.
So, like last week’s message, there are actually two lessons in our text today, and our first lesson that leads to our second lesson starts in Mark 2:13.
Mark 2:13 (NLT)
13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.
Jesus is still in Capernaum. The four men who dug through the roof in our last message are back at the house doing some roof repair. So, Jesus goes for a walk to teach the crowds who were coming to him. And Mark 2:14 continues.
Mark 2:14(a) (NLT)
14(a) As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth . . .
This Levi is Matthew, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, and this Levi (Matthew) was hated, not just by the Pharisees. He was hated by all good Jews, which is really interesting when you realize that his gospel was written specifically for the Jews, who hated him, to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah. But here in Mark, he is just a hated and despised tax collector.
Tax collectors were hated because they worked for Rome. They collected taxes from the Jews and from those who traveled the Via Maris, which was a major trade route from Egypt to Mesopotamia and passed right at the edge of Capernaum. And not only did Matthew and the other tax collectors collect taxes for Rome, but they lived on the “extra” they collected.
In other words, the more they collected from their fellow Jews, the better they lived and it seems all tax collectors, including Matthew, lived very well. The trade-off was they would be excommunicated from the Synagogues and aggressively shunned by the Jewish leaders and by their own families. And the only ones who would associate with the tax collectors were the worst of sinners – those who had nothing to lose by being seen with a tax collector.
And so, the beginning of Mark 2:14 has Matthew (Levi) sitting at his tax collector’s booth, which was a raised platform on the edge of the road from which he collected taxes (and hate) from those who passed by. And then… Jesus walked by. And in Mark 2:14(b), we read a very direct statement.
Mark 2:14(b) (NLT)
14(b) . . . “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
Listen, we can read that easily – actually too easily – because this is a massive bombshell of an event. The four fishermen that Jesus called in Chapter 1 were bad enough. Jesus started toward the low end of the social barrel with the fishermen. But now he’s gone past the bottom of the social barrel down into the dregs of society. Jesus just called the worst of all “white-collar” sinners to be his disciple. He called a hated, despised tax collector, and Levi (Matthew) just got up and followed him!
This is incredible; no one would have guessed that Jesus would have gone this low to call a disciple. And then it gets worse.
Mark 2:15 (NLT)
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (and then, Mark drives home our first point) (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)
This is our first lesson today; There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers – hated, despised sinners.
Jesus, it’s bad enough you called this tax collector, but now you go to his house that government corruption paid for? And then, you join other tax collectors and miscellaneous disreputable sinners for dinner? And Jesus says, Yeah, you got a problem with that?
Levi, like most tax collectors, was most likely wealthy. But it was corruption wealth, like gangster wealth, and so his only friends were others like him. And he probably just wanted all his disreputable sinner friends to meet Jesus and his disciples, and he probably wanted his friends to know why he was leaving his life of government corruption to follow this radical new Teacher of God. But this presented a huge problem for the Pharisees.
The first lesson today is the fact that Jesus would do that, that Jesus would go. And he did it for a purpose. It wasn’t like he saw Matthew sitting on the side of the road and thought, “Hey, you’re as good as any.” Every disciple is a picture, is an illustration to us, and Matthew’s illustration is the worst of “clean sin.” Like white-collar sin. This is not a leper. This is not – in our day – someone who looks clean on the outside but we know they are corrupt to the very core. This guy is bad to the core but lives like he’s successful. The first lesson is that Jesus would specifically seek after that person to follow him, to be a disciple.
The second lesson comes in the Pharisees. Primarily this was because there was a belief at that time (and still somewhat today) in that part of the world that when you eat with someone, you are actually sharing life with them.
When you enter a home in the Middle East, you become family, because people don’t just come in and out of homes. It’s a family situation. If you sit down and eat with someone, there is a connection, a communion made. They consider it to be sharing life. They are sharing life with you if they share their food with you, which is part of what forms the basis for us sharing life with Jesus when we take communion. This is a cultural basis for sharing communion, where we share life with Christ.
When you sit down with someone and you’re tearing bread (they don’t have the germophobe thing like us) you are tearing bread off the same piece of bread. You are dipping it in the same wine glass. You’re eating together, maybe even sharing the wine glass, you’re sharing DNA. You’re becoming one with that person. This is the problem that the Pharisees had with Jesus with this dinner scene. In a sense, Jesus was becoming one with the worst of the worst of the sinners.
And so, the Pharisees saw this dinner scene as Jesus sharing life with these disreputable sinners. And so, we read in Mark 2:16,
Mark 2:16 (NLT)
16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
When they say “Why does he eat with such scum?” what they are really saying is, how can Jesus be sharing life with these sinners? They’re accusing Jesus, to some extent, of “becoming one” with the worst of the sinners. Which, if you can focus on the spiritual side of things, in a way, Jesus was preparing to become one with them.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus was preparing to “take on” the sin of the very worst of all sinners – like us – and pay the full penalty for our sin, in our place. But the Pharisees were thinking no such thing. They were thinking only out of their religious self-righteousness. And guys, right here is where we have to turn the Pharisee mirror on ourselves right here in Mark 2:17.
Mark 2:17 (NLT)
17 When Jesus heard this (their question, Why does he eat with such sinners?), he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call NOT THOSE who THINK they are righteous, BUT THOSE who KNOW they are sinners.”
Guys, if we could truly take in this one verse, it would radically transform our lives.
And maybe you could hear the Pharisees responding to one another. Uh… wait a minute… did he say those who think they’re righteous – is he talking about us? Some religious teacher this guy is? He comes to the sinners? And ignores us who are righteous?
Let’s read the last line of verse 17 one more time.
Mark 2:17(b) (NLT)
17 [Jesus says] . . . I have come to call NOT THOSE who THINK they are righteous, BUT THOSE who KNOW they are SINNERS.”
Please listen carefully right here. If this statement from Jesus is true, then why do we all try to act like we’re righteous?
Isn’t it the wrong side of the line? Certainly, we’re not doing it for Jesus. Because Jesus isn’t impressed, in fact, he’s offended. Read Matthew 23, and you’ll see how offended he is about the Pharisees. It’s not because we think, oh, if we look and act righteous, then Jesus will approve of us and accept us. No, it’s the opposite! We do it for the same reason the Pharisees do it. If we understood this sentence, we would never think to ourselves, well, I have to clean up. I have to look right. I have to look like and act like a Christian. We would say, man, that’s the last thing I want.
If we really understand that Jesus is so offended by that, we would say, no, no. We would walk around with a big sign: SINNER! I know I’m a sinner! I need Jesus!
Do we not want to be called by Jesus? Because he said, he didn’t come to call those who think they’re righteous. Do we not want to commune with Jesus? Because I guarantee you (except for some small cases where a couple of Pharisees did get saved – Nicodemus for sure), he didn’t ever have a meal like this one with the Pharisees. Why do we want to be one?
Do we want to be Pharisees who put on the righteous mask and parade it around church? When was the last time a Christian said to you, Man – I am a sinner, by nature and by choice? My heart is deceitfully wicked and my pride is my worst sin of all. My pride distorts everything I think about myself and about my own actions. My heart has deceived me and sin has trapped me, and I’m living in sin and I need help. And no matter what I am doing all week, when I come to church, I do my best to look and act like a good Christian.
When was the last time you heard a Christian say that? Right? We don’t say this stuff, but it’s true. It’s true. We’re so focused on looking and acting like a Christian, and our pride has us so deceived and our deceitful heart has us so deceived that we’re living in sin and acting like a Christian. Acting righteous and being driven by our own sin. Guys, if we really don’t want to be a Pharisee, at some point, we have to admit that we have Pharisee tendencies in our own lives.
This is critical because Jesus didn’t want to have anything to do with those who thought they were righteous or those who wanted to look righteous. Jesus came to call and even be one with those who know they are sinners. Maybe it's because a prideful, self-righteous heart is often closed to the truth of God’s Word, and to the power of Jesus Christ. But a person who knows just how badly they need Jesus, that person is ready to receive God’s Word and receive his power to be transformed.
So… don’t be a Pharisee!
We’re going to see three more conflicts in a row between Jesus and the Pharisees (five total), and there’s one thing that’s consistent in every one of these five conflicts with the Pharisees. The common denominator is prideful self-righteousness.
And before we start thinking about the uptight, legalistic churches where polyester suits are still in fashion, please hear me when I say – thinking that someone else as a Pharisee is a very Pharisaical thing to do! What’s that old saying we used as kids? “Takes one to know one.”
So, now that we are all in the cross-hairs, the question is, how do we avoid becoming a Pharisee? How can we guard against acting like a Pharisee?
Let me start by giving you the top two traits of a Pharisee.
#1) A Pharisee always thinks he (or she) is right
#2) A Pharisee always wants others to see him (or her) in the best possible light
And so, they always wear a mask when they’re around other Christians.
#1) A Pharisee is always right
#2) A Pharisee always wears a mask around other Christians
Don’t be a Pharisee!
So, how do we guard against being a Pharisee? Two words: brokenness and humility.
We guard against being a Pharisee by making sure that brokenness and humility are primary character traits in our lives because these two character traits especially mark those who truly know their need for Christ.
Brokenness is coming to the end of your “self.” Brokenness allows us to see our tremendous need for a Savior. A man (or woman) whose pride has been broken is quick to repent in order to stay very close to their Savior. They don’t sweep sin under the rug pretending to others that it’s not there. They don’t try to make excuses for their sin, justifying it to others. Instead, they rush into God’s presence, repenting of their sin, and relying on God to give them the strength to cling to God’s love and God’s will.
And brokenness produces humility. Until our pride is broken, we will not humble ourselves before God or other Christians. True humility is not being concerned about self. It’s not thinking of self.
Brokenness and humility are the double character traits that bring a person to surrender, repentance, and ultimately victory. And these two radical character traits (brokenness and humility) must continue to grow in a Christian their entire life.
As we go through the next three head-to-head conflicts between the authority of Jesus and the arrogance of the Pharisees. I want to talk more about how to not be a Pharisee. But for today, let’s leave with two truths.
#1) We CAN be Pharisees – and we might actually BE a Pharisee today
#2) We Can be HEALED of being a Pharisee through the miraculous “double remedy” of brokenness and humility.
Let me close with a verse that was a famous worship chorus in the ’80 s.
Micah 6:8 (NKJV)
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
This is the antidote to being a Pharisee. With our pride broken, we walk humbly with our God.
Start by being honest with just yourself and God… brutally honest.
#1) God, do I always want to be right?
#2) Do I wear a mask around other Christians in order to try to look right to them?
Lord, save me from being a Pharisee. Lord, help me to live in brokenness instead of pride and help me to live in humility instead of arrogance.