13 January 2024 Mark 2:13-17
You can tell a lot about your spiritual health by looking at your calendar. Where do you spend your time?
The Pharisees generally get a bad rap in the New Testament, but they were not all bad. Many of them, in fact, were quite good – Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea. St. Paul didn’t apologize for being a Pharisee, but rather kind of bragged about it (cf. Acts 23:6, Philippians 3:5-6). The Pharisees believed many of the things Jesus taught – the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving were very much part of the Pharisaic world. The very word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word meaning “set apart,” in much the same way as the Latin word sanctus. You might even say that “Pharisee” was nearly a Hebrew way of saying “saint.”
The Pharisees regarded themselves as the guardians of Jewish identity, which is one of the reasons the Romans found Jews so troublesome. The intense sense of religious identity the Jews had, their insistence on drawing lines between themselves and the Romans, made them hard for the Romans to govern. That is why the Romans tried so hard to smudge those lines. They put their Fortress Antonia right next to the Temple. They hired Jews to be tax collectors, and made a tax system prone to fraud and extortion, so that the Jews would direct their hatred at fellow Jews rather than at the Romans. “Divide and Conquer” – worked like a charm. The Pharisees were the ones who pointed out all the insidious and cynical things the Romans were doing. They rejoiced in the lines they were drawing between themselves and the Romans because they were protecting people – they were helping people remain faithful, remain Jews.
So, when Levi (aka Matthew) abandoned his tax collecting to follow the Rabbi Jesus, you’d think that the Pharisees would have been delighted – and maybe some were. But most of them were offended. They thought “conversion” meant people would follow them, not Jesus, which raises the question, “Why did Levi follow Jesus and not them?” Surely Levi the Jew knew who the Pharisees were, knew their reputation for righteousness, knew their vigor in defending Jewish identity. Why Jesus and not them?
The answer is Jesus’ calendar. Where did He spend his time?
Jesus took the trouble to go to Levi. He went to Levi’s house.
The Pharisees stayed outside and carped about “sinners.” They didn’t see themselves as sinners. They didn’t think they needed Jesus. They thought Jesus needed them. Levi didn’t go to the Pharisees because he felt the Pharisees didn’t really care about him, judged his soul rather than fed it. Jesus cared. Jesus fed.
The Pharisees also didn’t look very hard at the rest of Jesus’ calendar, because if they had they would have seen that He spent an unusually long time every day in prayer – often praying all night. He also spent an inordinate amount of time teaching – many of the things He taught were things the Pharisees taught, and many people desperately wanted. He also spent whole days and nights healing the sick and exorcizing the possessed, which dazzled many Pharisees as much as it dazzled everybody else. Going to dinner parties wasn’t nearly all there was to say about Jesus’ calendar, but it was all many of the Pharisees could think about… while they were standing outside, far away from the people who needed their message most.
You can tell a lot about your spiritual life by looking at your calendar. Where do you spend your time?
Teaching and learning?
Calling out evil and casting out demons?
Praying – all night or even a half hour?
Taking the gospel to the people who need it most?
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