Day 6: Jesus is the doctor we need
In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, a seventeen-year-old boy named Augustus doesn’t realize he has cancer until it’s too late for his life to be saved. If he’d known about the cancer earlier and gone to see a doctor, he could have been made well. But he didn’t. In our passage today, we’ll see some people who realize they are spiritually sick and go to Jesus the doctor for help, while others think they’re well and don’t seek His help.
In verse 13, where was Jesus and what was He doing?
In verse 14, who did Jesus see and what was he doing?
Tax collectors were seen as bad people by other Jews because they worked for the Romans who ruled over the Jewish people. They also made people give them extra money and kept it for themselves. People hated tax collectors and thought of them as awful sinners.
What did Jesus say to Levi?
Why is it surprising that Jesus would call a tax collector?
How did Levi respond when Jesus called him?
What does this teach us about how we should respond to Jesus?
Levi’s other name was Matthew (see Matthew 9:9), and we think that he wrote Matthew’s gospel!
In verse 15, Levi threw a party for Jesus. What kind of people was Jesus eating dinner with?
In verse 16, who complained about Jesus eating dinner with these people?
In verse 17, how does Jesus respond to the Pharisees?
When Jesus said He didn’t come for the righteous, but for sinners, which category do you think the Pharisees would have put themselves in?
“Righteous” means being right with God. The Pharisees were extremely religious Jews. Most people would have seen them as super holy: the most righteous people in town! When we meet Pharisees in the Gospels, that’s almost always how they see themselves. But we’ll notice as Mark’s gospel unfolds that the Pharisees hate Jesus and don’t want Him to be king.
Do you think Jesus thought the Pharisees were righteous or sinners?
Mark often tells his stories in an order to help us understand each story better. You may have noticed that this story about Levi connects with yesterday’s story about Jesus healing the paralyzed man.
Who is sick in each passage?
Who is the doctor in each passage?
Who criticizes Jesus in each passage?
According to the Bible, we’re all desperately spiritually sick, and the only way we can be right with God is by coming to Jesus, the great doctor who can make us spiritually well. Ask Jesus to help you recognize that you are a sinner in need of His forgiveness.