The Divine Physician Has Come to Make Men Whole (2:13-17).
The second great statement of this chapter is about the Great Physician, and is introduced by the call of Levi (Matthew). But we are not, of course, just to concentrate on the statement alone for the context is important, and indeed leads up to the statement. The call of four local fishermen to be disciples must have caused some surprise, but the call of a hated tax-collector and outcast must have been seen as staggering. It would have raised shocked horror in many Jewish hearts. And yet it exemplified fully what Jesus had come to do and be.
Analysis of 2:13-17.
a And He went out again by the sea side, and the whole crowd were resorting to Him and He was teaching them (Mark 2:13).
b And as He passed by He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the place where tolls were collected, and He says to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed Him (Mark 2:14).
c And it happened that He was sitting eating food in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and His disciples (Mark 2:15 a).
d For there were many and they followed Him (Mark 2:15 b).
c And the Scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, “He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners” (Mark 2:16).
b And when Jesus heard it, He says to them, “Those who are whole do not need a medical doctor, only those who are ill” (Mark 2:17 a).
a “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”. (Mark 2:17 b).
Note that in ‘a' He was teaching the crowds, while in the parallel we have the essence of what He was teaching them. In ‘b' we have the description of one whom He calls, and in the parallel how He sums him up. In ‘c' we find Jesus eating food with tax collectors and sinners, and in the parallel the judgment of the Scribes on it. Centrally in ‘d' we have the important fact that many tax collectors and ‘sinners' followed Him.