Mark 2:17: Not the Righteous but Sinners?

Nineteen centuries and more of gospel preaching and New Testament reading have familiarized us with the idea that Jesus' ministry was specially directed to sinners--not simply to sinners in the sense in which most people will admit that "we are all sinners," but to sinners in the sense that their lives offended the accepted moral code of their community. "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim 1:15 RSV); this is a great gospel text, and if the writer goes on to speak of himself as first and foremost among sinners, that serves to underline his claim on the saving grace of Christ. But during the ministry of Jesus it gave great offense to many respectable people that a religious teacher should have so little regard for what was expected of him as to consort with those who were no better than they should be. "If this man were a prophet," said Simon the Pharisee to himself, when Jesus allowed a woman of doubtful reputation to touch him, "he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner" (Lk 7:39). But Jesus knew perfectly well what sort of woman she was, and for that very reason would not prevent her from paying him such embarrassing attention (see comment on Lk 7:47).

Among all the traditional designations of Jesus, probably none is more heartwarming than "the friend of sinners." But this designation was first given to him by way of criticism: "a glutton and a drunkard," they said, "a friend of tax collectors and `sinners' " (Lk 7:34)--tax collectors occupying the lowest rung on the ladder of respectability, matched only by harlots. It was not that he tolerated such people, as though he did them a favor by taking notice of them in a condescending way, but he gave the impression that he liked their company, that he even preferred it; he did not condemn them but encouraged them to feel at home with him. "This man welcomes sinners," the scribes said by way of complaint; and more than that, he actually "eats with them" (Lk 15:2). To accept invitations to a meal in the homes of such people, to enjoy table-fellowship with them--that was the most emphatic way of declaring his unity with them. No wonder this gave offense to those who, sometimes with considerable painstaking, had kept to the path of sound morality. If a man is known by the company he keeps, Jesus was simply asking to be known as the friend of the ne'er-do-wells, the dregs of society. And would not many religious people today react in exactly the same way?

On one occasion when Jesus had accepted a dinner invitation to the home of one of these disreputable people, his disciples were approached by the scribes. The disciples were included in the invitation, but some of them may have had misgivings. "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" they were asked. But Jesus interposed with the answer. "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" he said. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mk 2:17). To call means to invite; he had accepted their invitation, but they received an invitation from him--to take and enjoy the love and mercy of the heavenly Father. It is inevitable that the "ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Lk 15:7 RSV) should feel that too much fuss is made over sinners, but since the gospel is for sinners first and foremost--indeed for sinners only--it cannot be otherwise.

These words of Jesus are reproduced by the two other Synoptic Evangelists (Mt 9:13; Lk 5:32), but Luke adds a short explanatory gloss: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Repentance figures more frequently in Luke's Gospel than in the other two (it does not figure at all in the Gospel of John). It has sometimes been suggested that Luke's addition betrays a misunderstanding on his part, but this is not really so. If repentance in the teaching of Jesus implies change of character rather than reformation of behavior, then Jesus believed in dealing with the root of the disease and not merely with the symptoms. And the root could be dealt with effectively only by the practical assurance and demonstration of outgoing, self-giving love.

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As is pointed out by T. W. Manson in The Teaching of Jesus, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935), p. 308.