Jesus Dines With Sinners

(Gospel of Mark 2:13 - 2:17) 
When Jesus once again went out to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a large number of people gathered round him, and he began to teach them.  As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus manning a custom booth.  "Follow me," Jesus bid him, and Levi rose and followed him.

As he dined at Levi's house, there were many tax collectors and sinners who were reclining with Jesus -- and with his disciples as well, for there were many who were following him.  When the scribes and Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they asked of his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

When he heard this, Jesus replied to them, "It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick.  I come not to treat those who are righteous, but to cure those who are sinners."

Notes
1. That tax collectors are equated with sinners is revealing of the attitude that Galileans must have had toward their government, not that those who collect taxes are ever popular among citizens of any country at any time.  The tax collectors would have worked for the native ruler, Herod Antipas, who administered Galilee as a client state of Rome.  (They would not have been employees of Rome, as is asserted by many biblical commentaries.)  Although Herod Antipas’ reign, dependent upon the good will of the Roman emperor, was a long one, it is doubtful that he was very popular with his subjects.  His servants were probably reviled by the populace.  Therefore, the ranks of the tax collectors would have been filled by disreputable and unsavory characters, outcasts, and opportunists.  But the tax collectors would have been educated men, literate in Aramaic certainly and perhaps in Greek and Latin.  The sinners were probably not those who were immoral in their conduct, but those who were merely religiously unobservant or heretical in their beliefs.  This would probably include Hebrews who had become Hellenized or Romanized and had abandoned traditional customs and religious practices.

2. Levi, a tax collector (a publican, or what we would call a public contractor), is, for some reason, chosen by Jesus.  He calls to Levi and Levi comes, leaving without explanation his well-paid job to follow an itinerant rabbi.  Levi was probably manning a booth, collecting duties on imported goods that were being transported to Galilee from other jurisdictions across the Sea of Galilee.  Little is here said of Levi, save that he apparently invites Jesus and his disciples to dinner.  He is prosperous enough to give his guests a good feed.  (The guests dine Roman style, while reclining on couches before a low table.  They do not sit at a table as in da Vinci’s anachronistic depiction, The Last Supper.)  Other tax collectors and "sinners" join Jesus and his disciples as guests.

3. Levi is generally thought to be the same person as the Matthew, supposed author of the Gospel of Matthew and later listed in Mark as one of the 12 apostles.  (Dual names wee not uncommon at the time, but make for much confusion.  It is possible, too, that Levi changed his name to Matthew when he became a disciple of Jesus.) His father Alphaeus is probably not the same Alphaeus who was the father of the Apostle James, although this is matter of some controversy.

4. Jesus, contrary to the point of view of those in the religious establishment, does not feel he needs to be selective in his society.  He explains in his own way (it is the sick and not the well that need a doctor) the obligation he feels to consort with sinners in order to convert them.  That, one surmises, would have beneath the dignity of the Pharisees, who are quick to find fault in anything that Jesus says or does.  The Pharisees see their role in defending and perpetuating religious orthodoxy and are more interested in rooting out heretics than finding converts.

5. The questioning of Jesus' actions and statements by the Pharisees seem like a Socratic dialogue.  Were the Pharisees really present, making these challenging inquiries, or are these interchanges literary devices employed by the author to illustrate Jesus' teachings?