And he went out again by the sea, and all the crowd came to him, and he taught them.
Jesus has just forgiven and healed a paralyzed man in a crowded house in Capernaum, and the religious teachers challenged His right to do it. He now leaves the house and teaches by the lake — a short walk that leads straight to the calling of a tax collector.
The verse sits at a hinge. The religious leaders have just refused what Jesus offered, and the next thing He does is go out. One writer traces exactly this pattern:
When the rude resistance of man meets the kind grace of God, that grace seeks to extend its limits. The Saviour came bringing grace and truth to the favoured nation. But the scribes and Pharisees would not have His gift. So He would show that this grace was of such a nature that it took in not only the despised Galilean, but the still more despised tax collector.
He went to the water, not to a field or a hillside. One writer connects the leaders' hostility with the place Jesus chose:
Jesus had proclaimed the forgiveness of sins, and it stirred up resentment in the Jewish leaders. This opposition is the first sign of the total rejection of Christ, which involved the setting aside of the Jews. So it becomes the occasion of bringing to light, in the call of Levi, a hint of the new order the Lord was about to bring in... In Scripture the sea often pictures the nations. So it suggests the great truth that the Lord was about to become the gathering centre of Christianity for believers from both Jews and Gentiles.
Another writer reads the same step as a move outward, and offers it as a possibility rather than a certainty:
His going out again by the sea, and His teaching, may mean something like what we find in Matthew 13. Grace was now displaying itself so fully, apart from law. That always points forward to the going out to the nations which it would soon result in.
Mark gives less of the content of Jesus' teaching than the other Gospels, but he keeps returning to the fact of it. The same commentator observes:
Any other Gospel gives the substance of the Lord's teaching more fully than Mark does. But Mark insists on the fact of that teaching, and on how constant it was, as much as any of them. And the miracles, as we have seen, follow and confirm it.
Jesus had withdrawn to lonely places earlier because the healed leper could not keep quiet, yet people still came from everywhere. The pattern holds here:
The Lord's presence among men had a marked effect on people. He had to stay out in lonely places, unable to return to Capernaum openly, because the leper He had healed could not keep quiet. Even so, people came to Him from every direction. After some days He returned to Capernaum, and word spread that He was in the house. At once many gathered to it, "so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them." From the house He went out to the lakeside, and all the crowd came to Him, and He taught them.
One writer reads the step out of the city as a turning point:
This ministry and testimony to Israel ended. He goes out of the city by the sea — a moment that leads out to a wider range. He calls, and joins Himself to, the very thing Israel found disgusting. Passing by, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. He called him to follow Him, and went and ate at his house. This was complete ease in the company of a man his people condemned. In principle it was the same as going out to the Gentiles, and to Jewish feeling it was the same thing. But He pursues His course of love and grace on His own principles of righteousness.
Another writer measures how far down that call reached:
In the eyes of a Jew, no occupation was more degraded and scandalous than that of a man who made his living by squeezing tax money out of people for the hated Romans. That the Lord should call such a man was great grace. It lifts a man from the lowest place of degradation as a sinner into the highest place in the service of the Lord as an apostle.
- Rejection. The leaders resent His word of forgiveness. Jesus does not argue back — He walks out to the lake.
- Extension. Resistance does not shrink grace. It widens its limits, past the favoured nation to the most despised.
- The sea. Commentators read the shoreline as a picture of the nations. It hints at the gathering centre Christ was about to become for Jews and Gentiles. They offer this as suggestion, not proof.
- Teaching. Mark records less of what Jesus said than the other Gospels. He insists instead on how constant the teaching was. The miracles follow and confirm it.
- The call. The walk ends at a tax booth. The most scandalous trade of all was the place grace chose. It lifted the lowest man into the highest service.
And passing by, he saw Levi the [son] of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-office, and says to him, Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.
Jesus stops at a roadside tax booth and calls the man working there. Mark sets this call right after the scribes and Pharisees have turned against Him. The man He picks belongs to the one trade no respectable teacher would touch.
What did a tax collector mean to a Jew? Far more than an unpopular job.
The tax was hateful to the Jews. They had to pay it against their will. But much more, it was the proof that they were slaves to the Gentiles. They had lost their privileges as the free people of God. Some of their own countrymen took this office, as they often did, under the Roman knights. Their bitterness was very great, and the man who took such a position became hated as a treacherous betrayer of the religion and the nation.
Mark does not tell this story at random. The call follows the refusal of the scribes and Pharisees. The favoured nation below is Israel.
When the kind grace of God is met by the rude resistance of man it seeks to extend its limits. The Saviour came bringing grace and truth to the favoured nation. But the scribes and Pharisees would not have His gift. So He would show what this grace was like: it took in not only the despised Galilean, but the still more despised tax collector.
One writer sees the choice as a line drawn between Christianity and the law.
Levi was a tax collector. That sets out the great characteristic of Christianity in contrast to the law. In the eyes of a Jew, no occupation was more degraded and scandalous. Such a man made his living by extorting tribute for the hated Roman. That the Lord should call such a man was great grace. That grace lifts a man from the lowest place of degradation as a sinner into the highest place of service to the Lord as an apostle.
The words sound casual. One writer reads them the other way.
Nothing in the pathway of the Lord Jesus — the heavenly stranger — was a matter of chance. Every part of His mission here had a clear purpose: what He did, when He did it, why He did it and how He did it. So it was part of the divine plan to meet Levi that very day at the tax-office.
And He saw more than a man at a desk.
But the Searcher of hearts was passing by. He who knew the empty thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees knew also the timid desires of the tax collector. He who saw Nathanael under the fig-tree had seen Levi at the toll-booth.
It is natural to praise Levi for his quick obedience. One writer refuses to.
Jesus passed by and called him. What a comfort that is to our hearts, to think that Jesus Christ calls disreputable people. Disreputable characters, people with no name at all, are welcome to Him! And not only that, He calls them… Do you think I thank that man for going after Him? I do not. Do you think I admire Levi for responding to that call? No. What I admire is the grace that called him, the kindness that could look on him and say, He is not too bad for Me.
The timing of Levi's decision is part of its force.
The call did not come at an evening service, with all the gold gathered in and locked away. It came during business hours, as he collected and counted the coveted coins. That is where he made his decision. Then the voice of the Lord reached him. The chains that had held him fell away. New life woke his dead soul. He left all, rose up and followed Jesus… The gold had lost its hold on him. He left the old life once and for all, and the tax collector's revenue went to whoever cared to claim it.
Here he is called Levi. In his own Gospel he uses another name, and he does not hide his old trade.
Who tells the shame of Matthew but his own mouth? Matthew the Evangelist tells us of Matthew the tax collector. His fellows call him Levi, unwilling to lay a finger on the stain of his unpleasant profession. He himself will not hide it or cover it over at all. He publishes it to all the world, thankfully recognising the mercy that called him.
- Despised. Levi's job made him a traitor in his nation's eyes — the living proof that Israel was under Rome.
- Sought. Jesus did not stumble on him; He passed that way to find him, and read the quiet longing behind the toll-booth.
- Called. Two words moved him from the most scandalous trade in Israel to a place among the apostles. Grace reached lower once the religious leaders refused it.
- Risen. The call came during business hours, with the coins still on the table. Levi walked away from the money.
- Named. Ever after, Matthew told the story against himself, so the mercy that called him would get the credit.