Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 2:16

"And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, [How is it] that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?" — Mark 2:16 (ASV)

The dinner held in Levi’s house was either his farewell party or a time for his friends to have an opportunity to meet Jesus. The tax collectors and “sinners” having dinner with Jesus suggests that he, not Levi, was the host! By calling sinners into his messianic kingdom, Jesus was showing that the basis of entering this kingdom was forgiveness.

“Sinners” (GK 283) denotes those people who refused to follow the Mosaic Law as interpreted by the Pharisees. Jesus’ close association with despised tax collectors and “sinners” was too much for the “teachers of the law” to keep quiet about. These particular teachers were Pharisees (the successors of the pious Jews who joined forces with Mattathias and his sons during the Maccabean period; see comment on Lk 18:9–14; cf. EBC 1:192).

Although many of them were doubtless pious and godly men, those Jesus came into conflict with represented some of the worst elements of traditional religion: jealousy, hypocrisy, and religious formalism. Jesus’ consorting with people who openly refused to keep the requirements of the law prompted them to ask why a supposedly observant Jew would associate with them.