“Familiar Addiction” - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

After a brief detour last Sunday we’re re-joining with Jesus during the early stages of His ministry. A time that really smart people call the ‘Galilean’ ministry phase. It’s called that because He was in, you guessed it, Galilee, His home area. Two weeks ago we looked at the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man. Who remembers how the man got in to see Jesus? Right, 4 friends tore the roof off of Peter’s house and let the man down in front of Jesus. The Bible says that when Jesus saw the faith of the man’s friends He forgave the man’s sins and then healed him. Notice that Jesus didn’t ask everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes? He didn’t even ask the man to raise his hand, or say the ‘sinners prayer’ if he wanted to be forgiven.

Jesus just seemed to make a point of knocking down the familiar facades of religion.

Anyway, there was something else going on that day. The scribes were there to check out this miracle worker they’d heard about and they got more than they bargained for when Jesus started being all God like and everything. When Jesus did and said the thing He did it was a clear sign that He was claiming He was equal to God. That was a real problem for these guys and from then on they were going to be keeping a close eye on Him.

Let’s read Mark 2:13-17

Jesus again draws a crowd and to the shores of the Sea of Galilee and the passage says He taught them there. I’m sure the fishermen/disciples felt right at home in this environment. They were on familiar stomping grounds and I can imagine Jesus even asking them to find a good place for the people to gather so He could teach them. It’s also very likely that the 4 disciples knew a good number of the people who gathered to hear Jesus teach.

I think it’s safe to say that….

Comfort zones are made up of the people, places and routines that make us feel secure. We huddle in our comfort zones because we feel safe and in control when we’re there. Jesus’ disciples were like that too. Up to this point they were walking with people like themselves and even ministering to people like themselves in a place that was very familiar to them. But Jesus was about to take them to another level of what it meant to follow Him. He was about to turn up the heat in a way they never could have expected.

The passage tells us that as Jesus was walking back to town that He passed the tax office. What that meant was that this office was right on the main path from the sea to the city. This tax office was the place where the fishermen and other traders would have to pay their taxes before entering the city. Since the disciples were fishermen this would have been the place where they were forced to pay their taxes.

But today Jesus didn’t just walk on by. Instead He stops, and if I had been one of those fishermen/disciples I would have expected Jesus to set this crooked, vile, cheating, corrupt tax collector straight. Yet Jesus asks Levi, aka Matthew, to follow Him. His name gives us some back story information about Levi. He was from the priestly family line of the Levites, which meant that he was complete backslidden from his Jewish roots. And because he was in Galilee it meant he was working for the evil king Herod.

Can you imagine the thoughts that went through the disciples minds? They hated this guy, and because he was going to be hanging around with them they knew they would now be associated with man that everyone else like them hated too.

Following Jesus meant that they would have to live in community with people they would avoid. The first comfort zone Jesus confronted was their bias against different people. Jesus knew what He was doing all along. It was no coincidence that Jesus led the disciples past the tax office and invited a man who was completely outside of their comfort zone.


Are we guilty of settling for predictable rituals, routines, and relationships and resist connecting with people who are outside of that familiar circle? There’s really only one reason more people aren’t coming to follow Jesus with us. We’re unwilling to step out of our comfort zones.

Jesus takes them a step further. Not only did He invite this tax collector to walk with them they were going to his house for a party with other people just like him; other tax collectors and ‘sinners.’

Jesus brought them into community with someone they didn’t like and then He took this new community to a place outside of their comfort zone.

What’s interesting was how Levi wanted all of his sinner friends to know Jesus, but the religious people were more concerned with keeping thing things familiar.

One of the signs of infectious ‘religiosity’ is an addiction to the familiar. Being overly cautious about our reputation and our fear of differentness will cripple us and the church.

Jesus didn’t give a rip about His reputation; in fact His reply to the religious people was very clear He didn’t come for them He came for sinners.

I think an important line needs to be clarified here. We never join people IN their sin. We don’t encourage it or participate in their sinful lifestyle, but we have to be willing to meet them where they are which will require wisdom and spiritual strength. Like the disciples we better make sure we’re going with Jesus.

Our addiction to the familiar is an attempt to control our life instead of submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. Jesus leads us to uncomfortable encounters to break us of this destructive power grab. There’s only room for one Lord in our life and it’s not us.

But I’m also going to challenge you to confess and literally take a stand today. If you would join me in confessing your addiction to the familiar and repenting of your stubborn insistence of staying in your comfort zone I want you to stand.

Now in an amazing coincidence we have an incredible opportunity to practice what we’ve heard today. A little earlier we heard about the outreach to ACI this afternoon. There’s already a group going, but I’m going to challenge at least 2 of you who weren’t planning on going to change your plans and come along.

Click here to listen to this message.