When a tax-collector who worked for the Romans and who was therefore regarded as a religious and social outcast by pious Jews became a disciple of Jesus, a new controversy arose. When Jesus ate with Levi, other tax-collectors and those whom the Greek describes as 'sinners', the Pharisees asked an unavoidable question. How could this man who preached and healed in the name of God eat with those whom the Pharisees considered to be godless and evil sinners?

According to the understanding of the Pharisees, Jesus was defiling himself and degrading himself to the level of those with whom he mixed. A Pharisee would not enter the houses of such people or go near them, let alone eat with them and share the same dishes. The reply of Jesus in 2: 17 showed not only his full grasp of the sinful state of Levi and his friends but their need to be saved from it and his knowledge that he had the power to save them. The Son of God had authority to forgive sin and the Pharisees were too blind to accept this. In 2: 17 there was a challenge to the Pharisees to ask themselves whether they needed healing. Were they really well?

This story focuses on the tragedy of the Pharisees, who could not see in Jesus what the 'sinners' of society recognized in him. Mark's readers, who had been amongst the 'sinners' before they were converted (1 Peter 4:3), would appreciate this story.