17⌄¶ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:17
  • Location: Capernaum
  • Subject: Jesus Anointed
  • Narrator: Mars
  • Author: Flavius Josephus
  • Created: Flavian Imperial Cult

While Jesus was able to psychically comprehend the displeasure of the scribes earlier in the chapter, here, he hears their words and responds confusingly, in metaphor. Just as a doctor seeks out the ill to cure, not the healthy, Jesus is here for the “sinners”, not the “righteous”. Again, from the perspective of the scribes, the “sinners” are the Romans, and they are the “righteous”. But what Jesus says turns everything around because he’s been targeting his ministry on the Judean rebellion – the ones whom Rome considered the “sinners”. He’s not preaching to the Romans, he’s enjoying their company. It’s the Judean rebels who get the brunt of his message. 

“2 Jesus”: This is clearly Anointed Jesus eating at home with the rich and powerful, Jewish, Greek, or Roman. You can tell this is Anointed Jesus because he (a) was at home the last time we saw him, and (b) speaks in parables. This time, the Pharisees are upset because he’s associating with the ‘wrong’ people, and Jesus wouldn’t have needed to be psychic to know this complaint would be coming.