"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Luke: 7:34
Many years ago, while I was taking classes at a pastoral refresher program in California,
I was taking with a church Elder named Charlie. Charlie served as a Church
Elder in a particular city.
Charlie began to tell me about a situation which had arose in his Church area.
The Church had made the collective decision to move the Church to a new location.
This new location was within the inner city so that the congregation might be
accessible, and able to reach the people who lived in that area and those who
roamed the streets and especially the young people.
Some of residents who lived in the area of the inner city had less than
up standing lives. Some were dirty, unkept, some were addicted, some bought
some sold. Many of them were involved in activities which may have pushed the
legal boundaries. None-the-less the congregation made the decision to locate to
this area.
There is a Problem
Shortly after the transition was made to this
particular inner-city neighborhood, some of the street people and those who
lived in the neighborhood started attending the church. At first "they" would linger in the rear of the hall and some
were coming in just before services began and leaving as soon as they
ended.
But after a while some of "them" began to
linger and stay a little longer after church services had ended. The Pastor and
the Elders were very glad that the residents of the area were coming and
hearing about Jesus and all that he is for each and all of us.
Within a short time however, the President of the Local Church Advisory Council and a few of the Council members came to the Pastor and told him that there was a "serious" problem. The Pastor was naturally concerned and asked what the problem was.
The group of Council members told the Pastor
that the people from the streets who were finding their way into the services
and their presence was "bothering" the
members of the church and they being there had offended the "sensibilities"
of some of the members of the church.
The Pastor was dumbfounded, these were the
very people whom they had come here to minister the love of God to, and reach
with the Gospel message about Jesus.
The whole purpose of the church's move to this
area was to reach such people, the very ones who live daily without hope and
struggle to make sense of the lives they find themselves in.
A "Sterilized" and "Sanitized”
Christianity
It is unfortunate that some Christians have
such a "sterilized" and "sanitized” Christianity.
Some Christians mistakenly believe that it is those who live safe, clean, moral
lives, will be receptive to the Gospel message, not the down trodden
and broken and the addicted.
Jesus entered this world as one of us, the
Holy Perfect sinless Son of the living God, yet being such, he did not with
draw from the down trodden people of that time (or this time). Jesus was
among those who had broken lives and Jesus reached out them with the love,
grace and mercy that the Father has for all humanity.
The Sick and Sinners
We are told in Luke: 5:
that people came from towns in Galilee, Judea and as far as Jerusalem to hear
Jesus teach the word of God. We are told that the some of the religious leaders
were present as well. We are told in St. Luke's account that "the power of God was upon Jesus to heal the
sick".
For the religious leaders of the day, sick
persons were to be thought of as being under God's displeasure and excluded
from worship, so that Jesus giving the sick access to himself was a point of
consternation.
As Jesus taught, men brought a parallelized man on a stretcher to see Jesus. At first, they are unable to gain access to Jesus due to the press of crowd surrounding him, the men are determined to help their friend and improvised a means to get Jesus' attention. We are told in Luke's narrative that the men break through the roof of the meeting house and lower their friend down to Jesus as he preached.
Jesus, then seeing their action, declares to
the man "Friend, your sins are forgiven”. This speaks to us that
Jesus' primary concern is for the spiritual healing, which ultimately will lead
to the healing of the body. This launches a debate between the Pharisees and
the Teachers of the Law and Jesus regarding his place to forgive sins.
In Matthew:9 we are
told that Jesus offered a place in his ministry to a tax collector
named Matthew Levi.
"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew
sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got
up and followed him."(9)
The tax collectors who collected taxes for the Provincial Government of
Rome, were look upon by other Jews as traitors and collaborators with Rome and
known for being corrupt, they were shunned and ostracized by the Jewish people
and the communities in which they lived, yet Jesus reaches out to just such a
one.
Levi Matthew accepts Jesus' invitation and, in
turn invites Jesus into his own house for a dinner in Jesus' honor. Other
dinner guest included some of the less esteemed members of the community as
well, those whom the religious leaders deem as "sinners"
and they question Jesus' association with "sinners".
"While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax
collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees
saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax
collectors and sinners?” (10)
Why Jesus Eats With Sinners
Jesus over heard the Pharisees' query and gave
them the answer as to why he eats with sinners.
"On hearing this, Jesus said,
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn
what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call
the righteous, but sinners.” (12-13)
Simply put, sinners need Jesus, that is, each and all of us need Jesus; and he has come among us for us. The Pharisees would have disenfranchised and excluded the very ones who need the Lord the most. It was thru the Law and their reading the Law which led them to miss the true intent of the Law. This is why Jesus tells them in his explanation to the Pharisees.
"I desire mercy, not sacrifice."...
Jesus came to extend mercy and grace to each and all, which produces spiritual healing,
where the Law and the “sanitized” behavior which it produces would have only produced
a "religion" of condemnation and death.
Jesus reached out to those who needed him the most, the spiritually sick
and the broken, the lost and excluded. Those people knew that they needed something,
and the unconditional love of Jesus made them receptive to the message of
forgiveness, whereas the Pharisees thought that they did not need help, they
saw themselves as spiritually well.
A Lesson
It is not always the persons who are living
good upstanding lives in safe neighborhoods, those who have good
educations, good jobs, and live "honest moral
ethical" lives who are receptive to the Gospel.
Many times some persons who have good jobs, and a home, and a degree of
financial stability may think that they are "alright" as they are, and may not see
their need for Jesus, they , like the Pharisees, may even be "religious" and attend a church but still never
really come to full acceptances of their need for a Savior.
It is often that those who live sinful broken
lives, and in a state of constant flux who are the ones that are the most
willing to give the Gospel a fair hearing. Many of these people, when they see
genuine unconditional love and acceptance, may respond favorably to Jesus, they
often know that they need help and many are searching for a way out of the
lives they are living; they embrace "mercy" so
freely offered by Jesus Christ which results in their forgiveness and they are
healed spiritually.
Now it is true , that we as Christians want to walk in a Christ like manner and we should not place ourselves in certain circumstance nor be in places which could open a door to problems and it behooves us to walk in wisdom be "in the world but not of the world"
Friend of Sinners
What about us, are we willing to reach out to
those who need Jesus, or are we like some of the members of the church my Elder
friend Charlie served, that when "they" came in
"they" were looked upon as a problem? These inner-city
people came looking for something, will they find it with each and all of us?
The spiritually sick are all around us as they
were two thousand years ago, are we who are Christians, are we like the
Pharisees who would condemn them and disenfranchise them, or are we like Jesus
who extends "mercy, not sacrifice" , so
that they might experience the forgiveness that Jesus has accomplished
for us all and spiritually heals them?
Do we shun the very people who Jesus
befriended? What if they begin to attend our churches? Will they find the
same unconditional love from us that Jesus offered, or will we see "them" as a problem?
We are called to participate in Jesus' life
here and now in presenting the Gospel and love of God to those around us, many
are looking for something better than the lives they have.
Let us be like Jesus and become the friends of sinners...
Benediction: May we each and all extend the very love, mercy and grace to any and to all with whom we interact, so that we like Jesus will be a friend of sinners today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma
If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything
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