Tag Archives: jesus ate with sinners

April 4, 2018 · 5:00 AM

What Love Does

I once was invited to a dinner that all of my upbringing was telling me I shouldn’t go to. After praying about it, I felt in my heart that God was telling me to attend. I consulted with my pastor about what to do. He simply asked, “What would love do?” While at the event, I couldn’t help but notice the people there were society’s outcasts. My heart broke because they were living life in No Man’s Land, and weren’t even accepted by Christians (including myself). This ragtag bunch had found each other, but I was saddened that none of them would step foot in a church because of how they would be received.

My prayers up to attending the event were, “God, let me show your love whether I speak to anyone or not. Give me the courage to do what you’ve asked and to be a light in darkness.” At the event, my prayer changed to, “God, these people need you. Put someone in each of their lives who will demonstrate your love and tear down the walls they’ve built to keep you out.” I kept thinking of my pastor’s question. What would love do? What did Love do? He came and died for this group of people as much as He died for me. I was no more worthy of His grace than they were.

I recalled when Jesus called Matthew to follow Him. Mark 2:15 says, “Later, Levi (Matthew) invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)” (NLT). Then the religious leaders called Him out on it. Why was He having dinner with this group of people? They were so bound up by religiosity and the fear of what others would think, that they couldn’t understand that’s what love does.

You and I have to be careful that we don’t fall into the same trap as those religious leaders. We need to be more concerned with what God thinks of us than other people. We need to be more concerned with the souls of people than our reputation of being a “good Christian”. Jesus showed us what love does. It goes where others won’t, loves people that seem unlovable and invites them into a relationship with their Creator. It’s not easy doing what love does, but we’ve got to get better at it if we’re going to bear His name.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

Spiritual Healing

Imagine that you woke up so sick this morning that you couldn’t go to work. So you call the doctor, but they tell you, “Sorry. We are having check ups for healthy people this week and aren’t taking any sick patients. We can fit you in sometime next week. Will Wednesday at 11:30 work?” How would that make you feel? Being sick, and not being able to see a doctor, would compound an already bad day. Yet situations like this happen all the time in our churches. Spiritually sick people walk through our doors and we put them off.

You and I interact with spiritually sick people every day. We come into co tact with them at work, at the store, at the park, and at the gym. We rarely interact with them, and if we do, we don’t always invite them to church where they can find spiritual healing. For those who do walk in our churches, many times we are too busy interacting with spiritually healthy people to notice or to say hello to them. It’s more comfortable to hang out with our friends than to introduce ourselves to a stranger who may be in need of the Great Physician.

I love the example Jesus set in Matthew 9. He was walking down the road and saw a tax collector stand. He walked up to it and said, “Follow me and be my disciple” (NLT). Immediately Matthew recognized he was sick, and Jesus was a doctor who could heal him. He then invited Jesus to his house and then invited a bunch of spiritually sick friends. He wanted them to get better as well. But the religious minded people couldn’t understand why Jesus would hang out with such people. In verse 11, they asked His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

I love Jesus’ response. He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.” It was a reminder to them (and us) that we have an obligation to help the spiritually sick of this world. Our goal shouldn’t be to get through this life without interacting with non-believers. We should want to interact with is many as we can. Why do you think the majority of Jesus’ ministry was outside the synagogue? He wanted to be where the sick and hurting were. Somehow we’ve changed from His example. We expect the spiritually sick to come to the church, yet when they do, we often ignore them. It’s time we remembered we were once sick too and needed spiritual healing.

What can you do today to bring spiritual healing to those you come in contact with?

To Know God

In Matthew 9, Jesus is at the home of Matthew eating with some unsavory people. The top religious leaders saw him dining with them and asked, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (NLT) They asked it loud enough that Jesus heard them, which meant that Matthew and his friends heard. Jesus said, “Heathy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.” Then he challenged them to go and find the meaning of the scripture that says, “I desire mercy [that is, readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims. For I came not to call and invite [to repentance] the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin)” (AMP).

I figured if Jesus wanted them to find the meaning, He probably wanted us to find the meaning as well. The original passage is found in Hosea 6:6. It says, “I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me” (GNB). The first thing God wants from any of us is an unconditional, constant love. A couple of verses back, He says His children’s love vanishes as quickly as the morning dew. The kind of love that irritates God is the conditional kind that depends on what He does.

God loves you no matter what you do, and He expects the same. Jesus was upset with the Pharisees who asked about His eating with sinners because they were the same ones who were astonished at His miracles and His teachings. When His actions didn’t meet up with their expectations, their love waned. What Jesus was pointing out to them in the Scripture He sent them to was that they really didn’t know God, and He would rather they know Him instead of knowing the Law.

We have to be careful of the same trap. We cannot let our love for God depend on expectations we have of Him when we don’t fully know Him. God knows that the more we know Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the more we will have a readiness to help those in spiritual danger. They are the ones who need our help the most. Jesus knew it, and He wanted us to know it too. The heart of God beats for the lost, and He’ll do what it takes to reach them, even if it doesn’t make sense to others. When we truly know Him, our heart beat for the lost like His.

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