Sent To The Sinners

This morning I felt lead to read from Matthew 9:9-13 NIV:

[9] "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. [10] While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. [11] When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” [12] On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. [13] But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I absolutely love these passages because they show the Father's heart towards sinners. There is no requirement to clean up his act put on Matthew. Jesus sees the potential in Matthew while he is still a sinner, and engaged in shameful (to a Jew) activity. The Lord is not bothered by this at all.

Sometimes I think if Jesus came again physically for a short bit, he would turn much of the church on her ear. His heart, as He clearly states in verse 13, is towards the sinners. What a radical position for Him to take, and what a radical position for the church to be challenged to take up. So often the church only welcomes those that are already cleaned up, those that are pursuing righteousness. We don't really know what to do with sinners, other than to try to get them to act like us. We are uncomfortable with sinners, and even uncomfortable interacting with them. I can imagine at the dinner at Matthew's house, all the Pharisees were probably huddled together in a corner, trying not to be defiled by the sinners around them. Jesus, however, was right in the midst of the sinners. We in the church need to open our hearts and minds to the lost, to see them as the Lord sees them. Jesus wasn't interested in Matthew's money, but rather in his apostolic gifting. Let us pray for the same heart as the Father, to see the value and purpose in everyone we meet, whether they are a sinner or saint.