Luke 15
1Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
“Sinners” (Lost Causes) were the people Jesus hung out with. He could’ve chosen anyone, but these are the people he reached out to personally. In a crowd, these are the ones who caught his eye. So they need to catch our eyes, and we need to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. These were the people who Jesus evangelized. They were the ones who needed it most, and often they were the ones who were most open to it. And he did all this never traveling more than 100 miles from his home. There was enough need right where he was.
Allow me to contrast this with the life of the religious people in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees were the rule following uptight snobs of Jesus’ time. The Pharisees were so focused on their rules that they were blinded to their Messiah. The Pharisees had created an insular culture to protect them from all the evil sinners outside of their club. They tried to only do business with other Pharisees. They wouldn’t associate with those who might be considered unclean. They would only be seen in public with other people like them. They traveled together, they stayed together, they lived in a Pharisee bubble. Their message to people outside the bubble was: “Become like us (translated: believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, act like us, like what we like, don’t like what we don’t like. If you become like us (jump through our cultural hoops and adopt them for your own), we will consider you for membership.” Sound familiar? We have those religious types in our world today too. That’s not who I want us to be, and it is hopefully not who you want us to be either.
Jesus’ evangelism strategy was the opposite of the Pharisees. Rather than expecting people to come to him, seeking out membership in his club, he had a “go get ‘em” attitude. Instead of withdrawing from the world for fear of contamination or what other people might think, he ate with them. He hung out with them. He was friends with them. This of course horrified the Pharisees, and that brought on the charges I read to you earlier – This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Instead of insisting that people clean up in order to come to God, Jesus preached that God accepted them as they are. The Pharisees said here’s the rules, change and follow them and you might be good enough. Jesus said you are good enough, and because I love you, and through loving me you can be changed. Instead of rigid religious rules, Jesus offered abundant life through a personal relationship with God, and it is still the same today. This is why the Pharisees considered Jesus to be such a threat. He was threatening their very way of life, their system of rules, their system of power.
Glad to hear some of your thoughts…
Daniel
Posted by odpcsermons 