Reflecting on Mark 2:13-17“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mark 2:16)
As a Jesus follower, I may face the criticism of religious people.
Jesus’s greatest challengers were the religious establishment.
Those who led the ‘church’, those appointed as ‘pastors’.
Their criticism was that He associated with sinners and tax collectors.
He ate with them, and allowed them to follow Him and serve Him.
He was loving the unlovable, communing with those that God hated.
The ones that they looked down on and hated as enemies of God.
Jesus was being too loving, too gracious, too kind, too forgiving!
I wonder if people would accuse me of the same ‘sins’?
I really believe that God hates sin… sin as God understand it.
According to Jesus, God’s Law mandates LOVE for God and all people.
All behaviours that are UNLOVING – cruel, abusive, unfair, demeaning – are sin.
Most people I know would agree with this, even non-christians.
Granted, there are some who celebrate these cruel, harmful behaviours.
But most people I know have a sense of love, fairness, kindness.
Even if they do not live up to it, they think people should.
Where we disagree is on the specific sins we include on our sin lists.
We all have our sin lists, our sense of right and wrong behaviours.
Those on the left and on the right, the religious and the non-religious.
The religious leaders had their sin list too, and judged others by them.
They were “confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.” (Luke 18:9)
Jesus is not soft on sin, but He sees all of us as sick in our own way.
The religious leaders are as sick as the sinners and tax collectors.
But their way of being sick is being blind to their own sickness.
They devised their sin lists so that they could feel better about themselves.
This still happens today, by people on all sides and beliefs.
We disagree on what sins are on the sin list.
But we see our sin lists as correct, as equal to God’s sin list.
And this arrogance is a part of our own sickness, exposing our own sin.
Sin is serious, more serious than our shallow sin lists suggest.
Why does Jesus eat with sinners and tax collectors?
Because that is the only way He could relate to any of us.
Nobody would be welcome if God excluded sinners – including me and you.
We are all sick, we are all blind, each in our own unique way.
We all fall short of God’s glorious love and goodness.
Thankfully Jesus does not fall short, and so like God He eats with sinners!
When we accuse others based on our sin lists, we follow the Pharisees.
When we act as if our understanding of sin is God’s, we are sinning.
By all means we should discern what we understand sin to be.
And we should seek to not sin in those ways, and to love as God says to love.
But using our sin lists against others is NOT the Jesus Way.
Judging others with our sin lists is firmly condemned by Jesus.
If we do, God will use our own sin lists against us, and measure us by them.
And we will discover that we are not as healthy as we thought.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2)
Yes, we should hate sin and devote ourselves to being good and loving like God.
But don’t follow the way of the Pharisees in judging others by our own sin lists.
Our job is to love God and others, as God love us.
Leave the judging to God, His sin list is the only one that counts.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, forgive me for following the Pharisee Way. Expose my own sin list for the hollow sham that it is, helping me to feel better about myself while being critical of others.
Help me to see that I am sick too, in my own unique way, and in need of Your healing and help too. Help me to see others as God sees me, as a much-loved child of God who falls far short of God's glorious goodness and love, and is graciously loved, welcomed, restored and forgiven.