Reflecting on Luke 5:27-32
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:32)If I am not a sinner, then Jesus did not come for me.
Jesus came for people who needed help, who needed mercy.
Those who do not need help and mercy, do not need Jesus.
Jesus is not saying that He came for tax collectors, not religious leaders.
He is not distinguishing between the sinners and the holy people.
All people are sinners, including so-called holy or religious people.
The religious leaders were guilty of blindness and bigotry.
“Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’ Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.'” (John 9:40-41)
Because they claim to see, the religious leaders prove their guilt.
Denial of sin is itself a sin.
So is diminishing one’s sin, as if we are less sinful than others.
Adam and Eve began this when they sinned, hiding from their shame and guilt.
When God appeared, they pointed to each other, to diminish their own sin.
This is what the religious leaders were doing, to feel better about themselves.
We see this also in the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14).
The call to repent is a call to reconsider how we see ourselves and God.
It urges us to see our sin as worse than we realize.
It also urges us to see our God as more merciful than we realize.
And it urges us to see others as just as sinful and in need of mercy as ourselves.
We prefer to minimize our own sin and guilt, and to maximize that of others.
To admit that we are sinners is not to say we are worthless or unlovable.
It is to admit that we have a sickness in us that needs healing.
Paul wrestles with this in Romans 7, how sin lives in him.
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:14-20)
Notice especially how he distinguishes between himself, and sin live in him.
Sin like cancer infects us, affecting our judgment, perspectives, words and actions.
There is a distortion effect that skews how we see ourselves, God and others.
Those who pay attention to the Law will recognize this distortion effect.
They will see many subtle and sinister ways that we do not love as we ought to.
We won’t have time to judge others; we’ve got our own crap to deal with.
We all live in this condition of SIN.
It leads to a multitude of ways of sinning, not loving God and others.
This is why Jesus comes, to save us from this soul sickness.
Those who recognize their need for healing will find it in Jesus.
Those who deny or diminish their sickness and need, will not receive it.
Christians today are often very clear on the sin of others.
They not only personally separate themselves from others, they do it officially.
They develop doctrines and policies of judgment and exclusion.
They refuse to eat with “tax collectors and sinners”.
Not realizing that Jesus is at their table, and they thereby exclude themselves.
All churches have their lists of ‘sinners’ and ‘sins’, and separate based on them.
These lists differ from denomination to denomination, and from sect to sect.
Each one thinking they are better than the others, more right, less sinful.
What they do not realize is that they are separating themselves from Jesus.
Jesus is with the people I call ‘sinners’.
If I want to be with Jesus, I need to be with them too.
His table is open, He will eat with all of us, welcoming us all in love.
The only requirement is humility and grace.
To be humble enough to admit that we need Jesus just like everyone else.
To be humble enough to receive God’s gracious, undeserving love and mercy.
To be gracious with ourselves when we continue to struggle or fall short.
And to be gracious with others when they continue to struggle or fall short.
Jesus’s table is for sinners, period.
If Jesus is eating with them, will I refuse to eat with them, and Jesus?
Will I minimize my guilt, and maximize theirs?
Will I claim to see (or know) better than them, and judge them accordingly
Humility and grace… these are the marks of a Jesus follower.
Jesus came to help me, and you, and everyone else.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I admit that my sin is more subtle and sinister than I realize. I rejoice that God's mercy is more extensive and abundant than I appreciate. I am both humbled and graced. Help me to extend this same grace to others, and not think that I am more or better than them. I choose to sit at the table with You and them!