Tag Archives: sinners

His Disciple: A Table for Sick Sinners

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

Close your eyes and imagine the scene. It’s ok, just play along with me. Close your eyes. What do you see?

I see a table full of people I probably wouldn’t spend time around. I see the people our society hates, the ones we turn away from, the ones our religious spirit avoids.

And at the head of the table I see Jesus. Laughing, passing the green beans, telling stories. Loving the ones in front of Him because He knows how desperately they need what He has come to give them. A way out. Stripped of their filthy rags and given clean garments. Life. Love. Freedom. Redemption. Forgiveness.

It’s what we all need, but for some reason, the ones who have already had their time at the table of sinners with Jesus resent the ones who are drawn to that same table. And when the religious spirited people have the boldness to ask His disciples about it, Jesus slaps back with what we all need to hear.

I came for these. For sick sinners. I didn’t come for anyone who is already healthy. Do we get what He was saying? Maybe this will help us pick up the sarcasm in His voice – “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

The only difference between us and the sick sinners around us is that we came to the table before they got there. We sat with Him, just as sick as they are, and found healing, forgiveness, and eternal life – all the things they need. The table for sick sinners is as much our table as it is theirs.

We are His disciples. The ones who get to watch Him heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry, and offer forgiveness to all of them, because we watched Him do it in us. Let’s choose to watch with joy, gratitude, and fascination rather than with scorn. Let’s invite sick sinners to the table, instead of questioning why they’ve come and why on earth is Jesus sitting there with them. Let’s get over our indignation that Jesus loves them the same way He loves us.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Ps. 23:5)

Father, forgive us for when we choose to bow to a religious spirit rather than to You. Teach us how to invite others to the same table where we found forgiveness and eternal life. Give us eyes to see people the way You see them instead of the way we see them.

the way love moves

Southern Ocean

Love is an ocean of a word. Big and wide and deep and too much to look at all at once and you can’t see its’ boundaries from standing in one place. Oceans and love are both hard to describe from the shoreline.

I will not plummet its’ depths in one lifetime, but I can stand in the waves and watch the way it moved on the earth that time when Love came down.

 

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. “ (Matthew 8:24-26)

 It was a furious storm, but even though fear was great and faith was small, the storm was calmed.  Love does not demand more faith than fear before He steps into my storm. I like that Love moves that way. I need Him to move like that for me because fear and faith take turns being king of the hill in my heart.

{I need to know that Love is more furious than the storm}

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him.” (Mark 2:15)

 Love didn’t tiptoe through dark places. He didn’t go out of His way to go around the worst part of town. Jesus ate dinner on the other side of the tracks. He walked through every place like He had the authority to be there because He did. He went across the lake to confront a legion of demons and had dinner with the sinner people the same way He went to the synagogue to preach. In Church or out, Love moved the same way and refused to avoid the worst of us.

sinners gathered

{When the sinners and the outcasts are gathered, there’s a good chance Love is their dinner guest. Try not to be offended. That’s just the way Love moves.}

 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)
 

To her credit, she wanted to serve Jesus and maybe she wanted everything to be “just so”. He had come and there were preparations to be made and work to be done. No time for listening. Martha’s home had become her stage and she was distracted by her need to perform well.

Mary chose and no matter how much the performer complained, what Mary had chosen would not be taken from her. The place at His feet was hers because she chose the sound of His voice over her own performance.

{When Love walks in the room, there is a place at His feet that is so much better than the stage of our performance.}

 

crucified hand

“Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (…Golgotha). There they crucified Him…” (John 19:17-18)

 This is how love moved.

 {Love is an ocean big and wide and deep and too much to look at all at once. But I am moved by the waves.}