Eating And Drinking With Some Of Those People
January 6th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” – Luke 5:27-32 ESV
I must admit that there is quite a lot in the Bible that makes me uncomfortable. This is one of those passages. It makes me uncomfortable because I can identify with the Pharisees and their questioning Jesus about his choice to eat and fellowship with some of “those people”. I think that if we are honest, we all probably have a very personal definition of who “those people” are. They are the kind of people who we think we are better than. They are the kind of people we may greet in a half hearted way when we are forced to acknowledge them. They are the kind of people we don’t want our kids around. They are those people we hope never learn where we live.
I mean we’re glad that they come to church, after all they probably need church much more than we do. But we’d likely be more comfortable if they went to another church and not to ours. We want to keep our church filled with people just like ourselves. People who look like us, and dress like us, and talk like us.
We certainly don’t want our church to be filled with sinners like them. People who are broken. People who are lonely. People who struggle. People who have fears. People who doubt.
People that have no hope without Jesus.
Yet as I think about it, I doubt. I have fears. I struggle. I’m lonely. I’m broken. I’m a sinner.
I have no hope without Jesus.
I am so grateful that Jesus would choose to eat with “those people” like me.
