So, what is grace to you? What is God’s grace in your life? I’ve shared the acronym before for grace: God’s Resources At Christ’s Expense. But, how does that play out in real life? Listen to our scripture lesson for today … and see God’s grace in action…
“Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, "Follow me." Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. 11 Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such people?" 12 Jesus heard them and answered, "People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. 13 Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts." – Matthew 9:9-13 (TEV)
The longer you study the life of Jesus, the more you come to notice a striking pattern: the more unsavory the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus.
- A Samaritan social outcast…
- A military officer of Herod…
- A quisling tax collector…
- A woman recently possessed by 7 demons…
In contrast, Jesus got a rather chilly response from more respectable types:
- Pharisees thought him uncouth and worldly…
- A rich young ruler walked away shaking his head…
- Even the open-minded Nicodemus sought a meeting with Jesus under the cover of darkness…
With all this in mind, it begs this question to be answered: What’s happened to us? Why don’t sinners like being around us any longer? Somehow, we’ve created a community of respectability in the church … to the point that the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome. How did Jesus—the only perfect person in history—ever manage to attract those who were notoriously imperfect? AND, what keeps us from following in his footsteps today?
In a Chicago church (Moody Bible Church), there was a college class where a discussion took place one day regarding the reality of Pharisees. It went something like this:
Someone in the class suggested that legalism in the church had created a barrier of strict rules that made non-Christians feel uncomfortable. The class discussion abruptly moved in a new direction, as survivors of Christian colleges and fundamentalist churches began swapping war stories. The teacher even told his own stories about Moody Bible Institute, of which he was a graduate. Just 4 blocks from the church where this class now met, stood MBI—a place that at one time had banned all beards, mustaches, and hair below the ears of male students. And there in its hallowed halls hung a large oil portrait of Dwight L. Moody, its founder, and a breaker of all three of those rules…
Everyone laughed at the teacher’s story—everyone except Greg, a student who just sat in his seat and smoldered. The teacher could see his face flush red, then blanch with anger. Finally, Greg raised his hand, and rage and indignation spilled out. He was almost stammering when he said, “I feel like walking out of this place.” All of a sudden the classroom was so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop. He went on, “You criticize others for being Pharisees. I’ll tell you who the real Pharisees are. They’re you [he pointed at the teacher] and the rest of you people in this class. You think you’re so high and mighty and mature. I became a Christian because of Moody Church. You find a group to look down on, to feel more spiritual than, and you talk about them behind their backs. That’s what a Pharisee does. You’re all Pharisees.”
Wow! Have we ever been guilty of that? Even when speaking about other churches in town, have we ever been guilty of thinking that we’re just one wrung on the spiritual ladder better? With this thought in mind, a question for us today might be this: What kind of a church are we going to be? Are we going to follow in Jesus’ footsteps … or the footsteps of someone else? Here’re a couple of things to consider:
JESUS WAS A FRIEND OF SINNERS!
Verse 10 tells us, “While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.” They liked being around him; they longed for his company… Meanwhile, legalists found him shocking—even revolting at times!
Folks, the Gospels mention eight (8) occasions when Jesus accepted an invitation to dinner. Three (3) of these occasions were normal social occasions among friends; the other five (5), however, defied all rules of social respectability! Let’s look at the company he kept for a moment:
- Simon the Leper – he was a social outcast in Jesus’ day (and today, too/Rosie). In this story, Jesus reclined at the table with this man… Then, there was the disreputable woman [at the same dinner] – she poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ head. Jesus praised her; Judas Iscariot (traitor) left in disgust and went straight to the chief priests to betray Jesus…
- Simon (a Pharisee) – at this dinner another woman anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, wiping it away with her tears and her hair. Being a proper Pharisee, Simon recoiled at this indiscretion and Jesus had a couple of words for him…
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came. 46 You provided no olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume. 47 I tell you, then, the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. But whoever has been forgiven little shows only a little love." – Luke 7:44-47 (TEV)
- A prominent Pharisee – at this dinner, Jesus healed a man from dropsy (excess fluid), even though it was the Sabbath. The Pharisees jumped on this! And, Jesus had a few choice words right back. He painted a picture for them … contrasting the social-climbing banquets of the Pharisees … to God’s banquet spread for ‘the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
- Zacchaeus – a tax collector from Jericho that Jesus dined with. The crowd mumbled their disapproval, but Jesus shrugged off their complaints: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
- Levi (Matthew) – a tax collector that Jesus called to be his disciple, for “It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick,’ he told the crowd at that time…
So, in looking to these stories, are there some clue as to why Jesus made one group (sinners) feel so comfortable and the other group (pious) feel so uncomfortable? The answer can be found in another story (John 8:1-11), where a Pharisee and a blatant sinner are brought together simultaneously; it goes something like this:
The Pharisees have caught a woman in the very act of adultery, a crime that usually calls for the death penalty. What would Jesus have them do? Jesus pauses … and writes on the ground; then, he says to his accusers: “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” They all left…
This tense scene shows us a clear principle in Jesus’ life: his very presence brings to the surface repressed sin, yet he forgives any freely acknowledged sin. The adulteress went away forgiven; the Pharisees slunk away, stabbed to their very core! Perhaps sinners responded to Jesus so readily because … at some level they knew they were wrong … and to them God’s forgiveness looked very appealing. “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit…” So, Jesus was a true friend of sinners! Consider this also, today…
JESUS BROUGHT A REVOLUTION OF GRACE … LIKE NO OTHER!
In verse 13a, Jesus says, “Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’” In other words … it is a love-filled, grace-filled life that I want to see, not just going through the motions of tradition…
The truth is, Jesus’ message met a mixed response even among first-century Jews—his own people! Let me give you one example of a revolutionary change that Jesus brought: His attitude toward women.
In the midst of a religious caste system, based on steps toward holiness, where only those ‘most holy’ can get close to God … along comes Jesus and knocks all of that down, leveling the playing field so that everyone had a chance at freedom in their life with God … including women! Here’s what it was like in Jesus’ day:
- In the synagogue (church), Jewish men prayed , “Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast not made me a woman.”
- Women sat in a separate section—not counted in quorums, and rarely taught the Torah (scripture)…
- In social life, few women would talk to men outside of their families, and a woman was to touch no man but her spouse.
Then, along comes Jesus and freely associates with women:
- Some became his disciples…
- A Samaritan woman who’d had 5 husbands, Jesus worked with to lead a spiritual revival (he actually began the conversation by asking her for help)…
- Then there was the prostitute’s anointing; Jesus accepted it with gratitude…
- Women traveled with his followers, no doubt stirring up much gossip…
- Women populated Jesus’ parables and illustrations, and frequently he did miracles on their behalf (and we’ll get to those in a week or so)…
This, folks, is ‘the great reversal’ we talked about before; for women and others who were oppressed in his day, Jesus turned the accepted practices of his day upside-down! His mission, folks, was a revolution of grace. In both word & deed, he proclaimed a radically new gospel of grace: to get clean, a person no longer had to go to Jerusalem, offer sacrifices, and go through other rituals. All a person had to do was follow Jesus…
All eyes were on the teacher in that classroom that day. They all turned to him for some kind of reply to Greg’s outburst, but he had none. Greg had caught them all red-handed. In a twist of spiritual arrogance, they had been looking down on other people for being Pharisees. The teacher glanced at the clock, hoping for a way out. No such luck: there was still 15 minutes of class time left. The teacher waited for a flash of inspiration, but none came. The silence was deafening; embarrassed and trapped is how that teacher felt…
Then, Bob raise his hand. Bob was new to the class, but after that day the whole class—including the teacher—was forever grateful for Bob. He began softly, in the midst the silence: “I’m glad you didn’t walk out, Greg. We need you here. I’m glad you’re here, and I’d like to tell you why I come to this church.
“Frankly, I identify with the Chicago prostitute that was mentioned earlier in our discussion today. I was addicted to drugs, and in a million years it wouldn’t have occurred to me to approach a church for help. Every Tuesday, though, this church lets an Alcoholics Anonymous group meet in this basement room that we’re sitting in right now. I decided that a church who welcomes an AA group—cigarette butts, coffee spills, and all—can’t be too bad, so I made a point to visit a service…
“I’ve got to tell you, the people [here] were threatening to me at first. They seemed like they had it all together, while I was barely hanging on. People here dress pretty casually, I guess, but the clothes I owned were blue jeans and T-shirts. I managed to swallow my pride, though, and started coming on Sunday mornings … as well as Tuesday nights (mid-week adult classes). People didn’t shun me; they reached out to me. And, it’s here that I met Jesus.”
As if someone had opened an air lock, all tension left the room as Bob spoke. Greg relaxed, the teacher mumbled an apology for his own Pharisaism, and the class ended on a note of unity. Bob had brought the class back to common ground, as sinners equally desperate in our need of God…
So, folks, what would it take … for a church today … to become a place where first century prostitutes, tax collectors, and even guilty Pharisees would gladly gather? What kind of a church are we going to be? Whose footsteps are we going to be walking in? These questions … and their answers … are really all about the Christ of Christmas … and why he came…