Eating With Sinners
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ~ Matthew 9:10-11 (ESV)
On Wednesday nights, we’ve been spending time in prayer together, praying for our local communities. Recently, we asked God to show us things we believe about non-Christians that aren’t true. One thought someone shared with me was this:
“We sometimes believe that our unbelieving neighbors will be a bad influence on our children. So, we don’t invite them in.”
Occasionally, good intentions can lead to actions that don’t align with God’s heart. The Pharisees get a bad rap for being prideful, and rightly so. We often portray them as trying to earn their way into Heaven through good works. This is a way to simplify their actions and use them to make our pitch about being saved by grace and not by works. But the caricature isn’t quite accurate.
The Pharisees weren’t thinking about how to go to Heaven when they died. They were thinking about how to invoke God to establish his kingdom on earth—a kingdom they assumed they were supposed to lead. Their logic was something like this:
Israel is God’s kingdom on earth.
But Israel is sinful and impure.
Therefore, God has allowed Rome to oppress Israel.
So, Israel needs to purify itself and put sinful things (and people) away.
Then, God will restore the kingdom to Israel.
This explains why they were so offended when Jesus shared meals with sinful, impure people. The Pharisees wanted to cast out the sinners so that Israel would be cleansed and God would restore the kingdom. They couldn’t understand why Jesus would invite them in. But the Pharisees missed two big truths.
First, they were also sinful and impure—just in different ways. Maybe they weren’t trapped in prostitution, but they were ensnared in pride. The only way Israel would be purified was if everyone—Pharisees included—confessed their sin and turned to Jesus.
Second, they didn’t understand Jesus’s power to make unclean things clean. In Mark 1:40-45, a man with leprosy approached Jesus and asked to be healed. Leprosy was highly contagious, and anyone with it was considered unclean. If anyone touched a leper, that person also became unclean. But not Jesus. He reached out and touched the man before healing him. And he didn’t say, “Be healed.” He said, “Be clean.” Jesus makes the unclean things clean. He makes the impure things pure. He makes the unrighteous righteous and calls the sinners to repent and live a new life. Sinners didn’t pollute Jesus—he purified them!
We are also sinful and impure. We need Jesus just as much as our unbelieving neighbors do. Those of us who belong to Christ have the same power in us to bring hope and healing to the lost and dying. If we follow Jesus’s example and invite our unsaved neighbors in, Jesus will work through us to make those who would receive him clean—just like he did with us when we received him.