Tax Collectors and Sinners

Part 3

1^st December 2012

Matthew 9v9-13
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
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."

(Continuing from last week)

The Pharisees had expressed their shock that Jesus would spend time at a party with "tax collectors and 'sinners'". In reply, Jesus explained that it's sinners who need his help. And He told them, "go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'". This is a quote from Hosea 6v6.

Old Testament worship was largely based on the offering of sacrifices. Things are different under the New Covenant, but we could apply this scripture, perhaps, to going to church, and paying our tithe, and going to the prayer meeting, and serving the coffee, and a thousand other things Christians do for the glory of God. I think Jesus is saying that all that activity is great, but what he really wants from us is mercy. He wants our motivation for all this activity to be love for Him and love for other people, and not an attempt to impress God.

God loves it when we love other people, when we show mercy to others, when we help someone who needs help, when we share the gospel with someone who needs to understand the way of salvation, when we give time to someone who's lonely, when we give a lift to someone who needs a lift. And I think He particularly loves it when that person is a tax collector, or a drug dealer, or someone else whose lifestyle we disapprove of. Helping each other is fine, but as Jesus said not long previously:

Matthew 5:44-47
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

If you visit Christians when they're lonely, if you help Christians when they need it, it's great but, really, SO WHAT! Tax collectors and pagans help each other. We're supposed to be better than that. When we help those who we (quite wrongly) think of as REAL SINNERS, that's mercy! That touches the heart of God.

Who is welcome in your church? I hope the answer is: anybody who wants to follow Jesus.

We can expect that whoever wants to follow Jesus, whatever their background and however they make a living, if they are welcomed by the church, as Matthew was welcomed by Jesus, will turn away from their sins, as Matthew did.