A dinner with the Deplorable

For the next few weeks, from now until the week after Easter, we will be diving into a series called “Come to the Table” where we will be examining some of the passages in Luke’s Gospel that portray Jesus eating with people. The fancy seminary term for these moments is “Table Fellowship” but we would just call it having dinner. If you have ever wondered what denomination Jesus would have been, I think the answer is Brethren because he loved to talk and chat with people over meals. In fact, Jesus ate and drank with his friends so much that in he is accused of being a glutton or a drunkard. The thing is that Jesus always has something substantial to say or a transformational moment when he is eating with his friends. It is my hope that each of these stories will show us something new and exciting about Jesus’ ministry, and help us to prepare our hearts for Easter as it draws near.

So, today let’s look at the first instance of table fellowship- Jesus eating at Levi- or Matthew’s home.

Jesus is starting to build his ministry team- he has a few guys on board by this point- Simon, James, and John, and now he adds Matthew to his group. Now, you must remember that Matthew was a Tax Collector by trade - not the most popular guy on the street. His qualifications probably would be listed as lying, cheating, stealing, and greediness. In fact, if we were picking pickup basketball teams on the playground Matthew is probably the guy picked last EVERY SINGLE TIME.

But notice what happens with Levi, when he gives his life to following Jesus his first item of business is to throw a dinner party for all of his buddies so that they can meet Jesu too....what we all did, right?

But here’s the thing, the guest list to Levi’s party was not all that pleasing to some- after all, remember I told you that he was not the most popular guy in town? Well, neither were his friends. A banquet full of trouble might be a way to put it. The ruffians of the town all converge on the dinner table at Levi’s home, and who is sitting the midst of all of them? None other than Jesus of Nazareth.

This did not sit well with the Pharisees and the Scribes, they would not so much as allow their shadow to come across people like these- they were the scum of society. No good Jew would allow themselves to be in the company of such people.

That is part of the problem with some Christians, they think that their relationship with Christ keeps them from associating with certain people. Too many times the church tries too keep certain kinds of people at an arm’s distance. They act as though Christians can be guilty by sin osmosis. Can I confess that many times I think the church plays into Satan’s hands quite easily. Think about it, you have given your life to Christ and your life is starting to be transformed. You have resisted the calls of the Devil and really started to grow in Christ- what is the only thing worse to the Devil than you giving your life to Jesus? You ministering to all of your friends and getting them to give their lives to Jesus too! It is one thing to have one convert, but what if you start making other disciples, Satan can’t have that, so why not convince a bunch of Christians that they need to leave their sinful friends and cut ties with those who are not Christians, at least then the Discipleship can be contained!

This thinking plays right into the Pharisee’s hands and they put Jesus on the spot, asking him what business he has eating with such deplorable people. Jesus’ response? What kind of people need a doctor? Healthy people, or sick people? Can you imagine a doctor working under the same theory as these Pharisees? You get sick, let’s say an ear infection, so you make an appointment with your normal general practitioner, and in to the Doctor you go. You get to the office, get called back into the room, get your weight, your height, you BP, all of those things, and the nurse looks at you and says “What brings you in today?” “An ear infection” you reply, and she looks at you, straight in the eyes and says “Oh, I am sorry, the doctor is not longer seeing sick patients.” “WHAT?!?” You reply, “Yes, it has gotten too risky, malpractice insurance has gotten too high, his success rate dipped too low, he himself got too many illness last year from patients, so his new policy is to only see healthy people.” THAT MAKES NO SENSE!

See, I think we can miss the point of this statement by Jesus if we are not careful. The point of Jesus’ statement is not that Jesus comes for sick people and the sinners and tax collectors are sick and the Pharisees and scribes are healthy- the point of the statement is not to pin them against one another- no.

Think about these two passages: and For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

The point of Jesus’ statement is not to say that there are sick people in the world and there are healthy people in the world, and Jesus came for one more than the other. The point of Jesus’ statement is this: There are only 2 categories of people that have ever walked this Earth- Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God, and everyone else. Therefore, since no one in here is Jesus Christ the perfect Son of God, it seems obvious which category we all belong in.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The point of Jesus’ words that day is not to walk into a room of religious, churchy people like us and point to the broken, the hurt, the outcasts of society and say I came for them more than you. No, the point of Jesus’ words is to walk into a room of religious churchy people like us with the broken, the hurt, and the outcasts of society and say they are just like YOU.

You say “NO WAY, JON! I am not a drunkard, a liar, a cheater, an adulterer!” and I say to you the only difference between you and them is that you are a sinner saved by God’s grace, and they are a sinner who has not accepted God’s grace yet, and the moment that you forget that is the moment you become more like the Pharisees and less like Jesus!

By the way, if the only difference between you and them is you are saved by God’s grace and they have not accepted God’s grace, how do you think they will ever find it? Paul puts it this way in :

English Standard Version Chapter 10

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

YOU church! You are called to take them the Word of God, you are called to show the the grace of Jesus. You are to be the Mathew in the midst of their chaos, have yourself a dinner! We need to be a church, a people, a community of people that encourage the lost, the broken, and the outcasts of society to come.

Friends, hear me today. This meal between Jesus and the friends of Levi reminds us of this- you are not the gatekeeper of God’s grace. If there is a sinful person trying to come to the table of Jesus and you prevent them or get in their way- take heed friend because you are in as much sin as they are. God does not need you to be the church bouncer. There is no passage in this book that empowers you to stand in church and decide who is in and who is out. Now, there are plenty of passages that encourage us to hold each other to Godly standards, and call out sin- IN THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO HAVE ACCEPTED JESUS!

The problem is the church likes to exist on one of 2 extremes- either sin is ignored, all people are welcome and we will never talk about it or bring it up; or we act as though no one with sin is welcome in the church and we exclude people because of their lifestyles and sin. Both of these responses are wrong and neither is Biblical.

Someone comes to

Instead, my heart for our church, my heart for you as your pastor, and I believe the Biblical model shown in this story is this; All people are welcome to this table for dinner with Christ. However, when you come to this table for dinner and decide to start a relationship with Christ, we as fellow disciples, as fellow sinners saved by grace, will encourage one another to reject sin, we will call out the sickness and wrong, not because we are holier than you, but because we are broken like you and all together we will sit at the table of Jesus and have fellowship and be transformed.