Jesus Is The Friend of Sinners

Cafeteria tells a story

Food is something that can make someone feel invited and welcomed.

Food can also create a scene of not being good enough.

Food can build a bridge or burn it down.

The people we sit with at lunch says much about who you accept and reject.

We can see in Jesus’ day things were not that much different. Let’s read in Mark.

Mark 2:13–17 CSB

Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. While he was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him. When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, criticized him for who he hung out with and shared a meal with.

Sharing a meal in that day represented acceptance and friendship.

So you have Jesus eating with people who society rejected or said were not good enough.

Pharisees thought that being perfect and holy, morally pure, were all ways to a relationship with God.

Jesus is making a statment that it doesn’t matter what you have done, how badly you have messed up— you can sit at my table.

Jesus was saying that holiness and living right resulted from a relationship with God— not before it.

Instead of changing before God can love you, God loves you and His love can change you.

Mark 2:17 CSB

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

God’s love is not based on our goodness but His grace.

What story are we telling by the people we hangout with?