Jesus eats witrh sinners?
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What ifs?
What ifs?
I believe that after last week’s sermon, you were left with a series of questions, asking, in essence,: “What if ...”
It was that question,
that also stirred the heart and mind of the Paralytic!
The heart: due to a longing, for healing;
The head: Can it be true; does it make sense?
In the lame man’s heart, he felt like an outsider! He longed to be whole. But for his friends, he could not even stand up and walk to Jesus to ask Him to restore him. He knew something, was wrong!
And in his head, he had started to put two and two together
… this Jesus everyone is talking about, is living a life that is unlike the lives of anyone before Him claiming to be holy men - like the Pharisees and Scribes.
This Jesus does not only talk the talk - He walks the walk!
He heals the sick, let’s the blind see, feeds the masses on a few loaves of bread and a handful of fish.
What if He is the Saviour, asks the lame man
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And in your hearts, loved one’s?
Do you have a spot/stain, that no matter what you do, it follows you around like a shadow, and you so long to be freed from it …?
Is there a longing in your hearts to be healed, restored, forgiven?
And in your heads?
Have you figured out who this Jesus is? Is it starting to make sense to you … or not at all … yet?
What if ...
What if Jesus is who he said He was?
The Saviour!
The Son of God!
What if all that He promised would come true?
What if His new kingdom will be more glorious than anything you might imagine, or could possibly imagine?
2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
What if our Lord will return, and he heals everyone, everything?
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”
“What if ..?
What if …?”
What if everything in the bible IS TRUE?
What if Jesus did die on the Cross. buried, resurrected?
You see, friends, sooner or later, you will have to ask yourself - and others - the question
and you will have to come up with an answer!
What if it is all just a fairy tale, and God does not exist, and therefore, there is no ultimate truth, no ultimate right and wrong, and therefore no one is ever really wrong, and no one will ever be answerable to almighty, God ...
In such hearts, there is nothing to forgive, and so no need of a forgiver!
But what if it is true, Loved ones ...
That Jesus did die on the Cross, that He will come again, and we look forward to the day! For us who look forward, in faith, and longing, and hope that strengthens us,
In such hearts, there is no fear! Remorse, perhaps, but remorse that is a sign that you have been touched by God, by the Holy Spirit, that your HEAD is starting to understand, what your HEART , feels!
Like the lame man of last week’s sermon ...
And now … like Levi , the sinner, is about to discover ...
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Can it be, friends, that Jesus will eat with sinners?
What if … Jesus ate with sinners?
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13 Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.
The crowd that was blocking entry to Jesus
had not let up, yet ...
(They, were still playing “what if” games!)
Note, that the crowd, most, were church people. They were Jews, would go to the synagogue, and they, like in churches, still, were made up of the church leadership, the “what if” ones; the zealots; and … sinners ----- LIKE YOU AND ME, loved ones!
And Jesus was teaching them ...
And it so happened ...
14 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.
Jesus is there, teaching, near the sea of Galilee, and then he walks … somewhere, on a main artery, and it so happens that he passes by a toll booth, and there is Levi - a sinner!
And Jesus stops at this man’s booth
(Explain the tolling system)
and horror of horrors, invites Himself to have a meal at Levi’s house!
Note, friends, that Jesus, was , simply, “out!”
and yet, his path crosses with Levi!
IT IS JESUS THAT STOPS AT LEVI”S BOOTH!
… not Levi, who makes an appointment to see Jesus!
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Where were you, when Jesus stopped and invited you to have supper with Him?
… as He does, every Communion day!
(He invites sinners to Supp with him!)
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And now ...
15 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.
Many tax collectors and sinners had gotten word of this party - and had joined in.
It was probably, something like this:
There is Levi, the tax collector, counting his profit … and he did make quite a profit!
Tax collectors could be rich, if they cheated well enough...
And there were other sinners … outcasts
(the fashionable fallen ones! “Fashionable” to call out some as worse sinners than others!
Like prostitutes … (who do you like to call a sinner, brothers and sisters??
They, you see, had received word that this now famous/infamous Jesus, a Rabbi, by many accounts, a man who knew his Bible better than the church leaders, was going to eat with Levi and his kind … sinners, all of them!
And sure enough, the Clergy turn up! The Scribes, who were Pharisees! (Pharash)
“Set Apart” ones!
16 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?”
And there is the question that situates this passage in the bigger account of who Jesus is, as told by Mark, the Gospel writer:
Who is this Jesus?
Who does He think He is?
Does He not know that people of his standing, does not mix with sinners and tax collectors?
But, loved ones, it turns out that that is exactly why Jesus was born - to not only eat with sinners,
but to be the one they had hoped for, and who would invite them to a far greater feast in due course!
But, the pharisees, they have come, not to eat with sinners, but to offer mind games!
They have hardened their hearts against the Tax Collectors and sinners, and are trying desperately to discredit Jesus, to disown Him
to point out, with head knowledge, that has no place for heart love, that Jesus is an imposter!
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They are the elite, who know what “good” looks like - and anyone who does not see it their way, is not good, and needs to be “canceled”!
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17 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.”
You see, friends ...
there can be two kinds of righteousness ...
self-righteousness (like the scribes and Pharisees) - no need for a saviour ...
and, a righteousness revealed … in love, and action!
And the journey that Jesus is on, as He stops to eat with sinners, is a journey of righteousness gained for those who are desperately in need of healing, of cleansing, of forgiveness ...
like the paralytic
like the tax collector
like sinners
like you and me ...
Amen!