Jesus With Bad People

Look, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dinning with Jesus and his disciples.  Matthew 9:10 (New World Translation)

It seemed to some that Jesus was a bit of a renegade.

Jesus did come to church, but He also hung out with people who everyone knew were bad people.  The church authorities tried to talk to His followers and show them that His conduct was questionable.  How could a man claim to be good and pure, but the next minute go join in with the festivities of the people with the worst reputation in town?

Examine the story yourself, Matthew 9:9-13.  When you do, call on the Lord.  Take a few moments with Him.

You see, we are like those people described in that story.  Either we are the ones who have fallen short and need Jesus, or we are the stuck up snobs who think they already have everything straight.

Only by bringing our hearts in our hands and lifting them up to Jesus, will we ever know for sure which side we are sitting.

Unfortunately one of the most deadly of all diseases is Christianity.  It can be at the same time, a great cure for many ailments and does save many people.  But the problem begins when we get a false sense of security.

Many Christians go through a process and a decision to give their lives to Jesus.  Most actually change the course of their lives from one where they lived their lives for their own pleasure, then they ¨found Jesus¨, and from that moment they begin attending church and calling on the name of Jesus.  This change is very good but it can also be very deadly.

Our only hope in this life and the one to come depends upon this choice we are talking about.  We must make this change it is true and nobody should ever say we don´t.  But possibly more dangerous than this, is the trap we fall into when we think we got it all sorted out and stop worrying about the urgency and need for Jesus Christ.

We get comfortable thinking that we have started our walk with the Lord.  We have already made great claims of love and devotion to Him.  Even our conduct and thinking has improved by associating ourselves with other believers and learning the instructions found in the Bible.

However, our need is for Jesus.  It is true that we need to be purified but the only purification that does any good is His goodness inside of us.  We should never separate one thing from the other.  We are inadequate vessels.  We can be made to hold water as long as He is inside of us. But the moment His presence leaves us, we are subject to limitations of these less than perfect vessels.

To say you are in Jesus is great! To go to church and surround yourself with good people may help too.  But if you are not acting and reacting, communicating and feeding off of your intimate relationship with Him each minute, than you can probably imagine which of the two types of the people in the story you resemble.

One cannot write these kinds of words without including him or herself in the dilemma.  This is the quest of the true Christian.  Each and every moment of our lives is holding inside of a balance.  We can give importance to the matter or we can sit back in pride.  But we should be warned about pride and there is sufficient instruction on that in the Bible.

So then, let us take the Lord´s warning here and open our ears when He says; ¨Go, then, and learn what this means:  ¨I want mercy, and not sacrifice.´ For I came to call, not righteous people, but sinners.¨  (verse 13)

Where would you like to be today, holding back clinging to your sure religion, or sitting down with Jesus and all the rest of us who don´t deserve Him.

Save me a place, I want to be with Him too.

And may heaven help us all.

Amen

Scott W