3. God loves sinners!
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14,15
God loves sinners! This simple statement is so easy to make but it is so important that we grasp the full implications of the truth that lies behind these words if we are to passionately join Jesus in His Mission.
It is clear that as Jesus brought ‘The Kingdom of God near’ it was ‘sinners’ that He went to.
Luke writes:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2
As I read these verses, they create a picture in my mind, and the picture I see exposes a deep contrast into the way that people understood the mission of Jesus. The ‘Tax collectors and sinners’ were all gathering round Jesus because they wanted to hear him speak about the Kingdom of God that he was welcoming them into ‘even though they were sinners’. I visualize the faces of these sinners as they hear the Good News and I see the filled with joy and wonder at the most remarkable truth that they can be welcomed in!
But then comes the stark contrast! ‘The Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”. Again, I see a picture in my mind, I see these religious leaders ‘muttering’. The word mutter means: ‘say something in a low or barely audible voice, especially in dissatisfaction or irritation’.
I see these religious leaders, dressed in their religious clothing and, as they witnessed Jesus bringing Good News to the sinners, did not have faces filled with joy and wonder. They did not rejoice in the Good News that Jesus shared, they put their hand over their mouths and muttered their dissatisfaction to one another. It is interesting that the title Pharisee means ‘separated one’. The pharisees did not want to associate with sinners, they stayed away from them because they thought that by making contact with them it would result in them being tarnished.
For the Pharisees, the message that Jesus lived and preached was unthinkable, in their view, sinners should be condemned and avoided, not be the recipients of Good News!
As I reflect upon the picture that I see in my mind as I look at these verses, I find myself thinking about the sad reality that, in so many churches all around the world, this attitude exists! It is so easy, as a person who spends a great deal of time with other Christians, engaging frequently in church related activities, to become like the Pharisees, to consider ourselves as ‘separated’ from ‘the sinners’ and, like the pharisees, to try to stay away from them and even disapprove of Christians who try to reach them!
Such an attitude is the opposite of what Jesus commands His followers to have, we, like Him, should be taking ‘Good News’ close to the sinners because, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst”. 1 Timothy 1:15
Paul’s grasp of the purpose of Jesus Mission is perhaps most clearly understood by him because he had experienced such a deep transformation. He had been a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee, yet, because he had encountered Jesus, he knew that it was because Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, that he could know God, not because of his own self-righteousness or goodness.
Do you, like me, find that the same view that the Pharisees expressed in their mutterings can be a view that you have to? Do you sometimes forget that the Good News is that God loves sinners and find yourself wanting the church to be a place where the good people go because there we can separate ourselves from the sinners?
If so, this week, I urge you, as you seek to join Jesus in His Mission, to open your heart to God about the views that you have, perhaps in secret, and ask Him to transform you so that, like Paul, you can rejoice in the fact that the Good News is for sinners. When we truly know this, we can join Jesus in His Mission!
Dennis