Now all the tax collectors and “sinners” (irreligious) were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the Scribes grumbled, saying “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So He told them [these] parable[s] … a hundred sheep … ten [$100 bills] … two sons … one was lost … found who or what was lost … led to great rejoicing.
Why were the tax collectors and irreligious coming to Him? Listening to Him? What was attractive to them about Jesus?
The Pharisees and Scribes’ attitude toward the irreligious was separation, disdain, distance and judgment. There is nothing attractive about that kind of attitude.
The Pharisees and John the Baptist both insisted on high moral standards. But there was a difference between them. Crowds thronged to John the Baptist. To the Pharisees? Not so much. What was the difference?
The Pharisees focused on rules for rules’ sake. This, for example, is what got them in trouble over the Sabbath. In their zeal for compliance with the Sabbath, they missed the point that the Sabbath was given as gift to bless and edify those who would observe it. All of the commandments have this object. The Pharisees lost sight of Who had given the rules and why He had given them, which was to bless the observant, not oppress or enslave them.
John the Baptist was also zealous for righteousness. (“Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.”) But John the Baptist saw past mere external compliance, which can be hypocritical and deceptive, to the heart. For John the Baptist, external repentance was not enough. He called for externally observable behavior that would reveal the heart – generosity (sharing clothing) and forsaking oppression (not over taxing).
The people perceived these differences.
Enter Jesus. Jesus was also zealous for righteousness. But Jesus also understood the object of the commandments. He saw past the externals and saw the heart. He spoke to this inward condition in the parable of the two men praying, one a self-justified Pharisee, and the other a guilt ridden tax collector (Luke 18:9-14).
Jesus receives sinners. Now that is an answer to a sinner’s prayer. It is one thing to receive Jesus (where is that in the Bible?). What is far more profound is that He receives us.
And they (we) know it. Prostitutes show up at dinner parties not to solicit, but to worship. Extortionist tax collectors host Jesus and their extortionist friends. These, who were farthest from God’s standards of righteousness, were attracted to Jesus, desired to come into His presence, and invited others. Why?
When Jesus encountered the woman at the well in John 4, He confronted her sin, and did not excuse it. But He also did not condemn her. His message to her was not to demand anything of her or from her, not even water, but the converse. Jesus was the one offering. To give. That is Jesus. A giver. That is grace. Giving.
Sinners – all of us – know two things: 1) we are sinners; and 2) we need something we cannot obtain or generate ourselves. We may not even know what it is we need: freedom; grace; forgiveness. Jesus tells us that if we come to Him, He will give, and we will receive.
The woman with the issue of blood, the synagogue ruler with the sick and dying daughter, the centurion with the sick servant, Zachius, blind beggars, the Samaritan women’s towns people, the paralytic carried by his friends, the crowds around the Sea of Galilee, the Garasene demoniac, Mary Magdalene, Herod — everyone wanted to get near Jesus. Why? Because somehow, they all knew He had what they wanted and needed. Grace. Love. Acceptance. Their sin, while not acceptable, was not a barrier. Not only did their sin not keep them from Jesus, they knew their malady would be cured by Jesus and so they came in spite of it. Because of it.
How does Jesus’ message get through today? How would He communicate it through you and me?
Perhaps we need to stop telling people their sin has separated them from God. Sin didn’t separate anybody from Jesus.
Infirmity, deficiency and need do not disqualify one from receiving, but qualify one. The sick go to doctors and hospitals. The hungry go to grocery stores and restaurants. The needy, when they hear about Jesus, go to Him.
We live in a world that does not acknowledge sin. This makes proclamation that we have an answer for it uninteresting and irrelevant at best, and smug and vicious at worst. But everyone has needs, even if not well understood. How do we let people know they will be welcomed and received by Jesus, regardless of their needs and shortcomings, and will find their needs fulfilled?
And what did you expect from Jesus when you came to him? I’m thinking forgiveness rather than condemnation. Acceptance rather than rejection. Peace rather than strife. Love rather than judgment. Life rather than death. Otherwise the instinct would be to flee rather than to draw near. Are these qualities not what make Jesus attractive, and attracted us to Him? How do we present them to this generation?
I revert to St Augustine:
Thou hast have created us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.
But I think it disingenuous to preach much of what is preached by evangelicals today which is variants of the prosperity gospel. This ignores Jesus clear message about taking up one’s cross. It is neither biblical nor does it accord with the faith of the Church. It sounds attractive, positive, but it’s really just a Christianizing of much of what can get via self-help.
I came to Jesus when I discerned something like the problem as Augustine defined it. It addressed the questions I was asking, along the lines, “is there not more to life than my daily concerns?” But I quickly realized that the reality of sin represented a genuine barrier to the enjoyment of relationship with the Creator. The Apostolic preaching of the cross provided a plausible, even persuasive, explanation of what Jesus had done to break down that barrier.
I admit that it’s harder to persuade a society that does not believe in the existence of sin (and doubts the existence of a God who abhors sin), but to present a “happy, clappy Jesus”, “buddy Jesus” is IMHO to present a false gospel albeit with good intentions.
I would distinguish between what initially attracted me to Jesus and what attracts me nowadays. Originally, I heard the preaching of the law, convicting me of “sin, righteousness and judgement to come”. Faith in the Son of God was presented as the solution, given His atonement. That’s what originally attracted me to Jesus when I was 20. That was a long time ago (no duh). These days I am more likely to identify with St Thomas’ declaration..my Lord and my God. Nonetheless, while I certainly enjoy my modest middle class lifestyle and acknowledge at these blessings are a gift from God, I still happily sing:
Speak oh Lord, your servant is listening. You have the words of everlasting life (from the hallelujah before the reading of the Gospel). I remain a sinner and my “need” is fundamentally forgiveness.
Good comments, Jim. What calls out to me is the opposite end of your question, “what is the problem that Jesus solves.” To me the question is what is it about Jesus that attracts sinners like you and me to Him?
Well what’s needed then is a definition of “need”. In the Apostolic understanding of the “need’ that Jesus satisfied, it was a universal need for forgiveness for sin (lawlessness against God, if you will), and St Peter proclaimed that his hearers “repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38) and pleaded with them to “save themselves” (Acts 2:40).
Now, to be sure, the hearers shared the worldview that their fundamental need was the forgiveness of sins (perhaps the Pharisees reminding them of that on a regular basis, helped retain that worldview).
But I guess your contention is that if our hearers don’t perceive that they have that same “need”, rather than persuading them that they do, it is more effective to allow them to see that Jesus solves their other “needs” (not health because, as you say, there are doctors for that, and not hunger, because there are grocery stores for that).
But what then, is the “need” that Jesus satisfies for we moderns?
Already some of the most popular (by numbers of participants) forms of of Christian expression in the US today is akin to the old Janis Joplin song,
“hey Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”
which is a far cry from Jesus’s invitation that if you want to follow Him, you need to be prepared to take up your cross.
So, I return to my question, “what is the need that we invite people to come to Jesus to fulfill?”
I don’t think we can just intuit on these questions – I think we need to define the problem that Jesus solves. Perhaps it’s loneliness, depression, self-realization? If that’s the case, has Jesus changed the needs he is addressing. Or do we need to get more creative about how to persuade a world that is rapidly losing the notion of “sin” that it still exists and that it has consequences, and that “everyone needs a savior” (to quote a well-known Christian song)?
The peace of the Lord be with the readers here.