The undesirables

Read Luke 5:27-32

27 Later on,Jesus went out and looked straight at a tax-collector called Levi,as he sat at his office desk. “Follow me,” he said to him.

28 And he got to his feet at once,left everything behind and followed him.

29-30 Then Levi gave a big reception for Jesus in his own house,and there was a great crowd of tax-collectors and others at table with them. The Pharisees and their companions the scribes kept muttering indignantly about this to Jesus’ disciples,saying,”Why do you have your meals with tax-collectors and sinners?”

31-32 Jesus answered them,”It is not the healthy who need the doctor,but those who are ill. I have not come to invite the ‘righteous’ but the ‘sinners’-to change their ways. (JBP)

Jesus doesn’t do things the way we might assume he would do things. For instance,he seems to attract the unattractive. It seems that the more undesirable the person was,the more that person desired what Jesus was offering. Then again,the more self-righteous and self-confident a person was,the more that person felt threatened by Jesus.

As Jesus himself says,he came to fix up people who knew they needed mending. Those who were aware of their brokenness came to him for help. Those who figured they had their life together and were good enough as they were tended to dismiss him. How dare he imply we need his sort of radical help!

It so often seems today that things are rather reversed. Our churches tend to be gatherings of the respectable,who can be guilty of dismissing or looking down on those who are at the margins of society. It just may be that if Jesus were to come back today he would spend more time outside our church gatherings than inside them.

There are no truly ‘healthy’ people in the spiritual sense. There are only those who don’t admit they are unhealthy and those who know it too well. The first and necessary step to spiritual health is to realise we are spiritually sick.

Blessings
David Reay