Let's say a child playing with marbles asks her mother, 'Can round round things go into my nostrils?'. Instantly three questions will dawn in the mind of the mother. 1. What does she mean by round round things? 2. Why is she asking that question now? 3. Can those round things go into her nostrils? I think when we encounter a question, we too could ponder about the assumptions/ meaning of a question, why one asks such a question, and what the answer is.
Jesus claimed to be the Son of the Most Holy God. Yet, Jesus spent time with those the religious teachers of the day thought of as sinners. Let's read about the question they ask, and the answer given by Jesus. Let's see if we can think about this conversation from three different perspectives as stated above.
Matthew 9:10-13 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Link)
What did they mean by the question? The Pharisees and teachers of law thought that eating with sinners would defile a person and make them unclean. Their understanding of avoiding sinful ways of the wicked was to stop any sort of communication with them, prioritizing offering sacrifices and having ritual purity over any forgiveness and reconciliation. Thus, by asking this question, they probably meant that the external evidence of Jesus eating with sinners affirms that Jesus is also a sinner. Jesus replies saying, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice' (quoting Hosea 6), desiring that His people know Him closely, rather than just offer sacrifices. Let us think about this. Are we also like these Pharisees considering 'holiness' as not associating with sinful people?
Why did they ask such a question? Repeatedly, we see God through His prophets calling His people to repentance. So, the Pharisees should have known that the mission of God in flesh too would be the call for the sinners to repent, making it obvious for Jesus to spend time with sinners, talking to them. In some sense, it is as obvious as a doctor spending time with a sick patient, a teacher spending time with a slow learner. But, wait a minute. When Mother Theresa was taking care of dying people, many felt it was useless and that it would have been more useful to spend that time, effort, and money on people who would have survived, rather than die immediately. I believe that the Pharisees too confess their sins to God, and do know that they are also sinners. So, in asking this question are they meaning that these tax collectors and sinners are much worse than them, and hopeless people and that even God should give up on them? Do we do that too? When asked to reach out to someone, do we think - 'they've been given enough chances already' and conclude that they are beyond help?
What was the answer given by Jesus? Jesus clearly states that He has come to call the sinners. In Luke 15, when the Pharisees complain again about Jesus eating with sinners, He tells them the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (link). When Jesus went to the house of another tax collector Zacchaeus, he says it again - For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Have we forgotten this mission of Jesus?
In the story of the two sons when the run-away son is accepted back by the father, a feast is arranged. Sadly, it is the first son who had stayed with the Father, who refuses to join the feast! The church is the place of fellowship of all the lost people who are saved by Christ. So, the question is, 'Are we ready to eat with the tax collectors and the sinners?', or are we standing out, refusing to join!
Link to the previous article: Why do good things happen to bad people? (part 2)
Link to the next article: Surely, I am not bad, right?
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