ODJ: friend of sinners
April 29, 2011
The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, “He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!” (Luke 7:34).
READ: Matthew 5:20-48
Jesus’ teachings can seem to be paradoxical.
Exhibit A: He requires a standard of living that’s even more rigorous than the Old Testament. Jewish law condemned adultery (Ex. 20:14); Jesus said that even looking at someone lustfully was wrong (Matt. 5:27-28). Jewish law allowed for divorce (Deut. 24:1); Jesus condemned it except for marital infidelity (Matt. 5:32). Many Jewish leaders misread the Law and felt it allowed for retaliation (Exodus 21:23-25); Jesus taught otherwise (Matt. 5:38-42). Murder was always condemned (Ex. 20:13), but Jesus saw anger and hate as equally bad (Matt. 5:22). Jesus definitely calls us to high moral standards of eternal significance (v.20).
Exhibit B: But Jesus also earned a rather odd reputation as the “friend of . . . sinners” (Luke 7:34). He dealt gently with the divorced and the sexually loose (John 4:17-18, 8:10-11). He had dinner with thieving tax collectors (Luke 19:5-8) and welcomed people with bad reputations (7:37-39). Simon the zealot, one of Jesus’ own disciples, was a political revolutionary, and Peter was even capable of violence (6:15; John 18:10). Jesus kept company with the very people least likely to live up to His moral standards. And that’s good news.
If you’re a murderer, adulterer, thief, or drunkard; if you’ve lusted, lied, or been lax in keeping confidences; if you’re greedy, angry, jealous, or selfish, Jesus is prepared to accept you. He’s a friend of sinners. The only people Jesus can’t accept are the arrogantly self-righteous—those who deny their need for change and forgiveness; those lost in the deceptive belief that they are superior to all (Matt. 9:12).
Jesus was no doe-eyed softy, relaxing morals in some free-love way. His ethics are hard, His standards high. But He’s also a friend of sinners, including you and me. —Sheridan Voysey
How does this characteristic of Jesus comfort you when you sin? Which “sinner” have you pulled away from that you should instead—like Jesus—move toward in grace?
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