A HEART FOR SINNERS

A HEART FOR SINNERS

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

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.” —Matthew 9:9-13

When was the last time you ate with “sinners?” Jesus had no problem eating with people who desperately needed Him. He had no problem sharing a meal with people the religious establishment and others looked down on. He came to save sinners and a person would have to acknowledge that they were a sinner before they could be saved. The self-righteous Pharisees saw when Jesus ate with Matthew and his friends and could not believe that He would “eat with tax collectors and sinners.” They did not think that they were sinners. They thought they were not like “those” people and were better than them.

Who are the outcasts and ostracized of our society today? Are you and I willing to have a meal with those folks? They are really no different than anyone else. People are people and all people, regardless of how some might think of them, were created by our Lord God Almighty. My attitude toward people of any background reveals an attitude I really have toward God who created them! —“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

How am I seeking the lost, regardless of who they are? Am I seeking the lost? Do I even care about the lost? Somebody cared enough to bring God’s Word to you and me. Won’t you and I do the same for others who need Jesus as well? How can you and I do that today? May we be faithful do so however the Lord leads us? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ42vhnFotE

Dear Father, please help me to have a passionate concern for the lost and go to them. May this be so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. So be it!