Accept the Broken
(MISSION FOCUS)
Board Devotional - Week 4
10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Matt 9:10-13 (NLT)
It’s too easy. It’s too easy for us to read this small passage and think that the Pharisees were so hard-headed and legalistic. We are quick to say that it is obvious that they didn’t understand what Jesus was about. Time after time in the gospels, we see these sorts of conversational clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees and too often we think, what is so difficult about understanding the love that Jesus was preaching?
It might be hard to remember. For some of us, it has been a little longer than for others. However, I want you to think back to your high school days and all the high school drama that went along with it. I went to a big-ish public school where there were many cliques and many different groups. Often, the different cliques didn’t mix. If you went from eating at one lunch table to eating at another, the loyalty of your friendship would be questioned, “why were you sitting with them?! I thought you were our friend, not theirs!” (exaggeration). If this is completely unfamiliar to you, just think “high school” as depicted in movies and Hollywood. It was the typical “high school drama”. In some form or another, I think most of us probably had some sort of similar experience. Yet, as we get older, we tend to leave that way of thinking behind. If we catch someone acting in a similar fashion as an adult, we think, “Grow up! Why are you acting like you’re still in high school?” That type of childish behavior shouldn’t be happening between adults, or so we tell ourselves, because whether we believe it or not, it continues, only it takes on a slightly different expression.
The other day, I was listening to a podcast about an author who attempted to write the history of humanity. He looked at all the major known historical events from all over the world and set out to find common themes in all of the stories. He looked at religious history, local history, and major world events both ancient and modern. And if I recall correctly, the most notable pattern in all of human history which has been a part of every single story is this: Us versus Them. Somehow, it seems that the one reoccurring theme is that there is always an Us, and there is always a Them. Regardless of era, regardless of place, regardless of culture, we, as humans, always find a group to call us and a group to call them. There is always the familiar and the other.
At times we can fool ourselves into thinking that we have risen above this trend by saying phrases such as “I don’t see differences between us”. However, our actions give us away. We tend to be comfortable with people who are similar to us. The more similar they are, the more comfortable we are. We, at times, can tolerate some differences as long as the similarities outweigh the differences. For example, we can be okay with people that look different than us as long as they talk like us, dress like us, think like us, and vote like us. But when someone looks different, talks differently, dresses differently, thinks differently, and on top of everything they vote differently, it’s a problem. We tell ourselves that they should stop interfering with my sphere of living. Or at least, they need to become more like me.
However, the life of Jesus paints a different picture. In Jesus, we see a way of living in which there is no other. Jesus came to redeem all creation. Jesus died to save all people. There are not some who are better off than others when it comes to their need for Jesus. Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious standard.” And yet, the love of God goes forward to all people. Jesus stated that he came to “seek and save those who are lost” (Lk. 19:10). Yes, this includes you and me. In Him, all are equal, all are one, all are Us. There is no “other”. There is no “them”.
So you see, it is our human condition to fall into the pattern of the Pharisees. In fact, by pointing a finger at the Pharisees, and thinking of them as not being as "Christian"/good as us, we have already acted in the same manner. We have fallen into the same trap. And yet, for the followers of Christ, there is a better way, a way in which we can walk by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Paul writes, “we have stopped evaluating other from a human point of view” (2 Cor. 5:16), instead we now see that at the foot of the cross, the ground is level.
Let's make this simple and practical. The truth is that when we realize how much mercy has been given to us, we are quick to give mercy, especially to those who need it most! When we choose to follow the Way of Jesus, we don’t fill our tables with those who are like us, we welcome all people to our table, including those who look different, act differently, talk differently, think differently, and yes, vote differently. This includes people with whom we might disagree about different aspects of life. This includes people with whose lifestyle we disagree. As I said before, in the way of Jesus, mercy always overflows. This means that we welcome into our spaces those who are broken and in need because we recognize that we are equally broken and in need.
This is the Way by which Jesus came to revolutionize our way of living. It is the Way of the Kingdom. This is the Way of Jesus: to accept to broken, even into our homes and our tables.
-Pastor Oddie