scum

Matthew 9

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.

      "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

      So Matthew got up and followed him.



  10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests,

         along with many tax collectors and other notorious 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."



I'm curious about something...

Back in the day, the Roman world - well, the world in general - was a pretty nasty, sinful place.

(And this world isn't as sinful & nasty a place as back then - or worse?!

Taking that into consideration, what kind of person would these people in this passage have to been to be considered "notorious" in their sinfulness?

They must have been some kind of uber-sinners!!!



Anyway, we all understand what Jesus is saying here...

He knew he needed to hang with the people who were "notorious" sinners - He knew they were FAR MORE receptive to His unconditional love.

He also knew that those guys who questioned Him on hanging w/ sinners had hearts of stone because they thought of themselves as uber-holy - so holy that they regularly singed people with their halos!



How many of us are like Jesus - we hang with people who live pretty sinful lives, lives that have no connection with God?

And how many of us are more interested in surrounding ourselves with Christians so we don't "get poisoned by the world" when all we really care about is making sure our prissy & precious Christian friends don't think there must be something wrong w/ us since we hang w/ "those kind of people"?



Where would any of us be today if the people who impacted our lives to follow Jesus had been afraid of what their friends thought & didn't reach out to us?