notorious sinners

Luke 15

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people...

even eating with them!  

3 So Jesus told them this story:

4 "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do?

Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?

5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying,

'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'

7 In the same way,

there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God

than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away!

8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.

Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?

9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say,

'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.'

10 In the same way,

there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents."

I've often wondered what kind of a sinner a person had to be back then to be a “notorious sinner”.

I mean, there were some pretty significant things people did all the time back then – well, for that matter, so do we today!

Back then, as today, the religious leaders (like today!) take a dim view of persons who hang out with nonbelievers.

Now back then, just like today, “notorious sinner” didn't hang out with the religious people – they were looked down on, judged, & basically made to feel like scum.

Now, it IS interesting that even in light of the way religious people treated them, these “notorious sinners” felt drawn to Jesus.

There was something about Him the drew the sinners to Him.

There was something about the way He dealt with people in general, & these sinners in specific, that made them want to be around Jesus.

And the fact that Jesus ate meals with them was just NOT acceptable.

It was like Jesus was more interested in hanging with the sinners than with the religious elite!

How many of us are just like the religious people back then?

We don't want to hang with “sinners” because it may hurt our image, or undermine our witness, or make people think we becoming like the sinner we hang with.

But where would any of us be if the people who influenced each of us to follow Jesus hadn't done so because they were more worried about their image to people who really don't matter?

And is there something about the quality of our own personhood that draws nonbelievers to be around us?

Is there something in the way we communicate to people who as yet don't follow Jesus that makes them gravitate towards us?

Or do we communicate that we're not only better than they are, but that being around them isn't something we want to do.

We'd rather hang with our prissy Christian friends & look good to them...

...and condemn & judge those who aren't Christians.

I don't want to beat this thinking to death, but as we consider possible adjustments to our lives...

...maybe we would be more like Jesus if we hung out with the “notorious sinners” all around us,

...& really cared about them & tried to understand them, with one goal in mind:

pointing them to the One who loves us & cares about us, & longs to draw us to Him.