The Revolution Begins

 

Mark 2:13-17 - Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.  As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” 

This is a quote that I’ve heard all my life, and often, it is invoked when one speaks of the above passage.  An updated version of the pithy saying replaces “museum” with “harbor.”  Either way, the saying is intended to remind those within the church that the church has a mission that mirrors Jesus’s own mission to reach out to those who are not already inside the fold of the Christian community.   `Though I am generally not a fan of reducing scriptural truth to pithy sayings, I do have to admit the effectiveness of this saying making the intended point. Further, it is a point that has continually needed to be made for as long as I have been a part of it. 

 If you have ever had the misfortune of being present with a crowd of people who you mostly didn’t know, who talked about things you don’t readily understand, and who make very little effort to help you understand and feel included, then you know what’s it’s like to attend far too many Christian churches.  As uncomfortable as that situation may be today, it was even worse in Jesus’s time.  We see this in the religious leaders’ reaction to Jesus.  They are objecting on the basis of Jewish law that looked down upon Jews dining with those who don’t follow Jewish traditions and laws. 

To be fair, there is a kernel of truth in the teachers’ concern.  There should be a difference between the way Christians live and the way those who haven’t made such commitments do.  Jesus Himself called people to live differently.  The revolution in Jesus’s teaching here is that living that way should not isolate you from those who live differently.  In fact, Jesus’s assertion here is that there is no way we can help people see the value of living differently if they never see someone living that way themselves. 

But there is something even more revolutionary going on here.  Jesus is not just changing the way God’s people interact with those outside the community.  He is recruiting people from outside the community to become leaders of the community.  This would have been unthinkable in Jewish circles.  And worse yet, it’s not just run of the mill “sinners” Jesus is recruiting; it is the “worst of the worst” – tax collectors.  We will talk about this issue later in Mark, but we have to point it out now.

All of this begs the following questions that deserves honest answers.

 

Question:  Who is genuinely welcome (meaning who would you actively invite to your dinner table?  Are there people that you would not accept an invitation to go eat with if you were asked? How do you feel about being led by someone considered the “worst of sinners?”

 

Prayer:  Jesus, show us our attitudes towards those who live differently from us that we may see the ways our attitudes are not like Yours.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to bless people you know who don’t ever attend church.

 

Song:  Jesus, Friend of Sinners – Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJXIugwiN7Q

Forgiveness is Not Approval

 

Forgiveness is Not Approval

 

Colossians 1:21-22, CEB - Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies with him in your minds, which was shown by your evil actions.  But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death, to present you before God as a people who are holy, faultless, and without blame.

 

I was called up for jury duty several years ago.  I reported to the assigned place at the assigned time and was directed to a waiting room.  After a bit, a bunch of us were ushered into a courtroom and after some formalities that I cannot recall, the lawyers for both sides of the case began asking us questions.  The case that they were working to form a jury for involved a man accused of stealing money from his employer.  This was evidently not his first time being accused of such a crime and it seemed to me that this fact was something very important to the lawyers.  I was in the second row of potential jurors and they questioned us in order, so I heard many questions asked before they got to me. It was clear from the questions asked that the lawyers had at least some basic information about each of us.  When it came to be my turn to answer questions, there were just two.  Question 1 was to confirm that my occupation was that of a pastor. 

“So you believe in forgiveness right?,” was the follow-up from the prosecutor.

“I do,” responding before I knew that I had just eliminated myself as a potential juror.

“Ok, thank you,” she said as she moved on to the next person.

I can’t be sure of the precise train-of-thought that the well-dressed woman charged with getting a conviction of this accused thief, but one thing was clear to me from our exchange.  She was not looking for someone who “believed in” forgiveness to serve on the jury.  Forgiveness, in her mind, would stand in the way of her doing her job.  Consequently, I was not chosen for the jury.  To be honest, that had been my hope when I arrived at the courthouse that morning, but I left that day sad about how my wish had come true. I was sad because I realized that the prosecutor was not the only person who had no use for forgiveness. 

In my work, I had encountered many who expressed no desire to forgive things done to them by others.  The reasons that are often given betray a tragic misunderstanding of what forgiveness is and what it is not.  So that is where a discussion must begin. Once forgiveness is understood for what it is and what it isn’t, it will not only seem much more useful, it will prove to be an essential spiritual, emotional, and relational technology.

First of all, forgiveness is not approval.  I don’t have to approve of what you did in order to forgive you.  In fact, approval and forgiveness almost never coincide when referencing a harmful act.  I say almost never because I can imagine one scenario where one has done something to me that is harmful, but at some point, I realize they knowingly harmed me in order to save many others from harm.  If I can get to a more mature understanding of the larger context, I may in fact reach the point where I could say that I approved of what they did. I might even applaud their ability to make such a hard decision.  However, even if I approve of their action, my approval does not constitute forgiveness.  Approval and forgiveness are two different things.

If I have to approve of what was done to harm me, I might never forgive. To my knowledge, the exception I described above has never occurred in my life.  A similar exception has occurred though.  I have been rejected as a candidate for a job for which I was applying.  The experience was painful.  It was indeed caused by the decision of the hiring manager.  I did indeed hold the manager responsible for my pain (and I still do).  Over time, I was able to forgive him. Part of what helped me in the forgiveness process is being able to realize that he was genuinely trying to make the best choice for the job he was responsible for filling.  I forgive him the pain he caused me, but I still don’t approve of what he did.  It is very possible that I’m wrong, but I still believe I was the best person for the job. Once again forgiveness and approval are not synonymous. 

This should be good news for many.  If I could have explained this to the prosecutor in my opening story, she would have known that I would have had no problem finding the defendant guilty of theft if the facts of the case had supported that verdict.  The victims of all kinds of violence never have to approve of the brutality leveled at them.  Those who have suffered every kind of injustice never have to approve of their oppressors’ actions. However, it is possible and I argue, beneficial for all those I just mentioned to forgive their offenders’ actions of which they will never give approval.  It is never necessary to approve of an action in order to forgive it.  

God does not approve of our sins. Our sins do break our relationship with God.  Because of that, it is necessary for those sins to be forgiven.  That is exactly what God has done.  But we do not mistake being forgiven for those mistakes as God saying it was alright to make them.  Forgiveness is not approval.

 

Questions:  To what extent has the line between forgiveness and approval become blurred for you?

 

Prayer:  God, I acknowledge that without your forgiveness, You and I could not have a relationship.  Thank you for your gracious gift of forgiveness.  In response, I will strive to live a life that meets your approval.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who are struggling with the consequences of failed relationships

 

Song:  Jesus, Friend of Sinners – Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st3CaUMH8zI