grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Monday, 2 2015 - "The half-truth: Jesus certainly loved sinners"

Monday, 2 2015 - "The half-truth: Jesus certainly loved sinners"
Daily Scripture: Matthew 9: Calling of Matthew

9 As Jesus continued on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. He said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. 10 As Jesus sat down to eat in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.

11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 When Jesus heard it, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 13  Go and learn what this means: I want mercy and not sacrifice.[a] I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.”[Footnotes:

Matthew 9:13 Hos 6:6]

Reflection Questions:
Tax collectors like Matthew collaborated with the Roman occupiers, collecting taxes (usually excessive) from their fellow Israelites. Jesus clearly, even shockingly welcomed and loved people like that, whom the “righteous” people of his day called “sinners.” (For another example of his behavior, cf. Luke 7:36-50.) There’s really no doubt that if we follow Jesus, he calls us to love sinners.

• Matthew was an outcast from respectable society. So imagine the type of friends who came to his house to eat with Jesus! (The Message paraphrased “tax collectors and sinners” with colorful precision as “crooks and riffraff.”) Who might be seen as “tax collectors and sinners” in 2015? How do you believe Jesus would treat (and have us treat) such people?
• When Jesus said, “I didn’t come to call righteous people,” who was he talking about? Was he saying that he actually considered them “righteous,” or was he saying ironically that THEY thought they were “righteous”? Is anyone, including you, so righteous that we do not need Jesus’ loving, merciful acceptance?

Today's Prayer:
Loving Lord, help me to see others through your eyes, eyes that lit with love and compassion at the sight of a “sinner.” Help me to love and serve anyone I can in your name. Amen.
Our GPS Insights blog shares reflections each day from our pastors, staff and congregants.

Read today's reflection from Donna Karlen online.
Donna Karlen serves in Communications at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.

What if Jesus had come for the righteous instead of sinners? What if he didn’t dirty his hands healing the sick or hang around anyone considered unclean?

Certainly, based on today’s scripture, Matthew never would have become a disciple – Jesus wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with him. At least 10 lepers would not have known merciful healing. The woman in the crowd who just wanted to touch Jesus’ cloak (one of my personal favorites) never would have heard those wonderful words, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” Mary Magdalene would have continued hearing some bad voices inside her head, and Zacchaeus would’ve been up a tree with no hope of redemption.

But because Jesus loved sinners and the sick and the unclean, Matthew was called, lepers and the woman in the crowd and Mary Magdalene and many others were healed, and Zacchaeus was transformed.

Today’s scripture says that Jesus wants us to be merciful. Let’s help sinners find their (our!) way back to God.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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