Jesus the sinners' friend

This man welcomes sinners... Luke 15:2

Are there four more beautiful words in the New Testament than these? It was said of Jesus that he welcomed sinners.

The sad thing is that it was said as an accusation: not “He welcomes sinners - how wonderful, how revolutionary, how beautiful!”, but “He welcomes sinners - how disgraceful, how scandalous, how outrageous!”

The religious authorities had noticed that Jesus was in the habit of sharing meals with people who were disapproved of by the “good” people, and you can almost see them quivering with righteous indignation.

Well, history has shown pretty conclusively who was in the right and who in the wrong. You don’t even need to be a Christian to feel that your sympathies are all with Jesus. The essence of the gospel is summed up in these words; and the wonderful thing is that what was true of Jesus two thousand years ago is just as true today. With Christmas round the corner we’ll soon be seeing church bill-boards declaring “wise men came to Jesus; wise men still do” (boom boom). To which we might add: “Jesus welcomed sinners; Jesus still does.”

Two things come to mind that Jesus’ critics didn’t say, but which are equally true and equally important.

First: Yes, Jesus welcomes sinners, but he doesn’t share in their sin.

Certainly, Jesus was accused of being no better than the people he mixed with. Turn back to Luke 7:34, for example, and you find he was described as “a glutton and a drunkard”. But such charges never stuck, for the simple reason that they had no basis in fact. Jesus came not to condone or share in sin, but to make atonement for it by his death on the cross.

There’s an old quip which says that if we are Christians we are called to “hate the sin but love the sinner”. I’ve heard this described as trite and simplistic. But why? I personally can’t find anything wrong with it. Isn’t it exactly what Jesus did?

I read recently about a group of “swingers” who profess to be Christians. In case you don’t know, swingers are people who believe in sharing their partners sexually: as long as everyone is happy with the arrangement, what’s the problem? These people say they want to bring fellow-swingers to faith in Jesus, and they believe that sharing in their life-style is the way to go about it - rather like becoming bank-robbers or drug-pedlars in order to infiltrate the criminal or drug communities. (Such a belief is so grotesque, so monstrously misguided, that you even start to feel some sympathy for those scribes and Pharisees Luke is telling us about.)

No. Plain fact: Jesus and sin don’t mix. But good news: Jesus and sinners certainly do!

The second thing Jesus’ critics might have said is: Yes, Jesus welcomes sinners, but then he changes them.

The gospel is all about forgiveness - God gladly blots out the sins of anyone who comes in true sorrow and asking to be washed clean. But it doesn’t end there. The gospel is also about transformation: the forgiven person becomes, in the words of Paul, “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Sometimes the transformation is immediate and dramatic. Think of the avaricious Zacchaeus (Luke 19), transformed into a model of open-handed generosity. Or the violent anti-Christian Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9), transformed into a passionate follower of Jesus. Or the sexually immoral woman described in John 8 (we aren’t actually told what became of her, but it’s hard to imagine her returning to her former life after this meeting with Jesus). 

Other times the transformation is gradual and less obvious. But the fact is that once you come to Jesus you get changed. And, make no mistake, even outwardly “good” people need that change. Yes, it may take time - indeed, the process will only be complete when this earthly life is over - but each new day is an opportunity to become a little more like Christ. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in: breathed into us by Jesus, the very breath of God himself makes this process possible.

I ought to add one more thing: Yes, Jesus welcomes sinners, but he doesn’t coerce them, he doesn’t gate-crash their lives. No, in the vast majority of cases (Paul seems to have been something of a special case) he waits to be asked.

Which leaves the big question remaining. Have you yet come to him and asked him to welcome you? Why not! Why not today? Why not now?

Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you as a sinner. Please welcome me into your love and change me into your likeness. Amen.