The Pharisees could not believe what they were seeing. Jesus ate meals with cheating tax collectors. He visited the homes of prostitutes. He touched the lepers. He constantly surrounded himself with sinners. But why? The Pharisees and so called righteous religious leaders considered these people scum, unworthy and not deserving of the breathes they took.
But this is not how Jesus saw these people. He saw a heart that was breaking. He saw a soul that needed cleansing. He saw a brother and sister that needed healing. He saw a life worth saving even though it would cost him his own life. Jesus said that the healthy are not in need of a doctor, but the sick are. He came to earth as a Savior to the sinners, the lost. He came for the sinners not the saints. He had uneducated fishermen and despised tax collectors as his disciples. He called a traitor, friend. He came for the outcasts, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, homeless, the morally bankrupt, the sick, the unrighteous. He loved them as much as he did the righteous. He wasn't looking at the outside or actions, but rather their hearts.
The difference in then and now is that Jesus doesn't walk this earth anymore. But he has told us that WE are now his body, his hands and feet. Jesus lives within us. It's our task, our duty to reach out these. To touch the man with unspeakable perversions. To reach out to the drug addicts and prostitutes. To find the homeless. To bring into the fold the outcasts. To offer hope to the hopeless.
Do we do this today? Have we answered the call? Have we picked up where Jesus left off? Have we accepted the great commission? I don't see it. Myself included. We go to our church services and raise our hands to our modern praise and worship music and listen to our pastors preach for 45 minutes. Then we walk out the doors and go back to our normal lives. We are so quick to judge the very ones that need us the most. We place ourselves in his high position of moral judge. Jesus doesn't remember your past. Once he forgives you, it's over. You start with a clean slate. A new creature in Christ. He said that he casts your sins into the Sea of Forgetfulness. As far as the east is from the west.
So who are we to judge anyone. He told us to reach out to these and offer them the gift of eternal life. Who are we to bring up past mistakes and failures. If Jesus doesn't remember them then why are they all that we see. Who are we to label people based on their past sins. Those that Jesus sets free are free regardless of what we think. How dare we put ourselves in his role as Almighty Judge. How dare we put ourselves above him. How dare we hold past sins against those that he has forgiven. How dare we hold past mistakes against those when he has already erased them and given them a new future... "Who Are We?"
Matthew 7:1-5 MSG -"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor."
