Friend of Sinners
Originally scheduled for January 13
Matthew 11:19 NASB
"The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a
friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by
her deeds."
Sins, it seems, come in a variety of
categories.
·
There are several sins which are
considered quite socially acceptable. Greed is always welcome when
you call it “entrepreneurial spirit.” Stinginess does quite well
when you call it thrift. Indeed, the human mind is quite good at
this. It’s been known that a failure to evangelize has been called
“preserving the character of our witness.”
·
Certain sins fall into a rather
indeterminate category. In our time this is particularly true of
sexual sin. For many of us, sexual sin is something that someone
else does. We, on the other hand, appreciate the beauty of sex. So
we are not sure whether or not sexual misconduct is really
unacceptable sin.
·
We still have unacceptable sins. It
is considered more than tacky to get yourself rip roaring drunk and
drive home, only to run into somebody on the way. Drug addiction —
particularly if you’re homeless — is also socially unacceptable.
Exactly which sins fall and what category has
changed over time, but the idea that there are acceptable and
unacceptable sins is a very ancient one. Jesus had to confront the
same thing. We can tell which sins were socially unacceptable in his
own time by the accusations made against him.
·
The most common one was that of
gluttony. To put it quite simply, they felt that Jesus was a man who
partied much too hearty — and with all the wrong people. As a matter
fact, he seemed to regard his own presence as reason to throw a
party. And on at least one occasion he invited himself to come. The
man was a party animal.
·
The second one was that he had all
the wrong friends. In those days the worst of friends to have was a
tax collector — remember, they worked for the conquering Roman
Empire. The IRS (at least in theory) works for us. A similar
category was politely named “sinners.” You didn’t specify exactly
what kind of sinners they were, because they were the sexual sort —
and you might have to explain that to the kids. If you will recall,
Jesus was merciful to the woman taken in adultery.
After the accusations we have this statement:
“Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” It’s a shorthand way of
saying that all the smart people of the time thought that Jesus was
really stupid for doing this. His answer is simply this: look at the
results. If you want sinners to repent, you have to talk to sinners.
They’re not going to get it by osmosis. The truth is recorded; some
of those sinners repented. One of those tax collectors was a fellow
named Matthew, the author of the gospel of that name. It’s generally
recorded that the socially unacceptable sinners loved the Man; the
socially acceptable sinners turned their noses up at him.
