Eating With Sinners

Eating With Sinners

Luke 15:1-2, 7:36-50

            Several years ago my wife and I were teaching in a small town in another state.  We were also the music team at one of the local churches (I conducted the choir, and Mary, the one with talent, played organ and piano).  We were only there a year, but during that time there was an interesting occurrence at the church.

            A man who sang in the choir told me about the end of his first marriage.  He and his wife had been members of another church when she left him.  The church reacted negatively to him, asking, “How could you do this to us?”  He was the injured party, but instead of rallying around him, supporting him, and offering him Christian love and care, they condemned him for something that was not only not his fault, but that he had been powerless to prevent.

            The man left the church, remarried, and became a member of the church we later served.  This couple began a ministry to those who were grieving because of broken relationships.  We attended one of the sessions to see it for ourselves.  The love that poured out of this couple, the compassion for those who were hurting, and the assurance of God’s care were overwhelmingly beautiful.  Those despairing people came away from that weekend knowing that they were loved, and that God had not deserted them.  This man had turned his negative marital and church experience into one that was positive for many grateful people. 

            Later that year we arrived at church one Sunday morning to find the place in an uproar.  The news had just broken that one of the married women in the church had become involved with another member.  The affair was brief, had ended, and although the husband had been terribly hurt, he chose to reconcile with his wife.  Over the next months the couple worked diligently to repair their broken relationship.  We left town before the healing was complete, so we don’t know the final outcome, but they seemed to be making great progress towards repairing the breach.

            What was interesting was the reaction of the couple whose marriages had broken down and had turned their pain into a healing ministry.  The morning when all was revealed, they walked out of the church never to return.  Another couple who had gone through divorces left also.  The church was devastated by the loss, but managed to recover and move on.

            Sad, isn’t it: these people who had helped so many others couldn’t bend to help those close to them.  The man who had been most affected by the affair worked with his wife to try to restore their relationship.  The other couples, themselves victims of failed marriages, couldn’t offer love and care.

            What would Jesus do?  We find the answer in the seventh chapter of Luke.  Jesus not only forgave the woman who ministered to him with her tears and ointment, but also told a parable involving two debts, one small, one great.  The point of the story can be found in the hymn, “Grace Greater than All Our Sins.”  God’s outrageous love forgives all, both those who sin by breaking the law, and those who sin by keeping the law.

            Of course Jesus ate with sinners!  Everyone who shared a meal with him, everyone who came to him for help, everyone who criticized him—everyone who came into any contact with him was a sinner.  How could he avoid interacting with sinners?  But of course, he didn’t try to.  Jesus knew he had come to call sinners to repentance.  How could he do that if he avoided them?  Too often we forget that we all need God’s grace—but we won’t get it if we don’t give it.

            Who did Jesus come to forgive?  Us.  To whom do we offer forgiveness? Everyone.