This week we look at Jesus as our FRIEND. And more importantly perhaps as a Friend to Sinners. Jesus said he came to bring us a life full of joy and abundance. Full of grace along with the truth that whoever believes will find him. A true friend who is with you through thick and thin when everyone else abandons you.
Let me ask you..do you know Jesus as that kind of friend? Levi the lost tax collector and all his friends did. Zaccheus came down a tree for a dinner with that friend. And as a follower of that friend..are you that kind of friend for someone else? Join us for Jesus the God Who Knows Your Name: Friend.
PJ Pondering:
Maybe you are like me and Max and have trouble easily envisioning a smiling God. We hear about God weep in the scripture and be angry. God is mighty and powerful. And God is love. But a smiling God? Where is the scripture for that?
PJ Point:
Does Jesus smile when the boy tells them that he is willing to share is lunch with 5,000 people and the disciples ask how is that going to help? And in all those pictures of Jesus with children do we really think that he looked somber and sullen?No. Jesus must have been a people person. The kind of person people wanted to be near. The type who was always invited to the party. For example, the wedding at Cana.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.
John 2:2
PJ Point:
When the bride and groom were putting their list of who’s who to come to their wedding Jesus was on it and his followers. Jesus wasn’t invited because he was a celebrity because he wasn’t even known yet. It was not for his miracles he hadn’t done any. I guess they just liked him.It seems significant that common people in Cana wanted him to be around.
PJ Point:
Max says that is noteworthy that the Almighty didn’t act high and mighty. The Holy One wasn’t holier than thou.He could have though. He could have shown off but instead, his purpose was to show up. He wanted to be an ordinary joe or in this case an ordinary Jesus.
PJ Point:
People were drawn to Jesus. Thousands came to hear him.Hundreds chose to follow him. And a handful would call him a friend. And he told them and us what he came to do.
The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.
John 10:10
PJ Point:
Where did we get the idea that being a good Christian means that you can’t have any fun or must be stoic and solemn? Going back to the wedding why did Jesus go? If he says it is not his time for miracles then why? Max goes so far as to say that Jesus went to the wedding for…hold on…to have fun.
PJ Point:
Remember Jesus was accused of eating too much, drinking too much, and hanging out with the wrong people. When is the last time you have been accused of having too much fun?Max leaves us with the question what sort of portrait of Jesus hangs on the walls of your mind? Is he sad, somber, angry or is he laughing and living life with joy and abundance? Jesus is our friend. And even more importantly Jesus is a friend of sinners.
DYK?
Caesar permitted these Jewish tax collectors to tax almost anything- your boat, the fish you caught in your boat, your house,your crops, and animals. Anything. They would give Rome the income they expected and pocket the rest. Matthew we are told was a public tax collector that private collectors hired to do their dirty work.
His given name was Levi. A priestly name. Did his parents expect he would be a priest? Then they were sadly disappointed. Everybody kept their distance from a tax collector, a traitor to his own people. Everybody but his new best friend Jesus. Jesus actually seeks out Matthew.
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.
Matthew 9:9
Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them.
Luke 5:29
PJ Point:
Did Jesus and he plan this party together? That is actually what you call it in circles today when you have a party in your neighborhood and invite your neighborhood for the purpose of getting to know Jesus. A Matthew party.
Made up of misfits and every kind of person you can imagine. You know those people. The ones we don’t want to give the time of day. They are too dirty, too undeserving of Jesus because of their lifestyle choices and decisions. It was probably a real culture shock for even the disciples like Peter, James, and John.
The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Luke 5:30
PJ Point:
Now talk about people who apparently don’t know who to smile.
They are definitely not living their lives with joy and abundance. And before we come down too hard on them, we need to remember that the church is always one step away from being the Pharisees.
Jesus answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God. I came to invite sinners.”
Luke 5:31-32
PJ Point:
Jesus the friend of sinners is no friend of the Pharisees. They don’t need him. The Pharisees considered themselves spiritually healthy and righteous. They were not teachable and they had no self-awareness.
People who have those two traits have no need for Jesus. If you have it all together Jesus is not for you.
PJ Pondering:
What do you do with your Levi? Who is your Levi?
Max defines Your Levi is the person with whom you fundamentally disagree.
You follow different value systems. You embrace different philosophies.
You adhere to different codes of behavior, dress, and faith. How does God want us to respond to the Levis of the world?
Ignore them? Share a meal with them?
Leave the room when they enter?
Or ask them to leave so we can stay?
Discuss our differences? Dismiss our differences?
Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.
Romans 15:7
DYK?
This passage in Romans summarizes a 30-verse appeal to the Roman church for unity. Paul begins and ends it with the same verse: accept. This verb means more than tolerate or coexist. It means to welcome into one’s fellowship and heart. The word implies the warmth and kindness of genuine love. Philo. Love of friend.
PJ Point:
Paul used this verb when he urged Philemon to welcome the slave Onesimus the way he would welcome Paul himself Philemon 1:17
And Jesus used to describe how he would receive us John 14:3.
How does Jesus receive us? Lost as Levi. You and I were once lost. But it was the Jesus friend of sinners who came to us while we were yet sinners and proved God’s love for us.
The Word became fleshand made his home among us.We have seen his glory,glory like that of a father’s only son,full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
PJ Point:
Not just grace but truth and not just truth but grace as well. We seem to harbor on one or the other but not both. Some of us see grace as the most important and others truth. But one cannot exist without the other in reality. Grace told the adulterous woman in John 8:11 I do not condemn you truth told her Go and sin no more.
PJ Point:
Jesus shared truth but graciously. Jesus offered grace but truthfully. And Max finishes with this. Grace and truth. Acceptance seeks to offer both. Jesus found a way to accept the Matthews and Zaccheuses of the world. Jesus friend of sinners wants to do the same through you and me.
PJ Final Point:
It is the Whoever we find in John 3:16. Whoever believes in him. Whoever unrolls the welcome mat of heaven to humanity. Whoever invites the world to God. Jesus could have easily narrowed the scope changing whoever to whatever. Whatever Jew believes. Whatever woman follows me.
But the pronoun he uses has no qualifier and is indefinitely open. That is the kind of friend Jesus was to them and all of us. He was truly then and still is the Friend of Sinners why? because they need him the most.
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