August 4, 2022
Passage Read: Luke 15-16
Meditation Verse: 15:1
Thought
The Scripture notes that tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to listen to Him, and the religious leaders remarked that Jesus received them and even ate with them. Jesus then spoke three illustrations to explain the situation to them, to defend not only Himself, but those who were coming to Him, listening to Him and eating with Him. All three illustrations speak of repentance, of finding the lost one and rejoicing over their return. The third illustration makes clear that the lost one has repented and returned in humility. The people coming to them were described as tax collectors and sinners. Tax collector was a job that all the Jews hated, because they collected taxes for the Romans, who were hated, and because many would take advantage of their position and collect more than assigned. They were considered traitors. "Sinners" included everyone else who did wrong, not just in the eyes of the religious leaders but also in the eyes of God. These labels weren't wrong, but they didn't capture what had happened in their coming to Jesus. They were changed or coming to the point of being changed. They were listening to Jesus and learning from Him, or deciding whether or not to believe Him. Those that were willing to come near to Jesus knew that they would have to leave their sinful ways behind: Jesus' Gospel was repent and believe. If they didn't like what Jesus was calling them to, they wouldn't have continued to come to Him. They would have avoided Him or joined with the religious leaders to attack Him.
Application
Those that came to Jesus and continued with Him may have once been sinners, but they were turning or had turned away from their sin. That label was what society saw them as, not what God saw them as. God saw them as restored children, precious and delightful to His eyes. A tax collector might still be a tax collector, because it was an actual and legitimate job, but while society also saw the title as a negative epithet, God saw their changed hearts and ways; to Him the title was just their job, not a curse. Society forever sees the sin, and it must, or else it too must repent. These people coming to Jesus had indeed been sinners, but they were no more. People who love sin don't come to Jesus to learn and fellowship and eat. That kind of sinner avoids Jesus, because he loves darkness because he's unwilling to give up his evil deeds.