3-7-2022

 Good Morning All,

     Mark 2:16; “And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

    One time I had a high school principal tell me that he would step between a couple of 300-pound football players who were duking it out; but he would hide if he saw a group of 7^th grade girls snarling at each other. The strange thing was that those of us who were listening to the story all commiserated with him. Kids can be cruel. They seem to have a pack mentality and heaven help the one that they turn on.

    In many ways, that is what has happened in our text. The leaders of the Jewish Church had decided who was and wasn’t a “sinner.”  If you were a “sinner” they would attack you with a vengeance. They would banish you from the Temple and require you to be “clean enough” to enter the Temple. Of course, this required a certain amount of money be spent (to them) before that would work. It accomplished two things for the scribes and the Pharisees; they were wealthy, and they rode roughshod on a whole nation of people so beaten down that they had given up all hope.

    Then along comes Jesus, a respected and honored rabbi. Some even thought he was a prophet, and he had the gall to eat with these “sinners.”  We need to remember that eating together at this time is a somewhat intimate act.  You usually ate from common bowls and either dipped your hand or your bread into the bowl. It was a sign of friendship and great hospitality. For one to eat together was a sign of acceptance of the other person. How could Jesus eat with those “sinners?”  You know; people of questionable moral quality, people who were forced into situations not of their choosing, people that others had beat down until they had nothing left. You know those people; “sinners”

   You know, people whose spouses deserted them, who never seemed to catch a break, a young woman trying to raise a child on her own because of bad choices made years ago, or a young man given a label because he was curious or a young gal who went to a party and was taken advantage of; you know “sinners”; people the world just beats down to no end.  Jesus eats with them.

     Jesus sees the pain, the heart ache, the hollowness in the eyes and the emptiness of the soul. Jesus comes to “sinners” like me and like you and he gives us hope. He comes to us with his word of forgiveness and hope, and he invites us in for a meal and a chance to heal. He doesn’t judge what we did; he forgives and forgets and tells us to release the pain and forget about it. He gives us a new life in him. Jesus eats with sinners and gives them eternal life.

Dear Jesus, you come to us and make us whole. You remove the suffering from our heart and give us hope and life. You give us new life and the grace to live each day as we continue on our journey with you. In your precious name we pray, amen  

God's Peace,

Pastor Bret