Luke 5:27-32 (HCSB): After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him.
Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus replied to them, “The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus did indeed hang out with sinners. To criticize Him for that would be the same as criticizing a doctor for hanging out with sick people all day. But that is the doctor’s calling, so no one criticizes him for it. But, just like the doctor’s goal is not merely to hang out with sick people, but to make the sick well so that they aren’t sick any more, so Jesus’ goal was to make the sinners holy so that they weren’t sinners any more. The irony is that the Pharisees criticized Jesus for hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, when many of those tax collectors and sinners, through Jesus call, His teachings, and His infusion of new life, had already stopped being those things, and were now more a citizen of God’s kingdom than the ones criticizing Him! The Pharisees could not conceive the depth of change that came to people instantly through the touch of Jesus – they had no eyes to see the subtle changes already evident in those people’s faces, their stance, their whole body, because they could only see what they had been, and were totally blind to what they had already become in Him. The change Jesus makes in a life is profound, and it is instantaneous (although there is growth in grace as a person matures). In fact, it is well said that if there is no change in a person’s life after they meet Jesus, they have not really met Jesus! The Pharisees were with Jesus a lot, and they knew what He taught – they could have said that they knew Him well. But thier hearts were closed, so no matter how long they were with Him, no matter if they could even recite His words, there was no change – there was no salvation.
Father, I thank You for the massive changes You made in my life in an instant, and for the continued growth in grace that You have brought to me through the years. Help me to bring that same amazing, instant change to others as You work through me to change lives. Amen.