How Jesus Lived: Jesus Loved Sinners
Pastor Fletcher preaches from Matthew 9:10-13 about how Jesus sees us. Discussion points: We naturally categorize people as in-group or out-group and see out-group people as bad, Jesus categorizes us into humble or prideful people, we must have the willing heart of a sinner and be friends of sinners as Jesus is.
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Scripture reader: [Matthew 9:10-13] And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician. But those, those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: All right, good morning. Good to see everybody this morning. My name's Fletcher. It's a joy to be the pastor of this church and to get to know you. Hope to get to know you better, maybe after the service today. I just want you to take a moment to imagine that you're walking down one of these local Somerville roads, and you see what appears to be a large party going on. It's a very inviting feel. The doors are open, windows open, and there's just kind of people bustling around, and so you decide to go stick your head in. And see what's happening. You're feeling rather bold, that day, should we say.
And so as you stick your head in, what you see is not maybe what you expect. You're not seeing one of these high class Somerville parties. What you're seeing instead is a smoke-filled room with Somerville's most nefarious and notorious characters gathered around. Inside, you might see some corrupt businessmen, maybe even the guy who sold you that car that didn't work for very long. His name's Cam. Cam. Maybe you look around and you see some people who might be hanging out in the part of Davis Square that you might not hang out in very often. Maybe they have some, some issues that they might need help with. Maybe you're looking around, you, you might even see someone who appears to be a sex worker in, in the room. And so you just look around and you're like, this is obviously not the party that I'm wanting to crash here.
But then who do you see in the middle of the room reclining and enjoying themselves? But me! They're my friends. I'm hanging out. What would you think if you saw me, your pastor, sitting in the middle of this smoke-filled. Messy Corrupt room. You would surely think, Pastor, I think you found the wrong party. What are you doing here? You would have questions for me. Maybe not at that moment, but at least in, at least the next day or in your heart, you would be asking such questions. I know I would be as well if I were in your shoes.
And this is the exact situation that we see these Pharisees catching Jesus in today. And I think that as we study this passage, what we actually find is that the world's categories of good guys and bad guys, the way that the world categorizes everyone into two different camps, you got your good guys and your bad guys, might not be the exact same way that Jesus categorizes people around the world. So let's dive in. I have two points today. The first point is the world according to the Pharisees, and the second point is the world according to Jesus.
Point number 1, the world according to the Pharisees. Now, in ancient times, if you're reading this, this, this, this gospel message, this story of, of Jesus, this spiritual biography that we have of him. If you're a 1st century Jewish reader and you're reading this passage, and you get to this part about the Pharisees, you know who the Pharisees are. The Pharisees, in our day and age, we think about the Pharisees as being the spiritual hypocrites, and they are. But back in 1st century Judaism, They would read this and think, not spiritual hypocrites. You would think spiritual, righteous, moral, the moral backbone of society. You would think these are the people who have it figured out. You might not like hanging out with them that much. They might be a little stodgy, but you would at least have respect for the Pharisees.
And so when you get here, your mind is already attuned to the Pharisees are the righteous, religious, good people. And then we're looking and seeing what's happening at the party. And it subverts our expectations. Verse 10. And as Jesus reclined at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Now when we think about tax collectors, what do we think about? An IRS agent working in some cubicle in DC, right? That's who I think of when I think about tax collectors.
I'm one of those weird people who oddly enjoys doing my taxes. I mean, February 1st, I'm like on TurboTax, trying to get that thing done. It is, I think I should, you know, alternative calling accountant maybe in life, but here I am as a, as a pastor. And, but one of the least. One of the people I'd be least happy to see at my doorstep would be two IRS agents. That is not who you want to see coming and visiting you. Even in today's society, we look at tax collectors and you're like, no thanks. I, I'll stay away from them.
But also we have this idea that tax collectors, we know they're just people doing their jobs, right? They're just people doing their jobs. In the ancient society, that is not what a tax collector was. A tax collector. Was not only someone doing their job, but they were a cheater and a traitor. They were a traitor because they were working for the oppressors. The oppressors were the Romans. The Romans have come in and they're, they've taken over the land. Yes, they let Herod continue to, to rule, but he's kind of just a puppet king, and the, the Romans are actually the ones in charge. And so the tax collectors, they're not tax collectors for Herod or for the temple, they're tax collectors for the Romans. They're working for the oppressors. Not only that, they're cheaters, because what was common in this day was for the tax collectors to tell you what you owe, but then they would add a little bit more to the top so they could skim off the top and keep it for themselves. So tax collectors were not only traitors working for the oppressors, but they were also cheats who were lining their own pockets with your hard earned cash. They were not people that were well respected in the society.
Now when they go into the party, they see a collection of tax collectors. This is a party that's probably occurring at Matthew's home, who was a tax collector that Jesus had just called. But they also see what we see as sinners. Now this word for sinners could mean a variety of different things. When you read, the New Testament, you see this new. for sinners. We might be thinking, yes, we're all sinners. Of course it could be any of us. But that is not the way that this word is being used, because Jesus and his disciples were sinners in that category, meaning that they were not as righteous as the the Pharisees, but there were other people who were more sinner than they were sinners. And those were the nefarious characters that you might see at this party. And so the question is obvious, why is your teacher eating with tax collectors and sinners. When they walk into this party, all they see is bad people, and the Pharisees are wondering why is Jesus, if he is a good person like us, hanging out with all of these bad people.
You see, the Pharisees have divided up the world in two different categories, good and bad. It is the default way that all of us divide up the world. It's taught to us from a very young age. The plot of every movie. With a few exceptions, is good guys versus bad guys. When you're taught as a child about things like prisons or jails, oftentimes you're taught bad people go to prison or jail. Good people stay free or whatever it might be, depending on your society, I suppose, but. We often times divide up the world between good and bad. We view this world as a battle, as a narrative that we're all caught up in, that there are bad people and good people. They're the bad people and we're the good people, whoever they are.
Back in the days of the, the, the glory days, honestly, of psychological experiments, back before, you know, ethics, um. We had an experiment called the, the robber's cave experiment. This is the eagles and the rattlers. Do you guys know this experiment? No? Wonderful. The year is 1954. Ike Eisenhower is president. People are gathering in their living rooms, not to watch the television, but to listen to the radio. That's how long ago this was, back when people were listening to the radio before they would do their evening routine or whatever it is. And you had. Absolutely no concern for scientists taking your children and causing long-term traumas in their lives, because ethics weren't developed yet. So along came these scientists, and they said, would you please send us your children for them to do a long-term scientific, experiment with us. And people were like, Sure. Sounds good.
So they sent 22 12-year-old boys to a to a camp. I believe it was in New Jersey, called the Robber's Cave Camp. And with these children, what they did is they separated them into two equal groups of 11, and they were staying in separate parts of the camp. And so some of the children were over way on this side of the camp and other children were over here. 11 of them each. For the 1st 5 days, they thought that they were totally alone at the camp. Now there were some counselors with each group, but what the children did not know is that there was another group of children on this campground. Until 1 day, 6 days into it. The, the Eagles or the Rattlers, they each developed names for themselves. They started to come up with funny sayings that what they would do in each different group.
And so one day, after a few, after 6 days, they saw evidence that the other group had been playing baseball on their field. And so people, the, the rattlers, they start to get a little annoyed. Oh, there's another group out here. And then the counselor said, let's see what happens when we put them together. And so they started to bump into one another around the campground. And what they discovered is they did not like each other. It did not take long. They start calling each other names. Each group devised their own tribal flag that they would fly, and they had their own phrases that they would use, and they started hurling insults at the other group, and then things started to get really out of control because they start to vandalize each other's. And then they started to make weapons with socks filled with rocks, ready, just a sock knocker there just ready to to come and take out some of the rattlers. If you were one of the eagles, they were ready to go after one another when the counselors finally stepped in.
Now what we see here is an example of this thing that lives inside of every human heart, which is this tribalistic urge to be on the in crowd, and those who aren't in your group, are they? And so life is seen as this perpetual fight between us and them. Good versus bad. The in group is the good people and the outgroup is the bad people here. And it is just something that is baked into human nature.
Now when I got married, I knew that my wife, though she had never lived in Boston when my wife and I first met, I asked her where she was. She was where she was from, and she's a military kid, so she said, I'm from Boston. And I'm, and then like a year later when we were probably getting engaged, I realized she had never lived in Boston at that point. But this feels like home to her. She's very much a Red Sox fan through and through. And one thing that I realized, we're going to the Red Sox game later today, actually, so that's exciting. But one thing that I realized, is that to be a Red Sox fan, isn't so much that you support the Red Sox as it is you hate the Yankees. Is that true? Yeah. I, I didn't realize this, and as, as an outsider, I look at this and see that this is, this, this makes no sense. But to her, Yankees fans just aren't good people. That if you support the Yankees, there's something about you that is just wrong morally. In-group, out-group. I, I can look at this and see it objectively as arbitrary tribalism, but, not all those of you here might be able to.
Jonathan Haidt, I mentioned him a few weeks ago. I promise this is gonna get back to the Bible here in a moment. Jonathan Haidt, I mentioned a few months, a few weeks ago, he wrote a, a recent book called The Anxious Generation. He wrote a book 10 years ago. that I find to be very, very influential and very, very helpful. And it's probably one of the few books, and he's one of the few authors who's not a Christian. He's an atheistic Jewish man who, writes these books, and I'm like, man, we all need to read these, because they're just so interesting for the day that we live in. And he wrote a book called The Righteous Mind, Why Good People Disagree about Religion and Politics. It's an outstanding book. And what he has to say is that the reason why we're so divided by politics and religion is because each of us have a moral matrix that is a value system. And as we have this moral matrix, we divide ourselves up into our tribes, and then that becomes more pushing for what we believe than the moral system itself.
So for example, a liberal person would have a moral matrix that values care over everything else. Then we need to care for the oppressed and vulnerable in our society. That is something that almost all of us can agree with in theory, but to a lib to a liberal minded person. This is the number one issue facing our world. That the world is made up of oppressors and oppressed, and we must care for the oppressed. We must care for those who are wounded by society. This is what the, the world is broken into for the liberally minded. So they preach care for those who might be harmed, physically, emotionally, mentally, and tolerance above all things.
Now on the other side of the spectrum, you might have a conservative person whose primary moral value would be traditional morals, or personal liberty, so to speak. A conservative, on the other hand, might be way more concerned with having personal liberty and the freedom to make their own decisions. I'm not going to take your vaccines because I don't think that it is moral for anyone to put it, to tell me what I have to do with my body. And so it is the conservative mindset of liberty that goes above most things.
Haidt actually has this funny thing where he says that, there's badges for these different, these, these different, tribes that we have in our politics, even these different, moral matrices that we find ourselves in. A liberal might have a, a badge of honor on their car. What is it? It's a bumper sticker. That's your badge is your bumper sticker, and the liberal badge of, of honor there is the tolerance sticker. Never mind, they probably don't know half the people of, of, know a person of half of the religions on there. They just think. Tolerance is the number one ideal, and they don't actually care to, to move that forward. They just want you to know that you're the type of, that they are the type of person who believes in tolerance. On the other side, there's a badge for the conservatives as well on the bumper stickers. It's like the don't tread on me sticker, right? So if I see that sticker, or, or maybe even that American flag that's black, that's kind of like black and white American flag, I have no idea what that means. I just know that person's probably packing heat, and I'm not messing with them. I'm like, go ahead, sir, my Subaru can wait, you just go on ahead.
Politics are so important to us as Americans, but the reason they've become so frustrating, and we all feel political frustration all the time, is because the parties have become less about the issues and more about the tribes. Do you feel that? Like, it's hard to have a conversation about the issues, because we just get Pigeonholed into a tribe. And then we're have a difficult time moving forward. Those who are overly devoted to a political party have an oversimplified morality that's conveniently created in us versus them. Much like the Pharisees, our world today has created good people and bad people, and depending on which side of the political spectrum you sit on, the other people are the bad ones and you are the good ones. We feel like we, this is the world we live in, is it not? This worldview has slipped into our own hearts and minds as well.
And so how does Jesus view the world? Point number 2, the world according to Jesus. Jesus hears the Pharisees question and response. But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. This is not what we expected Jesus to say here. We expect Jesus to say, oh yeah, Pharisees, here's why I'm at the party. I'm here to tell all of those sinners that they need to repent. And get their lives back in order. That's what you would expect the Pharisee, and I'm sure if the Pharisees heard that answer, they would say, good man, you're doing the Lord's work. But instead, Jesus says, I'm not here. Just to yell at them or to judge them, but I'm here to love them. The well, I have no need for a physician, but only the sick. He says those who have no need of a physician. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Jesus, Jesus is basically saying, If you think you have your life together. If you think that you are a good person. I have nothing to offer you. But if you have a heart that is sick. If you have a heart that is hurting. If you are weary and heavy laden, If you are depressed, destitute, or anxious, boy, do I have good news, because the physician is here. Well, Jesus, like the Pharisees, only sees two categories of people. It's just not the same two categories. The Pharisees see the world and all of us default see the world broken up between good people and bad people. Jesus doesn't see those categories at all. Jesus only sees the categories of humble person and prideful person. And if your life is in the prideful category, he has nothing to offer you.
You know, we, we have this saying that we exist to help religious and irreligious people to become gospel people. And here's what I realized this week is that we're missing an integral step when we say this vision, because no one goes from a religious person to a gospel person directly. No one goes from an irreligious person to a gospel person directly. There's always a middle step, and it is convicted sinner. Religious person to someone who feels conviction and broken for their sin, or they feel the weight of sin on them. They feel as though they're oppressed by sin, that their soul is sick with sin, that they hate what's going on inside of them. They hate the temptations and they long for a savior. The only way you become a gospel person is to go through that middle stage. You have to first see, have a self-awareness that I am the type of person that needs Jesus. I am the type of person that needs a doctor.
I've talked to a lot of people who are very sick. As a pastor, you get to talk to a lot of people who are very sick. Some people deny their sickness until they're dead. They don't see their need for a doctor. But friends, your soul is sick this morning. And you have need for a physician, and the good news is that the medicine is free and that the healing is available to all who will admit it. As long as you see yourself as basically a good person, who occasionally does bad things that aren't that bad, you are in the proud category. You will never see your need for a Messiah. You have a hypothetical religion that says Jesus died for sinners, and I hypothetically understand that Jesus died for sinners, and I hypothetically understand that I might need him, but unless you feel that need, you have a hypothetical savior with a hypothetical love. Once you feel that need for him though. You can experience His love in the full.
Friends, Jesus loved sinners. Jesus loved sinners. His heart is drawn toward those who need him most. There's certainly some of you here today who need, need to hear that message. I know that for many of us in here, we might resonate more with the Pharisees, but for just a moment, let's resonate with the sinners. They're, the very act of going to church is a guilt-ridden act for many people. So you might be sitting here thinking, these people really don't want me here. If they really knew me, if they knew what I'm struggling with, they know what I'm going through, they wouldn't want me here. If they knew me, I would be rejected. You might not feel worthy to be here. But friends, what you need to know is that Jesus loves sinners. He did. His heart is drawn toward the hurting. He cares for the weak.
When we sin, we usually think. That this is what pushes the love of God away from me. And so what we often do is we sin, and then we hide in our shame. But what the scriptures actually teach us is that if you are in Christ, if you believe in Jesus, that your sin doesn't elicit God to reject you. It elicits God to pity you. And to draw nearer to you. That your sin actually draws the heart of God too. Now, don't get me wrong, if you are not in Christ, your sin. deserves a a punishment. That is awaiting all those who don't know Christ. But if you are found in Christ, your sin draws you only toward, only draws God toward you. If you know Jesus, your sin doesn't separate, it moves the heart of Jesus towards you. When you're when you sin, the heart of God is moving toward you.
That's why Romans 6 makes sense, OK? So there's this passage in Romans 6. I cut this from this, but I love this, this, I get excited about this. Romans 6 says, Basically, the more you sin, and Romans 5 basically says, the more you sin, the more God is glorified because your sin is paid for by Jesus. And so Jesus did more work and so he's receiving more glory, and so you're able to see that Jesus is more glorious when you sin more. And so the question that comes in Romans chapter 6 is shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? And it answers itself by no means. But friends, If you ask that question, I would say, yes! You get it, you're getting it. Shall we send more? OK, if Jesus is more magnified because I sin and so the cross is like he gets more glory because he paid for more of my sin and that that glorifies him somehow. So maybe I should just send more so that Jesus can get more glory. Yes! No, don't do it. But you're thinking the right line. Yeah, that's the right way, that's the logical answer to get to. Now, by no means should you send more. But it's the right answer, it's the right direction that you're going.
Your sins move Christ towards you, if you are in Christ. If you are not in Christ, I encourage you to trust in the physician. He's willing to heal you. He's right there and available to you. Thomas Goodwin said, your very sins move him to pity more than anger. Dane Ortland and gentle and lowly, he puts it this way, he says, if you are a part of Christ's own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He is on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin, but he loves you.
Which leads us to what Jesus finally said to the Pharisees, when Jesus said, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came to call the righteous. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now Jesus, he's, he's being cheeky here. These Pharisees, they're the, they're the, the teachers. And so he's turning to the teachers and he's saying, go and learn what this means, and then he cites one of their own texts. This would be like be walking into a Harvard Law, law, classroom and saying, go learn what this means, and then you cite one of the US constitutional laws. He is putting the rabbi, the, the Pharisees back in their place. He's saying, listen to this Pharisees, ruminate on this. This is profound. It's going to take you a while to figure it out. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
This is a quote from the prophet Hosea, who's probably quoting it from the prophet Isaiah. but in Hosea, people were willing to complete the external requirements of religion. But they mattered, but they completely ignored what mattered the most, love. So they were willing to do the temple sacrifices and all the religious things, but they were not willing to care for their own neighbors. How many times in American Christianity do we see this? How many churches this morning are full of people singing the praises of Jesus Christ and then going home, hopping on social media and spewing hatred toward their neighbors and and companions in one way or another. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
Now this word for mercy. Hosea, if you read the reference to it, it actually says, I desire love. It's translated love in Hosea. But when the Greek Septuagint translates the word love, casset kissed love. What it actually translates it to is mercy. There's not a good English word that's a 1 to 1 for that word. And so the, the Greek translates it to mercy, the Greek word for mercy. And so when it, when this is found in the New Testament, if the New Testament's written in Greek, we also see it. But Jesus is using that word, that loving faithfulness word. Go and desire, go and see what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
He's basically saying, you live in a black and white world. Where you have these categories of good guys and bad guys, and when you're bad, you do a religious deed and then you feel better, but what you're missing is compassion, mercy, love. Jesus loved sinners. He had little patience for the religious, he had little time for the self-righteous. He did not care for those who thought they were better than everyone else. He loved sinners, and he still does. I have 3 applications for you, briefly. And then we'll do communion. First, we're gonna do individually, communally, and missionally. Individually. Each of us needs to hear this.
When I first read this passage. Here's how I read it. Jesus is hanging out with the least of these. Jesus is hanging out with the sinners and the tax collectors. Maybe I should spend more time with sinners and tax collectors. But what am I doing? Then the Lord convicted me, cause what am I doing when I do that? I'm putting myself in the place of Jesus. And I'm putting myself as morally superior to the sinners and the tax collectors instead of seeing myself as someone that Jesus might want to be friends with, because I am a sinner. And so I think the first way that we might want to interpret this, is to not look at Jesus as an example for how to live, but to look at Jesus as what he is offering to us as sinners. Which is Jesus is offering to us friendship with God. And we need to look at our own hearts, confess our own sins, and understand that he is a friend of sinners.
I spent half the week trying to figure this out. That, that as I read this passage took me half the week to get there. But as I just went. And thought about it. What did Jesus say? Go and learn what this means. And I had to sit there and read it for a long time. And maybe some of us do as well. the second way that we can apply it is communally. We have to embrace one another as fellow sinners.
Now, we have 3 core values at our church. And the first one is sound doctrine. The second one is gospel culture, and the third one is multi-ethnicity. We're a church that, that loves those three things, and that's, that's, if you want to know what we're about, sound doctrine, gospel culture, multi-ethnicity. Sound doctrine, and, and multi-ethnicity, you can find those in every passage, of course, but in this one, I want to focus on gospel culture. What is gospel culture? But it is. The shared experience of the gospel. For the undeserving. It's the feel, the tone, the aroma, cheerfulness, honesty and relationships formed and sweetened by the gospel.
Oftentimes, the church can have good doctrine, and then people come, and everything we taught is nullified by the way that we treat one another. That you have to have your act together to be here. That you need to look the right way and act the right way. But gospel culture says that this is a place for messed up people. And so maybe you're visiting here and you're like, is this church for me today? And I would say only if you consider yourself a messed up person. Because this church. Though beautiful bride of Christ. Y'all messed up, all right. And I, I am too. I'm there with you. We've said this many times, and this is a very famous saying, but the church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners. And so one way that we grow in this, in this value of gospel culture is by having relationships marked by anybody? Safety and thank you. Yes, safe relationships marked by safety and time that leads to vulnerability. And as we're vulnerable. We're able to be the messed up folks. That receive the grace of the Lord together.
Finally, we can apply this missionally. And friends, I will say this, that, that our world is full of souls that are sick and hurting and who need Jesus. That need this message that Jesus is the friend of sinners. That he doesn't care, good or bad, he cares proud and humble. And the best way for us to move forward in this is not by going and showing how we're morally superior to all of our neighbors. But by going and telling them how Jesus is a friend of sinners. Our world doesn't need the morality police. We honestly don't need any more cultural commentators. Your friends and neighbors, they desperately need friendship with Jesus. And how else are they going to meet him, unless you invite them to the party? Unless you invite them to come and see who he is.
At the same time, this passage might be instructive on who's willing to be humble and who is going to remain in the proud category. Who goes to the party, but the least of these. There's all kinds of parables about this, that blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. Blessed are those. Who don't feel like they're morally superior to others. And so it might be instructive as to who is willing to receive the message of Christ. Not those necessarily who look like they have their lives all put together, but instead it's the needy and the heartbroken. The destitute I believe that as we, as people, experience that that it kinda has to go in this order, OK? You experience the gospel personally. You experience it corporately, we experience it together. We, we need that vulnerability. We need that gospel culture. And then as we live these things out, we move out missionally. Now, that's a logical order. If you wait until that actual order, until you feel satisfied with it, you might never walk out missionally. Logically, you can experience all the three of these today though. OK. Individually, communally, missionally, he sends us out.
And what better way, as we talk about experiencing the gospel than to practice a communion meal. Because Jesus said that this is one of the ways that we can remember him and experience the gospel afresh. So then on the night that he was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread and he tore it, and he said, This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he took a cup and he said, This is my blood spilled for you. Drink in remembrance of me. And so as we participate in this sacred meal, we're remembering what Christ has done for us, but we're also knowing that Christ is present with us, even now as we take these these elements, as we are enjoying this meal together. It's just a small taste of what we'll enjoy in heaven as we experience the wedding feast of the Lamb altogether. So with that being said, as we prepare our hearts, I'd encourage you, if you're able to stand and. And pray with me.
Father, we thank you for this meal this morning. As we enjoy this meal, help us to experience the gospel, to come to you fresh, to confess where we are as sinner and how we need you. And would you help us to apply this passage and to live this out and understand that you are a friend of sinners. Help us to be bold in our confession, because we know that our sins don't lead you to to shy away, but instead they draw your heart. And as we confess these things, you are faithful and just, and you'll forgive us of our sins. Christ, we pray that you be magnified today. And God, we thank you for this meal. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.