(As part of a series entitled “Out of the Fire and Into the Skillet”)
Luke 7:34
“The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!”

Hum! Jesus, friend of sinners. When I consider the events surrounding Luke 7:34, which would include the entirety of the Gospel accounts, I am forced to ask myself the following question:

How far has our generation deviated from the core message of the gospel? Before we go much further let’s briefly examine some events surrounding Luke 7:34.

John the Baptist, the prophesied forerunner of Jesus (see Malachi 3:1), came preaching repentance, in order to prepare the way for Jesus. When the rulers of the Jews asked John the Baptist who he was, John responded, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” John the Baptist’s message of repentance pointed to the Ten Commandments (Law) and all the Old Testament Prophets. His message was a reminder from God that the Ten Commandments which men thought justified them from their sins, actually did the opposite and condemned them in their sins. (See Romans 7:10, 11) John next sends two of his followers to ask Jesus personally if Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Now, I would be remiss if I did not point out that John knew fully well who Jesus was. He had his disciples ask in part for their own benefit, but mostly so Jesus could confirm that he was performing miracles just like the prophets said he would. (See Isaiah 29:18 among others)

Now the Pharisees and all their buddies rejected all this evidence. Jesus likened that generation to a group of children jesting with one another about playing games. I wonder if many of us church people today are not treating sinners exactly like the Pharisees treated sinners. Let me break it down into today’s language. We sit in our beautiful church buildings, made with our own hands and call out to lost sinners, expecting them to dance to our tune all the while shunning them because they will not come in to dance or play the game exactly like we want them to play it. I think sometimes the reality is we don’t want them in our nice building, unless they first clean themselves up, look exactly like us and play by our rules. Let me break it down even further by giving a common metaphor used today.

“If you don’t play the game my way, then I will just take my ball and go home.”

The problem is sinners don’t understand the rule book. Oh, they can read it, but they can’t understand it. Christ is the rule book made alive and lost sinners see Jesus in the life of Christians, which play by the rules. There are only two rules we have to remember. Rule # 1 is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Rule # 2 is to love thy neighbor as thyself, which is how we prove that we believe Rule # 1. If we believe Jesus is the Word (Ten Commandments + The Prophets) made flesh (see John 1:14), then we Christians should be Christ’s living love letter (see 2 Corinthians 3:3). Thereby demonstrating God's love via our actions to sinners, which can’t understand what they read. (see James 2:18)

To be continued (I have already used up my self-imposed word limit!)

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