Jesus Among Sinners and Publicans
Jesus might have been the eternal Son of God, but He was also a human who lived and dwelt among us. As such, He had various kinds of human interactions, both with family and friends. The amazing thing about Christ was not so much that as a human He had interaction with other people; no, what is amazing is that He chose to interact with certain types of people.
Read Matthew 11:19; Mark 2:15, 16; Luke 15:1, 2. What kind of people was Jesus associating with? What kind of people in your own society might have elicited the same response from other more "respectable" folk?
Jesus came to reveal the character of God to all the world through both His life and His death. By associating with those who were considered, at least by worldly standards, lowlifes, Jesus was giving us a message about the character of God and about what God deems good and bad. As humans, we tend to look at the outward appearances (1 Sam. 16:7); God, though, looks at the heart, where He can see what we often do not.
Read Matthew 21:28-32. How does that help us understand why Jesus associated with the kinds of people He did? What important message can we, those who are "religious and respectable," take from this?
Unlike us, Jesus knew the heart; Jesus saw what was going on inside those who, from the outside, looked so unworthy and so unpromising. At the same time, He knew what was going on inside those who, from the outside, looked so righteous and pious. We might be able to fool each other, and even ourselves, but never the Lord. What is your attitude toward the "publicans and sinners" of your own society? How much of the attitude of the scribes and the Pharisees do you harbor in your own heart? (Remember, these men were exceedingly self-deceived.)
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