What Jesus Did : Luke 5:27-32 - Jesus' Sense of Mission
by Phil Ware
Jesus' Sense of Mission - Luke 5:27-32
After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector sitting at his place for collecting taxes. His name was Levi. Jesus said to him, "Follow me!" Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus. Then Levi gave a big dinner for Jesus. The dinner was at Levi's house. At the table there were many tax collectors and some other people too. But the Pharisees and those men that taught the law for the Pharisees began to complain to the followers of Jesus, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other bad people?" Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor. It is the sick people that need a doctor. I have not come to ask good people to change. I have come to ask bad people to change their hearts and lives!" (ERV) Full TextKey Thought
Jesus came for a number of reasons, but specifically reaching out to sinners was clearly one of the central ones. Jesus' harshest words are reserved for those "who think they are already good enough." Religious people are often jealous when their "itch isn't scratched" by their church or their church leaders. However, any church that seeks to minister as the presence of Christ in the world (i.e., to genuinely be the Body of Christ) will have to live with the same values Jesus lived. Clearly one of those values is a passion to reach those outside of grace rather than catering to those who have already received it. Imagine if all of Jesus' disciples today could capture that passion!
Today's Prayer
O LORD God Almighty, forgive us and help us change our ways. I confess that the church today is all too often worried about placating those who are already saved and are fussy about how they want things in their church. Pour out your Holy Spirit in a special way among your people, gripping us with a deep concern about those who do not know Jesus and have no hope in his grace. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Today's Verses in Context
After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector sitting at his place for collecting taxes. His name was Levi. Jesus said to him, "Follow me!" Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus. Then Levi gave a big dinner for Jesus. The dinner was at Levi's house. At the table there were many tax collectors and some other people too. But the Pharisees and those men that taught the law for the Pharisees began to complain to the followers of Jesus, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other bad people?" Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor. It is the sick people that need a doctor. I have not come to ask good people to change. I have come to ask bad people to change their hearts and lives!" They said to Jesus, "John's followers often fast and pray, the same as the followers of the Pharisees. But your followers eat and drink all the time." Jesus said to them, {"When there is a wedding}, you cannot make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is still with them. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then his friends will fast." Jesus told them this story: "No person takes cloth off a new coat to cover a hole on an old coat. Why? Because he ruins the new coat, and the cloth from the new coat will not be the same as the old cloth. People never pour new wine into old wine bags. Why? Because the new wine will break the bags, and the wine will spill out and the wine bags will be ruined. People always put new wine into new wine bags. No person that drinks old wine wants new wine. Why? Because he says, 'The old wine is fine.'"-- Luke 5:27-39 (ERV)
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