The Feast of the Diseased

So we are embarking on a journey through Luke to discover what the gospel is. What is this 'new kingdom' going to be like, and what does God expect of the members of it? In the last post we considered that Jesus hinted that the kingdom would be unexpected. Let's have a look.

In Luke 5:27-32 we find Jesus and his followers at a feast. The feast is being held by His newest disciple, Levi (or Matthew), who was a tax collector. It's important for us to understand a bit about tax collectors. These were considered to be terrible traitors by the Jews. They were collecting money from their own people to hand over to their oppressors! Worse than that, many skimmed off the top, so they weren't just traitors, but thieves as well!

Jesus meets Levi at his work and says, 'Follow me.' Levi drops everything and follows. (More on this next time.) They go back to his place and Levi throws a big party. Who does he invite? the people he knows; other tax collectors and people that will be willing to hang out with tax collectors. The Pharisees refer to these people as 'sinners'. Let's not get this twisted, the Pharisees are not denying their own sin with this title. This was a common, catch-all name for any Jews who were not making an effort to follow God. 'Sinners' were people who didn't go to the festivals, didn't follow Torah, and didn't bring offerings to the Temple. Matthew's own account of this event reveals that there were also prostitutes there.

So these are the people Jesus spent at least some of His time with. Why would He do this? Because the good news is for those who haven't heard it! In Jesus' words, 'I have not come for the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance.'

Again, let's not twist this message. Jesus is not condoning sin; in fact He is calling people to repent! These is quite conscious of the fact that these people He is feasting with are diseased. But He IS GOING TO these people!

I have a bad habit of telling the good news to people who already know it. I make these occasional speeches that we call sermons, but typically more than 90% of the listeners already believe. Do you know that there is no record in the NT of a sermon delivered to a group of believers? Yet we do it every week!

Again, don't get me wrong, we are to exhort and encourage each other in the church. Sermons can be a useful and meaningful way to do this. But let's not kid ourselves into thinking we are 'spreading the gospel' when we just go to our church buildings and give a talk once a week! Imagine if your local hospital canceled its ambulance service. They just issued a couple of ads in the paper saying, 'Anyone that wants help needs to find their own way to the hospital!' We wouldn't be too happy with that. But are we any different when we sit in our 'hospital' waiting for people to come for healing?

Jesus makes a fundamental point here that I think many of us, definitely self included, often miss. To share the gospel, you have to FIRST go to the people that need to hear it. It doesn't count to just sit in our clubhouse and talk about how cool Jesus is, as fun as that may be. We've got to be willing to get our hands a little dirty some times. Essentially, Jesus is challenging the Pharisees and scribes to consider that 'sinners' might not be that way if someone gave them a chance! The good news of Christ's kingdom is that it is for everyone!

Jesus demonstrates to us that it is possible to share our lives with unbelievers and not participate in sin. Perhaps I need to be more intentional about not spending all of my time doing 'church stuff'. The kingdom of Christ should be proclaimed in the world, which means we all have to be out there doing a bit of proclaiming!! But how do we do that? What will it look like? Let's continue to look into Luke for clues...