All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!” – Luke 15:1-2
Behold the madness of the self-righteous. Behold the wisdom of the repentant.
For the self-righteous, God is but a prop and soapbox to their own social and financial advancement that they might stand on to wag their fingers at the broken. At ‘those people’.
What we read of this event is outrageous. The very Son of God who has done miracle after miracle and spoken of grace and forgiveness stands before these counterfeit religious leaders and they don’t ‘approach’ Him as the outcasts of society do. Their response is to complain about Him. Complain!
God is at work this morning among the homeless, hungry, addicted, inflicted, hurting, burned-out, empty-in-soul, and beaten-down. Let’s be sure our prayers and our time and our hands and our money and our focus are among them as well.
Where else would anyone want to be if not exactly where Jesus is at work?
Those in near and far away high places and of great self-importance today will be complaining about something. That job is more than filled with vultures all around to pick their bones as one falls, and another takes his place.
Let’s be at work giving thanks instead of giving grief. Let us be at the Table, building up the Kingdom and welcoming in more people to fill His Home.
Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world. – Philippians 2:14-15
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