Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.         As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:13-17)

I’m always amazed at the impact Jesus had on ordinary men and women and especially “sinners”. In one sense, of course, we are all in that category but scripture often speaks of sinners and those who lived a sinful lifestyle and made no effort to cover it up or repent of it. Typically these people were social outcasts who were not welcome in the homes or synagogues of moral, religious people.

Levi (Matthew) was considered a sinner because he collaborated with the Romans and got rich by collecting taxes above and beyond what the Romans required of Jewish citizens. To the Jews, he seemed like a traitor who got rich off the sufferings and poverty of his own people. Tax collectors were hated. My guess is that Levi wasn’t welcome at the synagogue. His friends were those who shared the same reputation as he did. They essentially had no one else to socialize with. The Romans still saw them as inferior and backward because they were Jews and the Jews saw them as traitorous.

And yet, Jesus walked by and extended an invitation for Levi to be one of his disciples and Levi got up immediately and left his career behind. Not only that, but in celebration of his new found relationship with Rabbi Jesus, he threw a huge party at his house and invited followers of Jesus as well as all of his tax collector friends. The religious leaders of Israel were offended and questioned the righteousness of Jesus because he mingled with the unrighteous. We are not so different.

Look at the people who followed Jesus. Former tax collectors, at least one political terrorist, uneducated men, former demoniacs, perhaps a prostitute, and one swindler who would ultimately betray Jesus. These were not the names you would want to list as your board of directors for a new worldwide evangelistic association. If you think about it, Paul addressed the church in Corinth with a surprising reference to some of their past lifestyles. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor.6:9-11).

The first century church seemed to be made up of a large number of formerly unsavory characters…the kind we Christians tend to avoid today and mark off as highly unlikely candidates for the gospel. In fact, very few of us would even have contact with the list of lifestyles Paul mentioned. It’s a rare church that would have former drug dealers, strippers, prostitutes, alcoholics, embezzlers, and gang members in their pews because most of us would never present the gospel to someone like that.

But Jesus seemed to move among that social strata with ease…more ease than with the Pharisees. Somehow, Jesus spent time with and developed relationships with these men and women without compromising his standards and without alienating them. In fact, they were much more responsive to the gospel that the moral people of his day.

Of course, reaching those blocks of broken people is not without its challenges. We would wonder if our children were safe around them. We would most likely hear words in our church buildings that might cause us to blush. The scent of alcohol on someone’s breath Sunday mornings would not be uncommon and the church might get to know a few more bail bondsmen that we would like. We would also have to struggle to know how to love homosexuals without approving of their lifestyle and would struggle to even know how to relate at all to transsexuals.

But those are exactly the people Jesus went after. Those were the people who found a home in the church. Those were also the lives that were drastically changed…many of whom died willingly in the face of Roman persecution without recanting their faith. Can you imagine what testimony nights were like in those churches?

I’m thankful that in my church I do know former drug addicts and former drug dealers. I know former prostitutes and former homosexuals. I know former pornography addicts and former criminals. These are the most passionate people I know in the Kingdom of God. These are the most fearless and spiritually gifted people I know and the most evangelistic. They would all tell you that a person who has been forgiven much, loves much (See Luke 7:47). Jesus knew that and he wants us to know it now. I’m going to pray for more opportunities to reach the social strata that Jesus seemed to have such a heart for. Perhaps, you might pray that as well.

Blessings in Him…the one who came slumming for each of us.