The Friend of Sinners, Pt. 2

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Pastor Nick Gatzke explains why Jesus had a bad reputation for hanging out with people the rest of society rejected, specifically sinners and tax collectors. While we may not think we’d be so critical, data overwhelmingly shows we’re no different. Most of us prefer to hang out with people who are similar to ourselves. Find out why.

The Jewish tax collectors were Roman collaborators who made their wealth by taking from their own people while getting in the proverbial bed with the enemy. And Jesus just called one of them to follow him. And it gets worse. Because after the tax collector agrees in what we can only presume to be a fairly dramatic conversion. He leaves the tax booth and says, I want to celebrate this with all of my buddies and all of your buddies. So why don’t you and the disciples come on over to my very nice house that’s made on the backs of all these people around us and have dinner together tonight. It’ll be a good jolly old feast. And Jesus and all the disciples went.

Some of the people notice who Jesus is hanging out with. That tends to happen when you’re with the wrong sorts. And so you can almost hear the old lady who walks by and catches what’s going on out of the corner of the eye and say, oh, that’s just too bad. He got in with the wrong crowd. Or the man that comes by and says, oh, he had such potential, but it’s all wasted now. And the scribes ask the question out loud that everyone is thinking. And they say to the disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Now, some questions are asked with a neutral curiosity behind them. Other questions are asked laced with accusation. And this one is definitely the latter. You can almost hear the tone dripping off of it. Why does he eat with them?

And Jesus hears the question and he gives them a very clear and direct answer in the form of a metaphor and then an explanation. He says in verse 17, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners.” And Jesus’ response indicates a couple of important aspects of his purpose. Purpose number one, and very clearly, I have come to call sinners. And within that, there’s a recognition that is implicit, and it is the recognition of need. Because the Pharisees who separated themselves from the rest of society in an attempt to remain pure and righteous saw no need for a great physician. They saw a need to be pure, a need to be righteous, but their self-righteousness blinded them from seeing that no matter how hard they worked and how hard they tried, that nothing could actually heal the sin issue that was going on in their heart, and thus they would become pure. But Jesus indicates those who think they are well will actually remain sick because the physician’s not gonna come to them. Those who think they’re righteous, because of what they do, will remain unrighteous because their actions actually won’t heal the true sin that exists in them.

“I’ll never forget the quote by businessman Michael Bloomberg, now a number of years ago. At the time, one of the richest men in the world, wildly successful, and when asked about how much time he had left on earth to accomplish the things that he wanted to accomplish, he expressed, little or no doubt about what would happen to him on judgment day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, on obesity, on smoking cessation, he said with a grin, I’m telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I’m heading straight in. I’ve earned my place. It’s not even close.”

You see, some people think that they have no spiritual need. Some people trust in their actions or their lifestyle. Others, and very commonly today, others rest in the notion that, well, I’ve always been a good person and I try to do what’s right. God’s gonna work it all out in the wash. It’ll be fine. But Jesus says, those who think they are well will not benefit from the work of the Savior. And so here’s the very clear diagnostic question for me and for you. Do you think that you’re well? Or do you recognize that your sin is a sickness that needs to be healed by the great physician? If you think you’re just fine without this physician, then you will not receive his benefit. But if you recognize your sickness, the physician comes.

And the amazing thing about it is that Jesus not only comes to the sick, but he actually befriends them. Jesus shows very early on, Jesus is the friend of sinners. He came to heal those who know that they’re sick and not those who think that they’re well. Those who know that they’re sick will get well because the physician is with them. And something amazing that happens here is that he chooses to illustrate this principle with the worst type of sickness, the worst type of corruption, the worst type of status. He chooses to illustrate the principle with Levi, the tax collector, who’s a Roman collaborator. No sin is too great. No status is too disgusting. Jesus is the friend of sinners, and Jesus is the friend of even the worst types of sinners. He’s a friend of Levi, the tax collector. Even the one with a sordid sexual history. Jesus is the friend of even the one who cheated or stolen from ones that they know. He’s even the friend of the one riddled with addiction. Jesus is the friend of the worst sinners,

even you. And the dialogue shifts. And the second question is raised that illustrates the opposition rising in the hearts of men and the difference that this King Jesus actually makes. This time it says in verse 18 that the disciples of John the Baptist as well as the Pharisees were fasting. And they saw Jesus and his disciples eating, probably feasting, and maybe even feasting at the house of the tax collector, Levi.

Now, scripture commanded fasting or the denial, self-denial, of food for the sake of devotion and spiritual clarity. Scripture commanded that only once a year for Jews around the Day of Atonement. But by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had pronounced that devout godly people fasted twice a week. And this was part of their overall approach to religion that was a joyless, solemn endeavor of self-denial. There’s a lot of people today, and maybe you even grew up, thinking that religion is a joyless, solemn endeavor.

Author and humorist Irma Bombeck once shared a story about how Christians have become known as joyless people. She said, “In church the other Sunday, I was intent on a small child who was turning around and smiling at everyone. If you’ve had small children in church, you know that this is a very common occurrence. She goes on to write, he wasn’t gurgling or spitting or humming or kicking or tearing the hymnals or rummaging through the mother’s handbag. He was just smiling. And finally, his mother jerked him about and a stage whisper that could be heard in a little theater off of Broadway. She said, stop grinning. You’re in church. And with that, she gave him a belt. And as the tears streamed down the boy’s cheeks, she added, that’s better. And then she continued her prayers.”

You know, some in our churches on Sunday have the same expression that I might see in the waiting room at the dentist’s office, which is that sense of resignation for a duty that you’re about to endure. Wearing faith with the solemnity of a mourner, it’s been said, and the gravity of a mask of tragedy. It’s sort of like their mother hissed at them and said, stop grinning. You’re in church. But if we can’t smile in church, where is there left to go? The Pharisees were like that.

Religion was a joyless, solemn endeavor. And so the question asked in verse 18, Why did John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? There’s a question behind the question. And it’s something like this. Why are they engaging in activity of deep devotion to God and your disciples aren’t?

And Jesus answers them. Again, in another metaphor, and illustrates the principle with two short illustrations from real life. He says to them in verse 19, “can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The day will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” You see, in the ancient world, the wedding feast was a multi-day affair. Newlyweds just didn’t whisk away to their Mediterranean beach honeymoon right after the ceremony was over or neither the next morning. Instead, their family and friends descended upon the family compound for a week-long gathering. The newlyweds were spoiled by their guests, celebrated the new union all the week long. And during that time, the guests were excused from fasting, at least according to the rabbis. And they were excused because there was great care in making sure that this occasion was truly a joyous one. And so when Jesus says that his followers cannot fast because the bridegroom is with them, he is saying that the way to devotion is now expressed differently. The way that you express devotion to God is through enjoying the presence of the bridegroom.

Let me say that again because it’s really important. Enjoying the presence of the king, Jesus, is the new way of expressing devotion to God. And he uses two examples very quickly to illustrate. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away. The new from the old and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” And both illustrate the same point. The new is incompatible with the old. The new is not compatible with the old.

The cloth garment has shrunk over time through washing and drying. The cloth shrinks and the fabric takes its final form. When the rip or a hole occurs and the seamstress mends it with a new piece of cloth, she does so with just the right size for the tear, but if she does so with new cloth, that new piece will eventually shrink and a tear will be even larger. The new cloth is incompatible with the old garment. The new is incompatible with the old.

Likewise, wine is often stored or carried in pouches made of animal skin. And as time went on, the skins would dry up and they become brittle. And if someone were to pour new wine into an old brittle wineskin, the wineskin would crack, it would break, the wine would pour out the side of the pouch. The new wine is incompatible with the old skin. The new is incompatible with the old.

And when it comes to worshiping God and expressing your devotion to him, the ways of ritual, the ways of the Old Testament law, the requirement for fasting or self-denial or solemn, joyless religion is incompatible with the coming of the new king and savior, Jesus. The new is incompatible with the old. Enjoying the presence of King Jesus is the new way of expressing devotion to God. And it’s not… same as the old way. And it won’t even be mixed with the old way. The new is incompatible with the old. And so when you start to take these two accounts together, who is this king? What is the opposition that’s rising? What are the questions being asked? The question is, who has the invitation into this kingdom? And how does that person thrive there? The answer is that Jesus has come to sinners. And he leads us to devotion to God.

Friends, this is so important and so freeing for you and for me because some of us grew up thinking that if we just did the right religious things, that would show God that we were serious. And it would even elicit God’s favor. And so we’ve been diligent plenty of times. We’ve fallen short, but we’ve gotten back up again. And we keep trying to be good. We keep trying to follow the rules. We keep trying to make sure our devotion to God is evident to God, and evident to people around us. And the burden of that type of legalism or performance-based religion starts to weigh heavily over time. But we thought that was just part of being religious. Because after all, being religious is supposed to be a joyless, solemn endeavor. Or so we thought. Oh, but that’s not it. That is not it because Jesus has come. Jesus has come to sinners and he leads us to devotion to God.

This is good news on so many fronts. It’s good news because it means your Christianity, your faith in God isn’t riddled with legalistic burden. It means that you don’t have to live your Christian life in such a solemnity and such a joyless endeavor. It means that for those of you who are on this side of the cross, like all of us, this is great news because we are not just invited to the wedding feast as a guest of the bridegroom. But the New Testament repeatedly refers to the people of God, those who put their faith in the king, the church as a gathered body of people, as those who are actually the bride. So you get to enjoy the benefits of the feast and his presence by way of devotion, not just for a week. You get to enjoy him forever because the groom is present. And your old ways of thinking and your old ways of navigating religion and your old habits and your old rituals apart from Jesus are like old wineskins. The new is incompatible with the old. Jesus has come to sinners and he leads us to devotion to God.

The headlining message is still the same. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. But what types of people would be invited into the kingdom? Jesus invites sinners, even the worst. And he leads us in devotion to God.

In the podcast called The Agent, the story is told of Jack Barsky, who is a Soviet-era KGB agent, embedded in the United States, starting in the 1970s. And gradually, his loyalties over time began to shift. And through a remarkable turn of events, the FBI not only identified who he was, but eventually helped him secure U.S. citizenship. The fiercest of enemies, the lowest of low in the midst of the Cold War, now had a new loyalty and a new home. And near the end of the podcast, he says, “I had a home again, an official home. I’d put East Germany out of my mind. I stopped thinking about the folks back there. I put it away and put it in a part of my brain that I didn’t want to access anymore. Because you always want to belong to something. This is one of the basic things that make us human. Now I had a country again. I had an identity and that felt really good.” For those who follow Christ, their change of citizenship into this kingdom is even more dramatic than that. Moving from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son, thanks to Christ Jesus, our King, who invites you to come.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.