Theme : Eyes for the Margins

Marginal Missionaries

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:10-13

Jesus ministered to those hated by society, outcasts, the sick, the poor, the un-churched, and the non-religious.  He served them rather than placing burdens of duty and works.  He forgave them rather telling people they were wrong.  He saved them rather than condemning. The Jewish religious elite followed the letter of the law and made sure everyone knew it.  They were quick to treat harshly, quick to judge, quick to condemn, and quick to punish. 

As a church who do we most resemble? Jesus or the religious elite?  Are we seeking and serving those on the margins within our churches, communities, and world who are hurting, in need, and looking for something to hold on to?  Are we as a church seen as a safe place, a refuge from life's storms, and a source of care, hope, and love?  Is our church a place of love first, acceptance first, healing first, and serving first even when it is clear those accepted, healed, served, and loved may be dirty with sin?   According to Jesus it’s ok to eat with "sinners" and just eat.  We don't have to put them on a 5 step program to salvation.  The lost and hurting world is looking for a church and its people whose identity is not in doctrine, law, and being right.  There is a great yearning for authentic love that embodies the way Jesus ministered to people.  He accepted the hurting and those seeking Him and rejected the religious. What does that tell us as a church?  As individuals and the church we sometimes think it is our duty to point out what’s wrong with people, fix them, and convert them.  We are more concerned with baptizing than saving.  We rush and push. We impose our religious rules and our time frames and don’t allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of changing hearts and lives.  Rather than gently, patiently, and lovingly ministering to those on the margins within and without our churches we wound and confuse them with our words, behaviors, and actions.  In our misguided, though well intentioned efforts, we often condemn, correct, and convert rather than comfort, care, and turn the other cheek.  The result is a church that repels rather than draws. 

How we treat people is what will draw them to the church and ultimately introduce them to Jesus.  We are His body, in the flesh today to embrace a lost and hurting world in a way none expect. With some poetic license I picture Jesus leaning back from Matthew’s dinner table surrounded by tax collectors, prostitutes, and thieves and with a slight smile on his face and one eyebrow cocked replying to the Pharisees “Worry less about being right and more about loving your neighbor”.

Father, may we love You with all that is within us and love others as if our own children.  Amen.

Scotty Elston  

Shallowater, TX