Listen

All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 15:1-2

Think

It’s so easy to be judgy, isn’t it? Most of us can scarcely get through a day without secretly thinking, “How can they be so dumb? Or petty? Or selfish?” We might also find ourselves quietly looking at others’ choices and actions and thinking, “At least I’d never do that!”

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day and the people who kept all the rules were sure that Jesus was keeping the wrong company. They looked down on him for eating with people they considered sinful.

Some sins are really obvious, right? We might look down on people who get detention at school or skip class, steal money, damage property, or party with drugs and alcohol.

But Jesus seems to actually have eaten in the cafeteria with these kids, so to speak. He walked home from school with them and heard their stories. If we consider ourselves “churchy” people who follow the rules, this might make us mad. “Why wouldn’t Jesus hang out only with us?”

But Jesus is up to something here.

Cari Pattison

Question to Ponder:

Why do you think Jesus spent time with people known as sinners, rejects, and the unpopular?

Pray

Merciful and open-minded God, help me see people the way you do. Help me see myself the way you do. You don’t separate into groups of the “cool” and the outcasts. Sometimes I judge others. The people I’m quickest to judge are…

You see what’s possible in every human life. Give me your eyes, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Go

May you go into this day knowing you are held up and carried forth.

May you feel the truest most beautiful things in you brought to life.

And may all the disconnects that really matter, be rejoined and made new.