What Jesus Said About Welcoming Sinners

Mark 2:14-17

As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him. And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Luke 15:1-32

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So He told them this parable, saying,

“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Luke 15:11-32

A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 'I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men."'

"So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'"

Matthew 20:28-32

But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For God’s prophets came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe them; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe them; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe.”

Luke 17:3-4

If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' forgive him."

Matthew 18:15-35

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector…Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Luke 19:10

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

What Does the Prodigal Son Mean?

Jesus didn’t tell the story of the prodigal son to represent everyone. Some people have always been a part of church, and have always been faithful to God. But Jesus told this story about people who rejected God, rejected the church, and began to live a life that was totally opposed to God, and would even be considered insulting to God by His people.

In Hebrew, there are three kinds of sin. One is unintentional sin, that which you did against God, but didn’t really know it. Another is sin that is done on purpose, but the person is so weak-willed that he couldn’t help but do it. But the third category is sin done on purpose, to spite God and his people. This is the kind of sin that Jesus is talking about. People who have totally rebelled against God and against his people, but then they realized their loss and want to come back.

Jesus main message here is the acceptance of these sinners. The father is God. This is a father who was constantly watching for his son to return, even though he gave him up for dead. And even though the son recognized— rightly— that he didn’t deserve to be his son, the father was ready to accept him back fully, without any hesitation. The father didn’t just take him back grudgingly or with conditions— he fully accepted him right then and there. And then he had a great party to celebrate his return (and this wasn’t a man who usually had parties). God is this man, who has a party every time one of his rebellious, lost children return to him.  

Who are sinners? 
Of course, we know what sin is, but who are sinners? A sinner is not just a person who sins, but a person who has rejected God’s ways and has decided to live for him or herself or for the world. They have purposely chosen a life that is in opposition to God’s life, and they know that they can’t be right with God as long as they pursue this life. These are people who can’t go to church because they “know” the church won’t receive them. They are the people excluded from God, by their own actions, their own choice.  

How are sinners brought back? 
These people who, by their own choice, have separated themselves from God, is it even possible for them to come back to God? Many people believe that they can’t. They would say that they were too hardened, too far gone. But Jesus rejects this, saying that every sinner has the possibility of return.

We can see the pattern of return here in this story. First, the sinner realizes how much he or she has lost by separating themselves from God. They realize that their way of life has given them nothing but sorrow and so they determine to seek help. So they come to God for help— perhaps through a prayer, perhaps through seeking assistance at a church or through pastoral counseling. Then, once they seek something— anything— from God, then God shows them his full grace and full acceptance. The smallest amount of repentance, and God springs forgiveness on them like a lion.  

How should the repentant sinners be received? 
So how should the sinner be received by the church? Even as God does, with a lot of grace and understanding, with forgiveness and acceptance. However, this isn’t how the sinner is usually received. Usually there is some measure of distrust, or some hoops they need to go through before they can be fully accepted. And, on occasion, there is basic rejection of the sinner, out of a church’s sense of propriety and fear. But, as much as this is often the church’s way, this is not God’s way.  

How did Jesus receive sinners? 
First of all, Jesus sought sinners out, letting them know that he sought their company, not just grudgingly accepted them. He taught them God’s truth, but not in a churchy way— rather he made the word alive to the outsider, the one who hasn’t been in the church or a part of it for a long time. And, most importantly, Jesus had parties of acceptance. When Matthew and Zaccheus were saved, Jesus organized parties in their own houses, arranging to have their friends— sinners and tax collectors all— welcome to the party. Jesus had the heart of an evangelist, and make sure that it was the outsiders who were welcome into the ultimate party— God’s kingdom. (Mark 2: 14-17; Luke 19: 1-10; Luke 15: 1-10)  

As Jesus did, so should the church. The church seems to not be an open community for sinners. Rather, each church is a cultural box, and each doorway is itself a box and if one does not fit into the box, then that one is just never welcome. Does this mean that the church should be a cultural amoeba, without cultural form or shape, able to accept anyone? No, because that is not possible, nor does it make anyone else comfortable. But the church needs to be ready to accept some kind of outsider, the ones that most churches don’t accept. Perhaps one church focuses on ministry to homosexuals, another to the homeless, another to addicts and another to sex offenders. But EVERY church needs to be accepting sinners, prodigals and ex-God-haters. This is a basic part of Jesus’ mission, thus it should be the church’s as well.  

The ministry of Jesus is to receive and restore sinners.

Kimes, Steven (2012-04-04). Long Live the Riff Raff: Jesus' Social Revolution (Kindle Locations 500-504).  . Kindle Edition. 

Riff Raff in the Church

Okay, so we know that Jesus hung out with tax collectors, but do we have to go so far as to say he hung out with drugies and child pornographers?

Oh, yes, these are exactly the kind of folks Jesus hung out with.

He welcomed those whom the Standard Religious Society (SRS, or, if you please,the church) didn’t want to have anything to do with.

There were the ones that the SRS called “sinners”, but many of them really weren’t, or at least no more than anyone else. The tax collectors were folks who worked for the Romans to collect tolls for their roads. While some tax collectors DID cheat the Romans and others (like Zaccheus in Luke 19), but these toll collectors did no such thing. They didn’t make much, but they didn’t collect enough to cheat the Romans. So they had a job, just a job. But because they worked for the Romans they were automatically rejected by the SRS (i.e. the church).

So Jesus, were he here today, he would hang out with those who were “unacceptable” in the church’s eyes today. He would hang out with the homeless who are often excluded from the church simply because they don’t have good enough hygiene. He would hang out with those who belonged to cult groups like Samaritans (or like Jehovah’s Witnesses today) and explain to them the heart of God’s truth.

Jesus also hung out with those who really, seriously sinned.  People like Zaccheus, but also prostitutes and betrayers.  If Jesus were here today, He would hang out with the homosexuals and drunks who are unsure of their reception, even if they repent. He would hang out with the druggies and tell them about the gospel, welcoming them, eating with them, hoping to bring them— or to keep them— in God.      

Who are the Riff-Raff? 
Jesus targeted three groups that were set outside of the church. He welcomed the ones who were just not good enough to be in a “proper” church— Samaritans, the lame, the blind, women, the Gentiles. All of these groups were people who could be in right standing with God, but they were set out of the Temple for one reason or another. The church, like the Temple of old, has a pretty strict idea of who belongs to it. No, they don’t set up rules for it, but they set boundaries through their subtle but negative reactions to those who are poor, of different beliefs, or of a different culture.

The church today is as cultural as it is spiritual— sometimes it is more culture than Spirit. And those who do not belong to the culture are outcast.

Another group that Jesus targeted is the sinner. Some of these are professional sinners, such as prostitutes and tax collectors— those whose very profession excluded them from good graces in God’s community. Some are sinners by what they did— adultery, theft, rebellion— and they are painted as such for the rest of their life for one sin. These are like those who are in jail or prison for crimes done. While some churches might accept them, they certainly don’t allow them near their children. Again, the welcome is only partial

The other group Jesus specifically targeted is the judged. These are people who were judged by God or by people and they have the mark of judgment against them. In Jesus’ day they are the demon possessed or the lepers. Today, they may be sufferers of AIDS or those going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol or some other addiction. They may be people who have chronic mental illnesses. At first they might be welcome into today’s church, but then they would be rejected because they are “too difficult” or “cause too many disruptions.”  

Should the church welcome the Riff Raff?
Absolutely. If it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for the church. If God sees sinners repenting as more important than a bunch of people who go to church regularly, then maybe we need to stop growing our churches and getting out on the street.

Jesus didn’t just sit in the temple, looking for the riff raff to come to him. He didn’t just have a seeker’s service. Rather, he went out and established a party in every village he went to, and shared the gospel at the party. He attracted the riff raff with the kind of gathering they liked, in their area, and then spoke a message that wasn’t easy for them to hear, but it was the truth. Not everyone believed, but it was important.

So the church doesn’t just need to welcome the riff raff, they need to go out where they live and give them a party.

Why should we do this? Because these riff raff— even if they’ve been following Jesus for years, they feel that they are second class Christians, or that they have no chance of being right with God at all. They think that their lives are apart from God and there is no acceptance for them. How is this? Because the church has separated themselves from the riff raff. As long as the church will have nothing to do with the riff raff, the riff raff figure that they don’t need God, either. Yet Jesus focused his ministry on the riff raff. Jesus loves the riff raff. And Jesus’ first church was full of the riff raff— more than the “normal” folks.  

How are the Riff Raff saved?
This is the easiest question to ask, but the hardest one to live out. We know that everyone is saved by faith in Jesus, by their devotion to God, their repentance from sin and their reliance on the Holy Spirit. That’s how everyone is saved, without exception, forever and ever, amen.


But the church doesn’t act that way.

Rather they act like the homeless are saved by pushing through paperwork to gain homes. They act like the addict is saved by going to some anonymous group and never relapsing. They act like the homosexual is saved by getting married to someone of the opposite sex. They act like the mentally ill person is saved by taking medication.

Now, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with these things by themselves. But they aren’t the answers for people with these problems. The only way anyone is saved is through Jesus and reliance on the Holy Spirit. And Jesus and the Spirit will lead the outcast person to the things they need for their lives.

Sometimes the answer will be homes, marriage, medication and dishwashers and everything that makes up a middle class life. But for many people, it won’t.

Jesus, in calling the riff raff, chose to be homeless himself. He chose to be rejected. He chose to be without a family. And many of his followers went the same way. Jesus became homeless to welcome the homeless. He became family-less to welcome the family-less. He became penniless to welcome the penniless. He became rejected to welcome the rejected. And so we cannot insist that the outcast— or even the middle class— to be a part of the church must have homes, families, money and acceptance.  

If the Riff Raff aren’t in the church, the church isn’t of Jesus

Kimes, Steven (2012-04-04). Long Live the Riff Raff: Jesus' Social Revolution (Kindle Locations 422-432).  . Kindle Edition. 

Jesus and the Riff Raff

All the homosexuals and the homeless and the drug dealers and sex workers and meth addicts and convicted child pornographers came to Jesus to listen to him. And the conservative evangelicals and the Bible scholars denounced him, “He is opening the door of the church to the wicked.”  

But Jesus told them this story, “Look, if you had a hundred cars and one of them was stolen, wouldn’t you forget about all the other ninety nine and just focus on the one until it was found? You’d call the police, call your neighbors and be generally freaked out— not about the ninety nine, but for the one that was lost. Then, when it is found, you would drive it home proudly and happily. And you’d call your neighbors and the police and say, ‘Praise God! My stolen car was found!'

"It is this very joy that God has when a single sinner repents and comes back to God, away from his sins. He loves that one more than ninety nine church-goers who only ever say the right things.  

"Suppose there was a woman with ten coins, worth a thousand dollars each and one of them came up missing. Wouldn’t she take out her flashlight and turn all the furniture upside down until it was found? Then, once it’s found then she calls up her neighbors and say, ‘Yeah, I had lost this expensive coin, but praise God, now I’ve found it.’

"Even so does God rejoice over one sinner who turns back to God away from his sin.”

Paraphrase of Luke 15: 1-10


Kimes, Steven (2012-04-04). Long Live the Riff Raff: Jesus' Social Revolution (Kindle Locations 367-379).  . Kindle Edition. 

Jesus and the Outcast

When Jesus looked at the people who followed him, he saw sheep with no leader—people who were considered outside of God’s blessing, God’s provision.  They followed him because they were desperate for God’s touch and help.  There were many who could not gain anything from the leaders in Jerusalem, because they were rejected and hated by God’s people.  They were outcast and they gained nothing from God’s people.  No one who was acceptable would go to their house.  And Jesus knew that they needed him most of all.

As Jesus was travelling around Galilee, from one synagogue to another, a man inflicted with leprosy came to Jesus.  Leprosy was a skin disease that showed that one was judged by the evil one.  Because of the infectious nature of the disease and because whoever had it was considered to no longer be a part of God’s people, lepers were forced to live out of Jewish settlements and to declare “Leper! Unclean!” whenever they came near others. 

Rather than tell the leper to go away, Jesus listened to the leper as he said, “If you wish, Jesus, you could make me clean.”  Jesus then touched the leper and said, “I do wish.  Be clean.”  Immediately, the man was cleansed.  Jesus then told him, “You must follow the teaching of Moses.  Go to the priest at the temple and have him declare you clean.  And tell no one who cleaned you.”  But the former leper told everyone about Jesus who would listen.

            One of Jesus’ apostles was Levi, a toll collector.  The Jewish people hated toll collectors and those who ruled over them, fir they were traitors to their own people.  Jesus, though, called Levi, and asked him to go to his house to eat.  For dinner that night, Levi called everyone he knew—tax collectors and sinners whom “proper Jews” would have nothing to do with.  Some religious folk were there that night and asked why Jesus was welcoming and eating with these rejected people.  Jesus replied, “If you are a healer, you hang around sick people.  Even so, if I am called to tell people to repent, I can’t hang around with people who think of themselves as good—I need to be with those who know they are sinners.”

            Jesus told the crowds a story.  “There was a man who had a hundred sheep.  One evening he counted his sheep and found there was one missing.  So he left the ninety-nine that were there to find the one.  He looked everywhere for him.  When he found the one, he held it on his shoulders and told all his neighbors, ‘Rejoice with me—the sheep I had lost is found!’  In the same way, God rejoices when a single sinner comes back to him more than ninety-nine who never left.”

Jesus told another story.  “There was a man who had two sons.  The youngest son demanded his inheritance early and left home and spent all his money doing evil things.  Over time, he ran out of money, and then there was a famine in the land.  He got a job feeding unclean animals, and the only food he was able to get was sharing the animals food.  Finally, he came to his senses and said, ‘I will go home—even the lowest slave there lives better than I.  I will apologize to my father and offer to be his slave.’  When he was close to home, his father saw him and ran up to meet him and hugged him.  The son apologized, and offered to be his slave,  but the father would have none of that.  Instead he held a party.

            “That afternoon, as the party was starting, the other son who was in the field working heard the commotion, and asked a servant what was going on.  The servant told him that his brother had returned and his father was having a party.  The older son was incensed and refused to go in.  The father heard of this, and asked the older son why he was angry.  The older son said, ‘I’ve been here all these years working for you, and you never held a party for me—why should you for this ungrateful son who sinned with your money?’  The father replied, ‘Son, all I have is yours.  But your brother was dead and now he is alive—shouldn’t we celebrate that?’”

Jesus and Sinners

Jesus said, “At a church service, the preacher called people up front, and two of them came up.  One of them was an employee at Focus on the Family and the other was a heroin addict.  The good Christian prayed aloud to himself, ‘Father in heaven, I praise your name because I have been chosen by You to be holy.  I am not a thief, a sinner, an adulterer or a junkie like this man.  I pray and read the word daily and I tithe all my net income.’  The addict stood away from the altar, bowed his head and whimpered, ‘God, I’m a screw up—help me, just help me.’  Listen here—the addict left the church with a relationship with God.  The churcie didn’t.  Because God raises up everyone who lowers himself, and he pushes down everyone who pulls himself up.”

Someone around Jesus reported to him the news about some criminals whom the police beat up.  And he responded to this, “Do you think that these criminals were worse than anyone else because they were beat up?  On the contrary, if you don’t repent, you will have as bad happen to you and worse.  Or what about the drug house that collapsed on those who occupied it—do you think that they were worse people than those who lived around them?  Listen to this: unless you repent, you will all be destroyed in the same way.

“Someone had an apple tree in his backyard, and one day, during apple season, she came out back and there were no apples!  So she spoke to her landscaper, ‘For three years I’ve been hoping for apples from this tree and I’ve got nothing!  It’s useless. Why don’t you dig it out?’  The landscaper replied, ‘Ma’am, if you would just be patient and forgive it this fault this year so I can care for it.  By this time next year, if you find no fruit, fine, we will dig it out.  But if it gives you apples, then it will be worth it.’ “

All the homosexuals and the homeless and the drug dealers and sex workers and meth addicts and convicted child pornographers came to Jesus to listen to him.  And the conservative evangelicals and the Bible scholars denounced him, “He is opening the door of the church to the wicked.”

Jesus said to them, "You know that I'm a healer.  People who are healers don't hang around healthy people-- that'd be pointless.  They hang around the sick.  Even so, why should I offer healing to you people who think you've already got it? If you've got the salvation market cornered, then you don't really need me, do you?  I came to receive the screw-ups."

Jesus told them this story, “Look, if you had a hundred cars and one of them was stolen, wouldn’t you forget about all the other ninety nine and just focus on the one until it was found?  You’d call the police, call your neighbors and be generally freaked out—not about the ninety nine, but for the one that was lost.  Then, when it is found, you would drive it home proudly and happily.  And you’d call your neighbors and the police and say, ‘Praise God!  My stolen car was found!”  It is this very joy that God has when a single sinner repents and comes back to God, away from his sins.  He loves that more than ninety nine church-goers who only ever say the right things.

 “Suppose there was a woman with ten coins, worth a thousand dollars each and one of them came up missing.  Wouldn’t she take out her flashlight and turn all the furniture upside down until it was found?  Then, once it’s found then she calls up her neighbors and say, ‘Yeah, I had lost this expensive coin, but praise God, now I’ve found it.’  Even so does God rejoice over one sinner who turns back to God away from his sin.”

“There was a father with two sons.  The younger son said to his father, ‘Dad, I can’t wait for you to die to get my inheritance, so give it to me now.’  So the father divided all of his wealth and gave the two sons their own share.  A few days later, the younger son collected his belongings and traveled to a godless nation and wasted the money, living by his impulses.   After all his money was gone, an economic depression came upon the nation and he was in desperate need.  After begging for a job, someone hired him to clean up rooms in a brothel, picking up needles and cleaning soiled sheets.  No one actually ever paid him, so he began to starve, finding the crumbs left in the rooms to be appetizing.  Finally, he came to his senses and said to himself, ‘Even the laziest of my fathers farmhands eat to their fill, and here I am starving to death?  I know what I’ll do, I’ll go back to my father and tell him how evil I have been and then ask him to hire me.  After all, I’m not worthy to be his son.’  “So he left that place, traveled back home and came to his father.  His father saw him from a distance and felt his heart leap within him and he ran to his son, grabbing him and hugging him desperately.  Once he could catch his breath, he said to his father, ‘Father, I have done evil before God and yourself.  Don’t take me as a son—I don’t deserve it.’  His father, though, called his workers and said, ‘You—go into my room and get out my best clothes and shoes and give them to my son.  You—get the necklace with the family crest on it and bring it here, and put it on him.  You—get into the kitchen and prepare a feast with steak for everyone.  Because this is my son the one who died.  Now his come back to us from the dead—he was lost, but now he is returned.’"

(Passages translated and updated from Luke 18, Luke 13, Mark 2, and Luke 15)

Outreach to the Outcast

Life of Jesus

Mark 2:14-17
Many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Jesus specifically sought out those who were unacceptable in his society to eat with them and to teach them and to call them to be disciples. Although he taught those who were upstanding in Galilean society, he said that his purpose was to bring those who are sinning back to the Father. So his main purpose in his ministry was to connect with and teach the outcast—those who were unacceptable to conservative society.

Luke 15:1-10
"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Some were complaining about Jesus associating and accepting the outcast from Jewish society. In parables, Jesus taught that he is reaching out to those who should be entering the kingdom, but fell away from God because of their sin. He calls these people “lost”. So Jesus is just calling back those who were originally in God’s way, and that when they return, there is more rejoicing over that return than for many who remained with God their whole lives.

Matthew 21:28-32
Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
Jesus uses another parable to contrast the conservative religious Jews and the sinners who began to follow Jesus. It is better, Jesus is saying, for a person to refuse to obey and then to change their minds than to be one who agrees to obey and changes their minds. The sinners are those who did evil, but then decided to come and remain with Jesus. But the conservative religious folks are those who claim to be doing God’s will but never actually do.

Luke 19:1-10
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Zaccheus is an example of one of the lost. He was living in sin—he was cheating some of his fellow Jews out of their money in order to line his own pockets. And he was wealthy, so he didn’t need the money. But he realized his sin and so desperately sought Jesus out. Jesus agreed to accept him, and there was grumbling about this by the conservative religious folks. But Zaccheus shut them up by speaking of his actions of repentance. At this point, Jesus declared that Zaccheus was fully accepted into the family of God.

Our Lives

James 2:1-9
Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man.
No matter who comes into church—no matter how insignificant they are, no matter how bad they act or smell—we need to be accepting to them. If they lead other people to sin, then we need to separate them out. But otherwise we need to accept them and treat them as well as we would treat the president if he arrived. We are to give everyone good treatment, showing that they are welcome to come to God.

I Corinthians 9:19-23
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
Not everyone is called to be an evangelist. Not everyone is called to specifically reach out to those who are unacceptable. But for those of us who are, we are to become servants, workers, slaves for those whom we are called to. We need to put their needs first and establish what they need so that we can try to meet it, according to our resources and abilities.

Examples

• Phillip left proper Jewish society and reached out to those who were considered “heretics” and “a cult”—the Samaritans. Phillip did not tell them how evil they were, he just explained the opportunity they had to enter the kingdom of God through Jesus. Many Samaritans took the opportunity to come to Jesus. Phillip was also the first person to give the gospel to an Ethiopian, about whom no one knew much.

• John Wycliffe was a professor at Oxford. Bible education was something only for the wealthy because it was considered that the poor couldn’t properly understand it. But Wycliffe determined that the Bible taught that the gospel should be given to the poor and so he started holding classes for the poor in English. When a peasant riot occurred, Wycliffe was blamed because of his teaching. Nevertheless, he continued to teach the poor.

• William Booth lived in England near the turn of the 20th century. He determined to do two things—to teach of how to live the holiness of God and to reach out to the poor. He and his wife Catherine called many people to dedicate their lives to live for those who were considered unacceptable in their society. They started the organization known as the Salvation Army which is still today a church and an organization that assists the poor.


Living It Out

• Don’t show favoritism
No matter what race, religion, or past experience, everyone has an equal chance to come to God and be accepted by him. Let us not do anything that stands in the way.

• Go out of your way to welcome the unacceptable
People who are not accepted by society should be given preference so that they can come to the Lord.

• Do all you can to accept and help brothers and sisters who are unacceptable by mainstream society
Churches today reject many people who do not look like them or act like them, even if people are not strictly involved in sin. Mainstream churches have a hard time accepting the mentally ill or homeless. But we must go out of our way to accept and help those who don’t look or act in a “proper” manner, but they are still doing all they can to follow the Lord.

• No matter how sinful someone is, give them the opportunity to repent
Don’t write people off just because they have a lifestyle of sin or have rejected the Lord in the past. Anyone can come to the Lord anytime—it is a matter of the Lord softening their heart and they receiving his gift of faith. Keep giving people the opportunity to come to the Lord, even if it seems like they never would.