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Friend of Tax Collectors and "Sinners."


The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.” (Matthew 11:19)
 
          Sometimes, it seems to me that God just can't win. If He sent prophets, the Jews called them liars and killed them. He sent John the Baptist as the last prophet. He separated himself from the people and pronounced fire and brimstone on those who didn't believe and they declared he was possessed by a demon. Jesus came along preaching that the kingdom of God was among the people and because He didn't separate Himself from people, He was rejected as a "friend of tax collectors and sinners." The implication was that because He associated with these sinners, He must be a sinner or approve of the sin. 
          We hear some of this same idea today. People like to remind us that He was "a friend to tax collectors and 'sinners.'" What they want us to do as a result of this claim is to say that the sin is OK, but Jesus never told sinners that their sin was acceptable. I heard someone wise say that Jesus never met an adulteress. My initial thought was "what about the woman caught in the act" (John 8)[1]? After thinking about it for a while, I reached the conclusion that the person who said this was right. Jesus never met an adulteress. He met a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. There's a difference. The former is a label. It is an abstract. The latter is a person. It is concrete. In the same way, Jesus was never friends with a tax collector (even though one of His disciples was one before he became a disciple) or a glutton. He was friends with people but He never pretended that their sin was OK.
       In the same way, we need to love and befriend people no matter what their preferred sins or besetting weaknesses are, but we should never, ever treat their sin as acceptable. And, we need to love and befriend ourselves no matter what our preferred sins or besetting weaknesses are, but we should never, ever treat our sin as acceptable or negligible.

[1] According to my study notes, the best manuscripts don't include this story. It would not be generally wise to use this passage to establish and defend any doctrines, but it helps me explain the idea.

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