Jesus Welcomes Sinners and Eats With Them

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  This is what we hear about Jesus from today’s Gospel.  I am sure this definitely upset the self-righteous who were in Jesus’ presence when He was hanging out with the sinners and the law-breakers.  Today’s Gospel whether in the short or long form contains the same basic theme and that is that we are all sinners and we need Jesus’ forgiveness to be made whole – to be made holy.

Lets take a look at the characters from all the readings today.  

In the first reading we find Moses.  Moses was an interesting man indeed.  He was born a Jew, but raised as an Egyptian prince.  He lived in that world and it was that world that shaped him, nevertheless he needed God, this is clear throughout his life, e.g. when he killed a fellow Egyptian, when he found God on the mountain, when he destroyed the tablets of the law, when he struck the rock twice and God commanded he do so only once.  Moses, like us needed forgiveness throughout his life and what sets him apart was his humility before the Lord.

The Psalms many of which are attributed to King David or at least speak of him show us a man who fell many times after God had already anointed him both literally and figuratively.  David was a type of savior to Israel, first, when he slayed the giant Goliath and it was from that point in which he received many blessings from God.  However, like the prodigal son, David squandered his inheritance often, taking many wives and concubines, committing adultery with Bathsheba, conspiring to commit murder against Uriah, greed and corruption and dirty politics, none of which David was short on during different moments in his life.  But like Moses, David was also very humble and admitted his guilt and relied on God’s mercy.

St. Paul from our 2^nd reading was also a man who thought he was righteous, and in his ignorance was executing Christians, St. Stephen being one of them, and it would not stop with just one, he wanted to arrest them all and bring them before the Sanhedrin for justice against their supposed false teachings and heresy.  We know the story; St. Paul is knocked to the ground by Jesus because of his great stubbornness and pride.  Eventually he pleads for the mercy of God and we know that from there he goes on to become the Great Missionary.

The stories of Moses, David, Paul, and the sinners who ate with Jesus is the story of us.  We are no different than those men and women before us.  All of us rely on the great mercy of God.

There are two very important things we should take from the readings today.  The first is, never ever become self-righteous there is probably nothing that God hates more and secondly, isn’t it comforting to know that God keeps company with the adulterer (David), the doubter (Moses), the prosecutor of the innocent (Paul), and with us who are also sinners!  It is not that God wishes us to remain in sin for Jesus says, “Go and sin no more.”  But it is reassuring to know that God does not give up on us and He can truly turn sinners to saints, an adulterer into one of the greatest kings of the earth and a man of great faith, a doubter into a man who delivered God’s commands, and a prosecutor of the innocent into one of the Church’s greatest saints.

So too does it go with us, so too does it go with us!

FJ

Picture is of Kind David offering praise to God.