In Mark 2 Jesus created a firestorm of shock and scandal both in his inner circle of followers and among the religious elite.
He had the audacity and chutzpah to invite Matthew to follow him.
Matthew was a tax-collector, one of the most hated, despised people in all Israel. Matthew, a Jewish man, worked for the Roman Empire. He collected taxes from his fellow Jews on behalf of the Roman oppressor. While we don’t know this for sure, we can guess that Matthew, like many of the other tax collectors, overcharged his fellow Jews and pocketed the difference, becoming rich in the name of the Romans and on the backs of his fellow Jews.
No wonder the Jews despised tax collectors.
No wonder so many were so miffed at Jesus.
But then it got worse.
Later Matthew invited all of his tax-collecting buddies to dinner and Jesus was the guest of honor, sending the Religious Establishment into a full-blown tizzy.
By eating with them Jesus was publicly treating the tax collectors as his friends.
The religious elite had had enough. They asked him to explain himself. They wanted to know how he could possibly identify with people obviously written off by God.
Jesus said to them:
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.
And that’s why Jesus still loves the Church!
Because Jesus loves sinners.
Because Jesus has a fondness for broken people.
Because the Church is made up of messy people:
People in need of grace
People in need of hope
People in need of forgiveness
The Church is not a place for perfect people.
It’s not a place for those who have their act together.
It’s for people who fumble their way through life. Sometimes getting it right. More often than not getting it wrong.
But always loved by Jesus no matter what.
To be clear, that doesn’t give the Church the license to hurt others, judge, or condemn. The Christ the Church follows calls us to a radically different relationship to our neighbors. But the reality is, when you bring messy people together messy things will happen.
And that messy stuff makes it easy to dismiss and diss the Church.
At the same time, it’s quite difficult to write off the Church given the impact this messy group of forgiven people has had on the world the last 2000 years.
When a deadly plague hit Rome in the early days of Christianity, the rich and the doctors fled the city for fear of their lives. But the Christians stayed behind. They risked their lives to care for the sick and the dying. And acts of kindness like that have been repeated millions of times since by Christian people over the last 2000 years.
Christians give more money to relief efforts around the world than any other group, and it’s not even close.
Historian and author, Tom Holland, in his epic book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, (US edition), makes the compelling historical argument that our concepts of equal rights and human dignity grew out of the Christian movement. He also argues that modern education, health care, science, literature, and music, as we know it, were shaped by Christianity.
Is the Church messy! Absolutely.
Is the Church transformational! Absolutely.
Does Jesus love the Church? Look to the cross.
Perhaps another way of articulating the relationship Jesus has with the Church is this:
If Jesus can’t love the Church… he can’t love you.
If Jesus can’t accept the Church… he can’t accept you.
If Jesus can’t stand by the Church… he can’t stand by you.
Because you are the Church!
But—and this is the Good News:
Because Jesus loves the Church… you can rest assured that he loves you.
Because Jesus is invested in the Church… you can be confident that he is invested in you as well.
Because Jesus is pro Church… you know that his is pro you.
Because you are the Church.
The Church—this
Messy
Hypocritical
Judgmental
Ignorant
group of people stands as a constant reminder of God’s grace:
That Jesus only and always seeks out sinners.
And if he can love the Church, he can love you, too.
You can connect with me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org