matthew
i got to talk about Jesus and matthew tonight in class last night.
lindsay and i have been hanging out and teaching small group classes in the youth group for almost 2 years now. we have a lot of good friends in there and it’s an honor to be able to serve in this regard… esp for jeremy (he’s an amazing dude that’s impacting a LOT of lives).
in a nutshell…
matthew 9:9 - 13 (NIV)
“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus, the example whom i follow, would always be hanging out with the people no one else wanted to hang out with. this has been hitting me in the face over the past few months in my personal walk, so i was glad to get to talk about it.
Jesus looked out for those who were looked down upon. tax collectors, samaritans, prostitutes, social class, wealth (or lact thereof), race, red and yellow black and white… the King of Kings never discriminated in any way. He loved everyone the same, and because of His immense love, He died for us all.
as followers of the Way, we need to reach out to those that make us feel uncomfortable – whatever that is for you.
go sit down and hang out with the “sinners”… remembering that we all fall into that category.