Jesus spent time with sinners.  This might sound like an obvious statement, as everyone has sinned, so everyone is a sinner, right?  Well, some people(we will look at some things stated by Pharisees) referred to certain people as “sinners.”  They did not use this term universally of all people, even though all people sin, but instead they used it for people that they(the Pharisees) regarded as bad people.  [It can be so easy to see the fault in others and not see the fault in ourselves.]

Jesus also endured a lot of criticism for spending time with sinners.  A lot of people did not like this.  They questioned Jesus and His disciples about why He would ever lower Himself to be around them.  Sometimes they questioned whether or not He could even be a prophet sent from God if He didn’t realize the type of people He was spending time with.  But Jesus knew exactly what He was doing.  Let’s learn from Him.

In Matthew 9:9-13, Jesus was at the house of Matthew(he was one of the twelve apostles and he was a tax collector), and He was eating a meal.  The Pharisees arrived and asked Jesus’ disciples why He ate with tax collectors and sinners.  In their eyes, Jesus was associating with the lowest of the low in society . . . and that was true.  Jesus did associate with all kinds of people, including those viewed by society, not just the Pharisees, as the lowly and unworthy of His time.  But Jesus looked at things differently than most people.

From Jesus’ perspective, healthy people don’t need to go to the doctor.  Only sick people need to go to the doctor.  Jesus was not saying that the Pharisees were not sick(i.e. sinners) . . . they were.  But if they did not view themselves as sinners(i.e. sick), they would never go to the Great Physician, Jesus.  Why would they?  If you didn’t’ think you were sick, you wouldn’t go to a doctor.  Therein lies the important part of this situation that Jesus is trying to help people understand.  If someone does not think they are a sinner, then they do not need Jesus anymore that someone who is not sick does not need to go to a doctor.

The sinners that Jesus was eating with knew they were sinners.  They knew they needed Him.  They might not have understood everything He was offering, but they knew they were sinners and that they needed Him.

People today can find themselves in the same situation as the Pharisees did back then.  You live your life.  You know you’re not perfect, but you’re not really bad.  You’re not like “that person.”  That person has committed some sin that you feel is “really bad.”  Since all sin separates us from God, there might be sins that we view as being worse that others, but if they all separate us from God, then they are all bad.

When we start drawing lines between ourselves(and our sins) and other people(and their sins), we start missing the point that we are all in the same boat.  We all need Jesus, and we all equally need Jesus.  A different Pharisee on a different occasion made this mistake.  In Luke 7:36-50, Jesus was invited to the home of Simon, a Pharisee.  While He was there, a woman who was known to be a sinner(likely a prostitute) came to Simon’s house.  She washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  Simon assumed that Jesus was no prophet, otherwise, He would not have allowed this sinful woman to touch Him.  But Jesus knew how she was, and He knew what Simon was thinking.  Jesus compared the way Simon had treated Him(no water to wash His feet, no kiss, no oil to anoint His head) and how this sinful woman had treated Him(washed His feet with her tears, dried His feet with her hair, kissed Him(a lot), anointed Him with perfume).  Jesus made that point that she did a lot for Him because she was so thankful because she had so much sin to be forgiven.  By contrast, Simon did not seem to think that he had that much sin to be forgiven, so He treated Jesus less importantly that the woman did.  Part of the problem was that Simon did not understand that he needed Jesus just as much as the sinful woman needed Jesus.  And that’s sad.

The sinful woman was doing everything she could to express her appreciation to Jesus.  Simon was not.  He figured he only needed to express a little appreciation.  This highlights two important points.  First, Simon thought he was better than the sinful woman.  He was wrong.  They were both sinners.  No difference.  Second, Simon thought he needed Jesus less than the sinful woman did.  He was wrong again.  He needed Jesus just as much as she did.  And so do we.  We might view ourselves like Simon(hopefully we do not) and think that we really don’t need Jesus that much . . . or at all.  This is a huge mistake.

Not understanding how utterly dependent we are on Jesus for our salvation is crucial.  If we think we don’t need Him at all, or only need Him a little, we don’t understand our situation.  Like Simon and the Pharisees at Matthew’s house, if we do not see our own sin and how terrible it is, we are deceiving ourselves.  We think we are healthy and do not need a doctor, but we do need a doctor . . . and fast.  This can’t wait.  This needs to be taken care of now!  If you’ve been deceiving yourself  . . . stop.  It does you no good, and it does you monumental harm.  God doesn’t want that.  He wants everybody to be saved from their sins(II Pet. 3:9).  Don’t be lost.  Be saved.