At Which Table do you Sit?

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

        I’m sure everyone can relate to not ‘fitting in’. Whether it was the awkward phase as a child, where you were not one of the ‘cool’ kids and therefore were not invited to sit at the lunchroom table with the popular students, or maybe at the office or jobsite where you were passed over and not invited to the local hang-out after working hours.

        Having recently moved into a neighborhood in a new town, you may have struggled to ‘fit in’ with the local community. Many reasons could be attributed to why a person may not be accepted in close knit cultures. It could be a simple as not looking like the other people. Maybe it is because of the clothes you wear. Maybe it is the vehicle you drive. And sometimes, it may even be the job you work.

        All of these factors, whether prejudiced or not, leads to ostracism of some form or another. Yet being a ‘sinner’ is rarely one of the reasons. I suppose working as a prostitute or in the business of pornography may be viewed as a ‘sinners’ trade, but even then, people might look the other way.

        In our world today, the abundance of photographs and video being available at the press of a few keys on the phone or computer allows the whole world the ability to judge a person’s reputation instantly. How many times have pictures or recordings of prominent people been retrieved from years or decades past been pushed into the public domain thus causing doubt on a person’s character?

        Even if you found yourself mistakenly involved with a person or group of which ‘polite society’ frowns, you can well understand the effort it takes to separate yourself from the situation in order to save your own good name.

        In your lifetime you may have heard the phrase, ‘He (or she) is hanging out with the wrong crowd.’ Well, Jesus was no stranger to this type of scrutiny. In the Gospel according to Matthew, we see Jesus in this situation.

        Now to set the scene, as it were, we must look at the culture and society in which Jesus is living. The Jewish people, or the Hebrews, lived in a Roman governed area but had been recognized by Rome to be a sovereign people. That is, they were allowed to govern themselves within the confines of Roman law.

        It is for this reason that the Jewish council judged and regulated through their religious law outside of the Roman courts. Until and unless some action transgressed on the Roman law, all Hebrew people were under the court of the Sanhedrin. There was the ‘lesser’ Sanhedrin court which was a tribunal of 23 judges in each city; and there was the ‘Great Sanhedrin’ of 71 judges which acted like the Supreme Court taking appeals from cases which were decided by lesser courts.

        The Pharisees were the priestly or religious rulers who focused on the everyday lives of the people as it related to their following the laws that sanctified the mundane actions in that person’s life. The New Testament scriptures have many examples of their interactions with the people (and in conflict with Jesus and his disciples).

        The Pharisees were focused on not sinning. To work on the Sabbath was against the law. To eat alongside Gentiles was not allowed. To, knowingly or unknowingly, associate with sinners was a major no-no. Even worse than associating with sinners is having any interaction with harlots and tax collectors (who were also sinners). Can you imagine? Being a tax collector was the lowest type of sinner one could be; even lower than a prostitute.

        Therefore, Jesus eating with tax collectors and their ilk, was committing a sin against society and God! Because Jesus was the teacher or Rabbi for his disciples, he was responsible for their actions as well as his own. They asked the disciples why their leader and teacher was openly sinning by eating with the low life of society; sinners and tax collectors!

        Jesus heard the Pharisees ask this question and he answers them by alluding to a proverbial saying. This proverbial saying was from a founder of the philosophy of cynicism, Diogenes, over 300 years earlier. He wrote “neither does a physician … who is capable of giving health - practice among those who are well”^[1] Diogenes believed human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would be better off studying how a dog lives, which would be a more honest form of character.

        As you may well imagine, the Pharisees being learned men, would easily see this comment as a rebuff and an insult. Jesus then points them to a scripture from Hosea:

“For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” [Hosea 6:6]

Jesus tells them to “Go and learn what this means” [Matthew 9:13a] and follows with “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” [Matthew 9:13b]

        What does Jesus mean by this comment: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”? We can look to St. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome:

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” [Romans 4:1–3]

And he continues with verse 9 and following:

“Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, [Romans 4:9-11] (emphasis added)

        The Pharisees loved to tout the fact that they had Abraham as their father and because of this, they were the chosen people of God. They were righteous by what they did; by their works. They boasted that they were righteous by their piety. Jesus tells them, in so many words, they believe their deeds and sacrifices save them and makes them righteous in the eyes of God.

        If they were declared righteous by God, then they are already saved and therefore, do not need Jesus to redeem them. Now does Jesus know they are sinners as much as the tax collectors and gentiles? Of course! However, Jesus also knows they will not repent and believe, so he leaves them to their own judgement of God.

        The question now becomes, who are you to God? Are you righteous by your works? Are you a sinner? Would you rather eat with Jesus as a sinner or with those who declare themselves righteous by their works?

        Remember the parable Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector?

“…He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you; this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luke 18:9–14]

Sinners like you and me are the people Jesus came into the world to save. Jesus Christ took the sins of all of us to the cross where he was crucified. He who is without sin was the God pleasing sacrifice for the sinner. His death ended the judgment of God against those who sinned against His law. By Christ’s resurrection from the tomb, the price for our sin has been wiped clean. We are now declared righteous, not by our works, but by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

        When we come to the table of our Lord to partake of his body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, we are declared righteous by God. Who does Jesus welcome to his table? The righteous? No, the sinner. Thank God that Jesus comes to us with his body and blood in the sanctified meal for sinners. This is where we belong. Yes, we are poor miserable sinners but Jesus Christ desires mercy for you and for me. Thanks be to God that he came not to call the righteous but the sinners.

        By our redemption through Christ, we may not be welcome by those who do not follow Christ. It may seem that we are being ostracized by society because of what we believe and how we act. We may feel that we are not wanted by our neighbors, but I ask you: At whose table do you wish to eat?

Amen

^[1] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13, vol. 33A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 239.