We have all gotten down on ourselves. We tried to do the right thing, and we messed it up. We tried to help someone, and we ended up hurting them instead. We're consistently screwing everything up, and we spend more time trying to get back to doing good after we messed up than actually doing the right thing. Let's look at another Vintage 21 Church video, and look at how we think Jesus is viewing our constant problems.
Last week, we looked at how Jesus doesn't want us to tend to a long rule book, and that salvation comes from God an God alone, not our works. Yet, we tend to think that Jesus, because He is the holy, perfect God, is too holy for us. We are dirty and broken; He is cleaner than Scrubbing Bubbles. Yes, you have a point. We are dirty, and He is clean. But it doesn't end there.
"15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” -Mark 2:15-17, NLT
I absolutely love how the New Living Translation puts this, which is one of my favorite passages in the Gospels. You see, Jesus had a thing for scumbags: the poor, the smokers, the sluts, the white trash and the money launderers. These were the very people that, according to Mark, that followed Jesus around.
Yes, just as the video portrays, Jesus knows our problems. You may not be to the point that you're worthy of prison, but you do some low-down and dirty stuff. It's true. And odds on, you think that Jesus is "too good" for you. You think you have to get your life together before Jesus can love you or before you can come to church. Guess what? You couldn't be more wrong.
Jesus wants more than anything for the "scum" to run to Him and embrace Him. As v.17 says, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners." It is only through the amazing, crazy grace of God that we are made right before God, and that starts when we are at our lowest.
When you realize that you are a screw-up, that is the very moment Jesus can step in and do His work. People who think they are healthy don't go to the doctor; sick people do. Admit your sickness and run to the heavenly Doctor that can make you well. You're never too bad to come to Jesus. There is hope in Him.
For more on the topic of Jesus's love for the hoodlums and scumbags, read Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel. It is a fantastic look at the love of Christ for people who don't have it all together (I highly recommend the Visual Edition, by the way).
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