Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Now go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:10-13

Jesus got in trouble with the religious people of his day for doing something radical: caring for sinners. He spent time with people who were in the middle of a life of sin, not waiting for them to get right but going to them in their time of weakness. This is the simple lesson of his life: do right even when others think it is wrong.

Ethan Kirl

Originally published May 11, 2020