A Hospital for Sinners

 

While going through a folder I have of various inspirational articles and devotions, I rediscovered the following article. Unfortunately, I do not recall where this article came from, and I also failed to note the author. So please understand, I am not trying to pass this off as my own. I simply desire to share with you this wonderful article. If anyone knows who the author of this article is and from whence it comes, please let me know. Thank you.

Matthew 9:9-13 captures a lovely glimpse of the gospel of grace:

“As he moved on, Jesus saw a man named Matthew at his post where taxes were collected. He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Matthew got up and followed him. Now it happened that, while Jesus was at the table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and those known as sinners came to join Jesus and his disciples at dinner. The Pharisees saw this and complained to his disciples, ‘What reason can the Teacher have for eating with tax collectors and those who disregard the law?’ Overhearing their remark, he said, ‘People who are in good health do not need a doctor; sick people do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, “It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice.” I have not come to call the self-righteous, but sinners.”

Here is revelation bright as the evening star: Jesus comes for sinners, for those as outcast as tax collectors and for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams. He comes for corporate executives, street people, superstars, farmers, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, and even used car salesmen. Jesus not only talks with these people, but also dines with them – fully aware that His table of fellowship with sinners will raise the eyebrows of religious bureaucrats who hold up the robes and insignia of their authority to justify their condemnation of the truth, and their rejection of the gospel of grace.

This passage of Matthew should be read, reread and memorized. Generation after generation tries to dim the blinding brightness of its meaning because the gospel seems too good to be true. We seem to think that salvation belongs to the proper and pious, to those who stand at a safe distance e from the back alleys of existence, clucking their judgments at those who have been soiled by life.

Jesus, who forgave the sins of the paralytic (and thereby claiming divine power), proclaims that He has invited sinners and not the self-righteous, to His table. The Greek word used here, kalein, has the sense of inviting an honored guest to dinner.

In effect, Jesus says the Kingdom of His Father is not a subdivision for the self-righteous, nor for those who feel they posses the state secret of their salvation. The Kingdom is not an exclusive, well-trimmed suburb with snobbish rules about who can live there. No, it is for a larger, homelier, less self-conscious cast of people who understand they are sinners, because they have experienced the yaw and pitch of moral struggle.

These are the sinner-guests invited by Jesus to closeness with Him around the banquet table. It remains a startling story to those who never understand that the men and women, who are truly filled with light, are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their imperfect existence. Perhaps it was after meditating on this passage in Mathew that Morton Kelsey wrote: “The church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.”