None of us can claim to be good.
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Not too long ago Jesus was finishing up the Sermon on the Mount, in that sermon Jesus told his listeners to “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” (Matthew 7:12). Now some of the religious leaders are proving that they didn’t catch on to what Jesus wanted them to learn that day. Instead of love and kindness, the Pharisees show hate and bigotry, instead of seeing lost people they see people that aren’t as “good” as they are.
Jesus passed by the tax collectors booth and gave Matthew an invitation to be his disciple even though he was considered to be a low life scum for being employed in one of the worse jobs that you could land back in those days. Jesus didn’t invite Matthew to clean up his life, instead he invited Matthew to be one of his close companions, without any condescending attitudes.
Jesus came to earth to dine with the scum, and I am so thankful that he did, for the earth didn’t have anybody better than scum for him to come and dine with. The Pharisees didn't realize their status, they thought they were all that, whether we know it or not we are all scum.
Romans 3:10, 23-24 As the Scriptures say, No one is righteous— not even one. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
I will treat other people the way that Jesus would treat them. Helping those that need help and keeping a humble perspective of how unworthy that I am, to be called a child of God.
Give me grace Lord to treat people that are different from me the way that you would treat them.
