The Scum of the Earth

Hey Everybody!

Every Thursday, our staff gathers for "Circle Up," about a 30-minute meeting where we update everyone on all the happenings within the Ministry of Believers. We also take some time to pray for each other and for YOU, our church family. Each week, one of the staff members also brings a devotional. This year, we've asked everyone to base the devotional on our "Year with Jesus" reading plan. Today's devotional was on the calling of Matthew.

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. Matthew 9:9

Tyler reminded us of how marginalized and despised the tax collectors were in that day. While Matthew was Jewish, he would have been despised by his fellow Jews because of his profession. Matthew's chosen career path put him at odds with his community. He was likely making a good living for himself but at the expense of his reputation and social status. Even though all of that was true, Jesus came to him and extended the invitation to "come and follow" him.

We can sometimes sanitize our Bible reading and lose some of the impact of what is on the page. This story is included in the Gospel, which bears the name of the one being called to follow Jesus, so we forget who this guy was when Jesus found him. He was the kind of person that no respectable person would associate with, let alone invite into a deep followership of a disciple. 

And yet…

Jesus does invite him. And let's not forget…He invited YOU, too. And He invited me! We didn't deserve the invitation to follow Jesus… that's what makes the Gospel so amazing. Jesus, who is holy and righteous, is on the lookout for those who are not so that he can invite them to follow Him and transform them into a rendition of the Gospel that others can read and be amazed by the work of grace in our lives.

On the backside of that invitation to follow Jesus, Matthew threw a party to which he invited all his friends. It probably isn't surprising that his friends were much like him. In fact, when the religious people saw Matthew and his friends, and they saw that Jesus attended this party, they asked the other disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such scum?" (Matthew 9:11)

Jesus responded, "Healthy people don't need a doctor – sick people do…For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners." Matthew 9:12, 13b

Those of us who have met Jesus are in the midst of a transformation to become more like Him. But let us never forget that Jesus came for those that the "righteous" classified as scum. He came for the marginalized, for the losers and outcasts. He wasn't repelled by Matthew, as the "righteous" were; he was drawn to him and his friends. The party that Jesus attended was full of "many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners" (Matthew 9:10). He wasn't afraid to associate with those that others saw as scum.

Jesus didn't pick Matthew because he saw something good in him that he could redeem or use. The truth is, Jesus can use ANYONE who will surrender their lives to him. Even YOU. Even me.

My prayer for Believers is that we will be the kind of place where "the scum of the earth" can come and be loved and welcomed by other "disreputable sinners" who have been transformed by the amazing grace of Jesus. May we never forget that the good in us isn't really us at all. It's Jesus in us. If you worked in a hospital emergency room, you wouldn't be put off by sick or injured people coming in. That's WHY you are there. And at church, we shouldn't be surprised when the "scum of the earth" comes in, either. That's WHY Jesus came to you, and He still comes for people like that today. In fact, if we don't have "outsiders" coming to find Jesus, it's safe to say that we are doing something wrong!

Please join me THIS Sunday for the conclusion of our Made for This series. We will celebrate communion together as a reminder that we have one thing in common: we all desperately need Jesus' sacrificial payment to cover our sin debt. Amen.

Pastor Jamey