by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
Jesus broke the mold of how a rabbi should act. At least, He didn’t act in a way that the religious, holy-toity leaders in His day thought He should. It was bad enough to have accepted a (gasp<\/em>) tax collector as a follower after He was seen associating with various other “sinners!” Seeing Jesus eat with this hated segment of society just made the Jewish leaders hate Him more, which prompted them to ask His disciples, “Why is your teacher eating with these people?”<\/p>\nJesus overheard the question, and His simple reply cut to the heart of His mission. He was there for people who needed what he had. He wasn’t hanging out with sinners to simply have a good time, He was offering them change, real change, from a life of estrangement from God. “But when He heard it, He said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’<\/em>” (Matthew 9:12-13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores Jesus broke the mold of how a rabbi should act. At least, He didn’t act in a way that the religious, holy-toity leaders in His day thought He should. It was bad enough to have accepted a (gasp) tax collector as a follower after He was seen associating with various other “sinners!”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[952],"class_list":["post-83844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-compassion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-ate-with-publicans-and-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":0},"title":"Jesus Ate with Publicans and Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton There is no doubt that Jesus was among publicans and sinners and ate with them. What was He doing? Was he gambling with them? Was He smoking with them? Drinking intoxicating drinks with them? Cursing and laughing at dirty jokes? Was He being complicit with them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48541,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-the-adulterers-and-homosexuals-at-corinth-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":1},"title":"Why Did the Adulterers and Homosexuals at Corinth Change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Paul mentions a list of sins which included thieves, drunkards, adulterers, and homosexuals (I Corinthians 6:8-10) and said, \"such were some of you\". They were washed from such sins, justified, and sanctified. What was the motivation that moved them to change? They did not argue that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41995,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-jesus-bake-a-cake-for-a-homosexual-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":2},"title":"Would Jesus Bake a Cake for a Homosexual Marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Perz Yes. Jesus ate with sinners (Luke 5:30). Jesus washed sinners' feet (John 13:1-20). Jesus let His feet be anointed by a prostitute (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus chose twelve sinners to be His apostles, one of whom would betray Him (Matthew 10:2-4). Jesus even died for sinners (Romans 5:8).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/those-other-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":3},"title":"Those “Other” Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner \"And John answered and said, `Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us'\" (Luke 9:49). Answered what? The word may mean, \"began to speak\" but Vine says, it is always \"where something has preceded,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56047,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-elder-brother-of-the-prodigal-son\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":4},"title":"The Elder Brother of the Prodigal Son","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Myhan Many people fail to realize that the third parable of Jesus recorded in Luke chapter 15, is nowhere, in the inspired text, called \"the Parable of the Prodigal Son.\" In fact, the parable is given no name either by Jesus or by Luke. A more accurate designation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55474,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-chief-of-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":83844,"position":5},"title":"The Chief of Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry \"Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHere’s the thing: We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or write off a sinner because they sin. They need Jesus just as much as you do. Approach them and try to help them see. After all, someone helped you.\n