Loved the Outcasts

What DID Jesus DO?

Between the corn fields, set off of one of the curvy country roads that cuts through a tiny town so small it doesn’t even have a stop light sits a run-down building that could pass for just another outbuilding/garage. Beside the small blue building with the rusted door is a wooden fence that’s seen better days and a sign that reads” The Fox Hole” beside the faded-out picture of a stripper.

In 2014 a conflict boiled over between the employees of this strip club and a neighboring church. The church members consistently protested and picketed outside of the strip club. The owner of the club sought legal action to keep the church staff and members from protesting and picketing outside their establishment–to no avail.

As a result, the employees of the club matched the actions of those church staffers and members and began picketing and protesting outside of the church on Sunday mornings–first in bikinis and eventually topless.

Throughout this exchange of protests, someone in the media world got word of the conflict, and this feud between the church and the strip club became big news. 

It wasn’t long before some folks at our church heard about the conflict in this tiny town less than an hour away from us, and they were determined to take action to help the situation.

The next weekend, they baked a ton of cookies and headed toward the tiny town.

While the members of the town church picketed, protested, and boycotted the strip club, our folks sat in their bag chairs, greeted the employees of the strip club, passed out their homemade cookies, talked with the women, and loved on them instead of shaming them.

Was that not what you were expecting?

Scandalous Choices

I’ve been working through the book of Luke this year to examine what Jesus DID. Today, I’m stoked to talk about one of my favorite things Jesus DID. You can find this story in Luke 5 right after the people were astonished by Jesus’s healing of a paralyzed man:

Afterward, Jesus went out and looked for a man named Matthew.  He found him sitting at his tax booth, for he was a tax collector. Jesus said to him, “Be my disciple and follow me.” That very moment, Matthew got up, left everything behind, and followed him.

Matthew wanted to throw a banquet to honor Jesus. So he invited Jesus to his home for dinner, along with many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests. But the Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why would you defile yourselves by eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? Doesn’t Jesus know it’s wrong to do that?”

Jesus overheard their complaining and said, “Who goes to the doctor for a cure? Those who are well or those who are sick?  I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but to call those who know they are sinners and bring them to repentance.” Luke 5:27-32 TPT

If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve probably heard at least one sermon/lesson that focused on how Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, and you might even be able to recite the “Zaccheus was a wee little man” song from memory. At some point, someone has probably talked to you about the reputation of tax collectors during this period.

It’s only been in recent years that I’ve understood the scope of these taxes for the Jewish community. I’d love to give you the Cliff’s Notes version:

• The Roman Empire controlled and oppressed Israel during this time.

• The taxes collected weren’t like modern-day taxes–these taxes went directly to the Roman Empire, essentially Israel was paying Rome to continue with the Roman oppression

• Roman businesses bought Jewish provinces and collected taxes however they wished through things like–tolls, imports, exports, road money, dues, etc…

• Tax collectors could stop Jews on the roads and order them to pay immediately for whatever “tax” they instituted.

• Because tax collectors were backed by the Roman Empire, Jews had no option but to pay.

The Jewish response to these Jews who chose to be tax collectors for these businesses/the Roman Empire was hatred, and they ostracized these Jews who chose this as their profession.

• Tax collectors were seen as wicked as murderers.

• Jewish rabbis taught that tax collectors could not be trusted as witnesses in court, were to be despised by the Jews, and were considered a disgrace to their entire family.

• They were excommunicated from Jewish synagogues.

Despite all of this, Jesus sought out Matthew, the tax collector, and called him to be a disciple–a man who would have been seen by his community as wicked, who was despised and a disgrace, and who had been excommunicated from the synagogue.

That’s who Jesus chose.

We talked about how unlikely it would have been for Jesus as a rabbi with authority to ask Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be his disciples, but seeking out and calling Matthew was more than unlikely–it was scandalous because Matthew was a despised outcast in the Jewish community.

Hanging out with the Outcasts

I love Matthew’s response after Jesus calls him. First, he got up, left all his tax-collecting stuff behind, and followed Christ. But, what happens next is so very human, and I can relate to it on so many levels because I love to feed people. Matthew decides to throw a banquet in Christ’s honor. 

Think about it, though–who could Matthew possibly invite to this banquet? He couldn’t invite the religious elite, the popular folks, or the revered and respected of the Jewish community because all those people hated and despised him and wouldn’t have given him the time of day. 

Instead, he invites his friends–the other tax collectors, the other outcasts, the other people who were despised by the mainstream.

And, Jesus goes.

He could have taken a hard pass.

He could have preached to Matthew about choosing better friends.

He could have invited the elite.

He could have stood on his pedestal and acted like he was better than these outcasts.

He didn’t choose any of those things, though. Instead, he chose relationship. He chose to get close enough to these folks who were hated by the Jewish community that they could touch him too.

Seeing People Instead of Prospects

When I was a kid and even a teenager,  I consistently heard adults in church preach/teach about how Jesus ate with the tax collectors and sinners. But, then, those same people would judge the modern-day equivalent of tax collectors and sinners and claim authority to do so because the Bible doesn’t preach not to judge, it just says that if you judge, you’re going to be judged. Since we’re all going to be judged, it’s okay for us to judge others. 

I wish I was kidding, but this was real theology.

That same theology twisted the idea of being in the world but not of the world to encourage its members to avoid close relationships with anyone who wasn’t a believer or part of their brotherhood and, consequently, look at everyone outside of the brotherhood as nothing more than the mission field. It was our job to bring them into the fold and to save them. 

Deconstruction and reconstruction have allowed me to see the glaring red flags in this theology and to understand who Jesus was and how he modeled love, grace, and acceptance. 

Too often, we, as Christians, forego relationships in the name of “discipleship.” Instead of pouring ourselves into relationships and loving people as humans, we see people as nothing more than targets we have to save.

If you’ve been reading along in Luke, you might have noticed all the times Luke records that Jesus was “preaching to a crowd.” Luke notes that over and over again. There are times, though, when Luke records Jesus doing other things. For example, when Jesus was at the wedding with his family where his mom asked him to turn the water into wine, he wasn’t preaching that day. He was hanging out at a wedding with his family and friends doing very human things with the people he loved.

This is another one of those places. We don’t see Jesus attending Matthew’s banquet and preaching to his tax collector and outcast friends. Instead, we see Jesus hanging out at this banquet, eating and drinking with Matthew and his friends. After all, that was the complaint the religious leaders made against him–that he was defiling himself by eating and drinking with these sinners. 

Jesus prioritized relationship over preaching here.

We can’t forget that today.

Too often we prioritize preaching and overspiritualize every interaction we have because we think we’re being Christ-like, but we ignore the fact that Jesus preached love in action, and that looks more like everyday relationships than it does a lecture or a sermon. 

• It looks more like sharing a meal and listening.

• It looks more like taking cookies to the strippers and listening to their stories.

• It looks more like eating with the homeless instead of passing out meals to them.

• It looks more like sitting in a restaurant with the outcasts, sharing a meal, and talking.

• It means seeing all people as human and deserving of relationship with us.

Modern-Day Tax Collectors

Last week I asked you to think about who were our modern-day lepers, but today I’m thinking about who are our modern-day tax collectors. I’m not talking about literal tax collectors, but, instead, those people who have been officially or unofficially kicked out of our churches, who are despised by the mainstream, who are seen as wicked as murderers, and who are considered a disgrace to their families.

That’s who Jesus sought out, and I can’t help but think that’s who he wants us to pursue today.

That’s who he sat down and ate and drank with–despite the judgment of the religious leaders.

I have to think those are the people he wants us to love on and build relationship with today as well.

So, who are those people for you and in your community?

Who are the least of these that Jesus is nudging you to sit with, share a meal with, and love on today?

After all, that’s what Jesus DID do.

Reflections:

1. Who are the least of these in your community?

2. How can you make yourself available to the outcasts, despised, and excommunicated today?

3. What scares you about building relationship with the least of these?