Matthew 11:16-19
One of the most beautiful phrases about Jesus found in scripture is that He is a “Friend of sinners.” On several occasions He is referred to in this way, though He did not initiate this title for Himself. It was the religious establishment of His day that tagged Jesus with this association. It’s clear, though, that His ministry was in fact to “sinners” and that He was not ashamed to be known for such work.
At the calling of Matthew (also known as Levi) to be His disciple, we begin to see why this title was given to Jesus by His detractors.
As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:9-11; cf. Mark 2:15-17)
There’s another occasion where Jesus was surrounded by tax collectors and sinners who had gathered to hear Him. On this occasion He gave one of His best-known parables...the parable of the prodigal son. Again, when the religious establishment saw the kind of people associating with Jesus, they complained about it...in their typical self-righteous fashion.
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2)
In Matthew 11:16-19, we read about Jesus teaching a multitude that has gathered. During this instruction He repeats about Himself what others had already been saying about Him and used it as an indictment against the callousness of their “generation” (Matthew 11:16).
The “Marketplace” (11:16) of which Jesus speaks was the hub of the first-century Jewish community. It was there that business deals were struck, goods were bought and sold, people sought out jobs, and children could be found playing. One of the games children liked involved one group playing a wedding or funeral song expecting the other children to act out the part in response. But as children are sometimes prone to do, the others did not cooperate or participate in the games. Jesus uses this ancient proverb (11:17) about children to illustrate how people had failed to respond to John the Baptist and to Himself.
John had come as an ascetic withdrawing from the normal activities of society in order to call people to repentance in preparation for the coming Messiah. On the other hand, Jesus had mixed openly with the people and befriended all that would come to Him to hear His teaching. However, the people didn’t respond well to John the Baptist, nor did they respond well to Jesus. Both were readily dismissed by the people...though their approaches to ministry were vastly different to one another. On the one hand, they accused John of having a “demon” (11:18) and on the other, they accused Jesus of being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (11:19). In essence, neither man was received as he should have been and the people found fault with both of them.
It’s in situations like this one in Matthew 11 and others that I have referenced that resulted in Jesus being labeled “a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Because He allowed them into His presence and associated Himself with them at times, He became known by what the religious establishment intended to be a derogatory title.
If you stop and think about it, though, this is one of the most beautiful descriptions we could have of Jesus. The fact is that there is no one that is born into this world that is not a sinner (Romans 3:10, 23) and had Jesus not been a “Friend of sinners,” none of us would have had any hope for eternity or the forgiveness of our sins. It is precisely because we are all sinners that Jesus came on His mission from Heaven to earth. That fact is overwhelmingly clear throughout scripture.
...He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17)
...for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)
...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)
Unfortunately, the religious establishment of Jesus’ day didn’t understand His person, His ministry or His mission and tagged Him with what they thought was an unflattering and dismissive description. They had spent their entire religious lives trying to avoid people that were considered “sinners” and never thought of the possibility that they themselves could be in that category.
The term “sinners” is a very broad designation that includes moral/ethical sins, as well as any violation of ceremonial law that made a Jewish person unclean before God. It could refer to people that were the most evil of their day or to those that were merely associating with the wrong people, thus rendering themselves unfit to approach God in worship.
Only religious groups like the Pharisees considered themselves above being “sinners” like those with whom Jesus associated. They withdrew from any persons they thought didn’t measure up to their standards, which included most of the people around Jesus. He, however, made no such distinction about the kinds of people that could approach Him and be with Him. All who were drawn to Jesus and His teaching were gladly received with the purpose of seeing them turn in faith to Him so they could be forgiven and embraced by His love. Jesus’ acceptance of others always came with the understanding that He was seeking to reach them with the truth because they were lost and needed to be found.
A word of caution is in order when considering this description ascribed to Jesus, lest we distort it into something that is akin to what the Pharisees meant when they tagged Him with this title.
It is true that Jesus received all that came to Him, but it is all too easy for us to take the general truth that He was a “Friend of sinners” and twist it out of biblical context. Listen to one writer summarize how this is done. He says, “So ‘Jesus ate with sinners’ becomes ‘Jesus loved a good party,’ which becomes ‘Jesus was more interested in showing love than taking sides,’ which becomes ‘Jesus always sided with religious outsiders…'” He continues, “Here we have an example of a whole truth being used for a half truth in the service of a lie.”
Jesus loved people and always received them into His company, but He never condoned their sinful actions or attitudes. He was never with “sinners” just to have people with whom He could party and have a good time. Jesus was always on mission when He was with them and always looking to bring them out of their sins and into the forgiveness He offered.
A young preacher I know once made an offhanded comment that Jesus loved to “hang out with drunks.” Following the service a man that had been saved out of a life of alcohol addiction challenged this young preacher to find one scripture anywhere that said Jesus was just “hanging out” with people in a drunken state. With this challenge he recognized that in an effort to accentuate the grace of God he had stepped beyond the grace of God and made it sound like Jesus’ loved nothing more than a good party.
Yes, Jesus was a “Friend of sinners,” but His purpose was always paramount. He was there amongst the people to call them out of their sin, not to become part of their sin!
There are different ways that people are categorized in society that are often not helpful to creating a better society. But, I want to divide people into four categories solely for the sake of illustrating the vastness of Jesus’ love for all people (all of which are sinners). I’ll refer to these four categories as the “in and out,” “out and out,” “down and out,” and “up and out.” For the purpose of explanation, each of these categories indicates that no matter what social status a person may hold, all of them are outside of the family and Kingdom of God.
First, consider with me the “in and out.” These are the people that make up most of society. They are law abiding citizens that work hard to make a living, take care of their families, and try to maintain civil relationships with other people. They have a place to live, have their own transportation and have meals on their tables to nourish their bodies. They may or may not be religious, but they consider themselves to be relatively good people. If you meet them on the street they are generally congenial and considerate toward others. They are good neighbors and friends that you gladly greet when you see them. They are the “in and out” because they are law abiding citizens living “in” society successfully, but they are not yet children of God and are therefore “outside” the family of God...even though they may be religious.
Jesus encountered just such a man in Nicodemus who approached Him by night, possibly because it was the best time to have a private conversation with Him. He was a deeply religious man, being a Pharisee and highly respected in the community. Because we have the benefit of looking back on the Pharisees and seeing the things Jesus had to say about them, we generally have a negative view of them. However, in first-century society they were among some of the most respected people. They were fastidious in their attempts to obey the Law of Moses and sought to have others observe those same laws and traditions.
During the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus He learned that even though he was well respected in the community of Israel, deeply religious and viewed himself as a righteous man, he lacked what was necessary to be right with God. He had not yet been born again! Though he had trouble understanding all that Jesus was telling him at the time, we know that Nicodemus did ultimately become a follower of Jesus. Nevertheless, at the time he approached Jesus, he was “in” society, living his life like many others, but he was “outside” the Kingdom of God.
Second, we have the “out and out.” These are the people that cannot live in society because something about their actions, attitudes, associations and/or ailments prevent them from functioning normally with others around them. We might think of them today as severe drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals, misfits, etc., but this category could also include those that cannot interact with society for much less severe reasons.
Because there are so many people on the pages of scripture that fit this category, we’ll consider just a few. There is the demoniac of Gadara (Mark 5:1-2; Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39) that could not live in town, but had to live out among the tombs, cutting himself, making terrible screaming sounds and doing numerous other bizarre things. All of those that had leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16) fit in this category because they were required to live separate from the rest of society. If someone should even come near one of them, they had to cry out, “Unclean! “Unclean!” There is the woman with the “issue of blood” (Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-47) that rendered her ceremonially “unclean” and kept her from family, friendships and the worship of God at the Temple. And, there was the immoral woman of Samaria (John 4-1-38) that met Jesus at the well. She had been married five times and was living with a man that was not her husband. In first-century society being a woman, being immoral, and being a Samaritan meant there were three strikes against you.
Though these and many others like them were “outside” society and “outside” the Kingdom of God, the fact still remains that Jesus loved them and brought healing to not only their diseased and demonically possessed bodies, He also healed their broken and sin sick souls.
Third we see the “down and out.” These are the ones that have little of this world's goods and have to depend on others to sustain their lives. The clothes on their backs may be all they have and the next meal is always in question. You could find people in this category sitting just outside the city gates begging for alms from those that passed by. They are the destitute, homeless and often despised by society. They are “down” at the bottom of the social structure and “outside” of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus himself cared for those in need by feeding the hungry. Crowds of four thousand (Mark 8:1-13) and five thousand (Mark 6:30-44) had assembled to listen to Jesus and they soon became hungry. When his disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away to buy food, he responded by saying "I have compassion on the multitude..." and "you give them something to eat." As a result, He proceeded to perform miracles to feed these large crowds of hungry people.
On another occasion, Jesus invited the rich young man to sell all of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. (Matthew 19:16-30, Luke 18:18-30, Mark 10:17-31) Again, this shows His compassion for the poor, as well as expose the covetousness of the rich man. If you look at the biographies of Jesus carefully, you’ll see Him eager to reach out to those at the bottom of the social pyramid--poor people, women, Samaritans, lepers, children, prostitutes, etc.
Fourth, there were the “up and out.” These are the people that have the tendency to trust in their “uncertain riches” (1 Timothy 6:17). They don’t want for many things and they can buy the best services available to them. Money's no object to them and with it comes a measure of prestige. This category also includes those that fit in the middle class of society. Compared to the rest of the world, most of them are rich by their standards. People in this category always have food to eat, wear nice clothes, and have a place to call home that belongs to them. They are “up” at the top of the social structure, but they are “outside” of the Kingdom of God.
Some of the tax collectors of the first century are examples of this category because they had wealth. Many of them had made their money on the backs of their own people by charging excessive tolls beyond what was required by Rome. Not only did the people dislike the tax collectors’ association with the Roman government, they disliked the fact that they were living large and sometimes flaunting their wealth. Of course, there were some that were wealthy due to inheritances or their work that had prospered from which they had earned their wealth.
Zacchaeus is a perfect example of someone that had wealth in first century society (Luke 19:1-9), but was disliked by His own countrymen. Jesus changed his life and he gave away a large portion of his wealth to the poor. It must be remembered that no matter how much money a person possesses, he/she is still “outside” of the Kingdom of God because no one is made right with God on the basis of his financial status.
Obviously, these four categories are arbitrary and most people don’t fit neatly into one box or the other. Actually, there could be multiple categories in multiple boxes and some people still wouldn’t fit in any of them. But, if you’ll indulge my analogy for a few more minutes I believe you’ll get my main point.
Often, God gives people a burden to reach a certain category of people and that becomes their passion in life. That’s a very good thing and something we should encourage among the family of God. However, there will always be people that though they try their best to reach the same category as others are reaching, they will never be as effective as others because it’s not their burden or passion. There is nothing wrong with that reality. The problem arises when we have a passion for a certain group of people and we allow ourselves to feel that if others aren’t as passionate about this same group as we are, something is wrong with their spirituality or they just don’t love souls as much as we do.
The fact is, we need Christians to reach ALL segments of our society and world. We need them to motivate others to join them in their mission while doing their best to bring people to Jesus. However, we must never forget that Jesus is a “Friend of [ALL] sinners,” not just one specific category of “sinners.”
In other words, Jesus loves the “in and out” crowd, the “out and out” crowd, the “down and out” crowd, and the “up and out” crowd...ALL THE SAME! God is not a respecter of persons and all people from all social classes and all ethnicities are important to Him!
What should be the issue for all of us is that we find our place in the harvest field of souls and that we get busy reaching the people we can reach. And while doing this we have to remember that one person might be working in one part of the harvest field, while another is working in a different part of the field, but the mission is the same for all of us...making disciples of Christ.
God doesn’t want to just reach some of the people some of the time. He wants to reach all of the people all of the time! We may be passionate about one group and someone else passionate about another group. The important thing is that we ALL get on mission with Christ to befriend sinners so that we can bring them into the Kingdom of God.
Who are you working to bring to Jesus?
Application:
- Let’s reach everybody we can as fast as we can with the Gospel of Christ.
- Let’s encourage every believer to find his/her place in God’s harvest field and go to work.
- Let’s become “friends of sinners” so that we can fulfill our mission to win the lost to Christ.
