Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – sin defiles, so sin disqualifies, what total ridiculous trash.
Mark 2:16 TPT
[16] But when the religious scholars and the Pharisees found out that Jesus was keeping company and dining with sinners and tax collectors, they were indignant. So they approached Jesus’ disciples and said to them, “Why is it that someone like Jesus defiles himself by eating with sinners and tax collectors?”
Observation
Here we are thousands of years on and we continue to be perplexed and ask the question of the Pharisees. So many still think that sin defiles us in a way that means we must be separated from God. We have God locked away where his goodness must be always separated from sinfulness, and badness, in case God is defiled. We have trouble holding the fact that sinners and saints are not opposites, the paradox is that God holds both the sinner me and saint me close to himself. Sin is not an issue that defiles me in a way that I must be kept separate from God, any more than my saintliness is the reason why I can draw near to God. And God is not afraid of my sin defiling his holiness. We still call Christians hypocrites based on their sinfulness and ask how can one so defiled be near to God. We grab stones to condemn the Christian leader whose sin leaks into the public forum. “Isn’t she/he too defiled to serve God?” We must see that sinner and saint are not opposites, they are the composite of all of us.
God eats with sinners and saints, neither definition given by man has any consequence at his table. He has dealt with the power of sin to separate and he has put to bed as a bad idea all attempts at saintliness to make us right for his table. Both these terms are irrelevant when it comes to breaking bread with God. The only question is who wants to feast with love? God’s table is open to any who would come no matter what definition they may wear on their badge. It’s “all welcome, saint/sinner, at my table,” from where God sits.
Why is it like this? Why can Jesus eat with sinners? Because love overcomes the barriers of unacceptable. The love of God gives generously without being aroused, or without being respectable. It does not look upon the recipient of love to see worthiness, or arousal, or loveable qualities. It is a giving, unconditional, never-ending, never earned, an outflow that always invites all who would come. There is no lack of love in our world, there is only too many man-made false qualifications to be loved. If we can remove our passion for assessment and our assessments of defilement maybe we will feast at the table of God and from that experience share our own tables in this love. What a new world that would be!
Application
I will embrace my composite sinner and saint self and feast. I will not leave part of me hidden in the coat closet hoping no one sees what I really wear. I will come as fully me to the table and feast with love without any assessment of defilement. I will see others in this way also, and share my table accordingly.
Response
Thank you that you do not demand beauty of me to love upon me. Thank you that you have made it possible for me to feast as me. Thank you that defilement has no place in your acceptance vocabulary. This is a beautiful life of feasting in your love with no measures of entry or defilement.
Meditation
Meditate – Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors.
Consider:
Do you self-measure, or come under the measure of others, in your feasting at the table of God?
Can you embrace the sinner saint you in your entirety and still enjoy the table?
JOURNEY DEEPER