Think about our world’s most heinous actors.  Hitler, maybe Ted Bundy, Gacy or Dahmer.  Then ask yourself this.  What would I say to them?

What about the Mafia? Gangsters like Al Capone or John Gotti?

What about the drug dealer across the street?

What would we say to them?

Would we be loving and kind or would we be hurtful and unkind?  Have we been anything but loving and kind already?  By the way… Hurtful and unkind are just other forms of heinous actions.  No matter who they’re leveraged  against. 

Romans 13:8 CSB
[8] Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

To love one another?

Let’s look at today’s text.

Mark 2:13-14 CSB
[13] Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. [14] Then, passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him.

Levi son of Alphaeus, the tax collector.  In the day of Jesus the Jews thought of tax collectors as traitors.  Tax collectors worked for the Romans.  They were much like a Mafia of sorts often taking advantage of their own people for personal gain.  Most likely Levi was the apostle Mathew.

Matthew 9:9 CSB
[9] As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him.

How did Jesus treat him?  Did he purposely avoid him?  Perhaps walking down the edge of the street so as to be as far away as possible?  How would we have treated him?  Would we speak to him in the line at the grocery store or choose another check out lane?

Jesus called Levi/Matthew to follow Him.  No condemnation.  Just come and let Me show you The Way.

John 3:17 CSB
[17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Ok Colby, so I’m human.  I avoid conflict, I avoid the embarrassment of rejection, the looks from others that I might get for engaging with the drug dealer across the street.  What’s your point?

My point is that they need the Gospel too.  Jesus didn’t see a tax collector.  He saw an apostle.  One that would pen one of the Gospels. 

Ok Colby,  I get it.  They need the Gospel too.  But I can’t see what Jesus saw.  I can’t see if that person will be good for the church.  It isn’t safe for me to share with the drug dealer across the street.

You can pray that Jesus would show you value in everyone.  Just like what he sees.  After all…

Matthew 28:18-20 CSB
[18] Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. [19] Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He says,

Go, make disciples of all!

He also says,

I am with you always, to the end of the age.

To answer the safety aspect with that drug dealer.  Whoever said following Jesus would be safe?

Matthew 16:24-25 CSB
[24] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. [25] For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow Him.  Jesus was going to Golgotha.  Golgotha was not a safe place.  It is where Jesus would give His life for you and I.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t count the cost of your actions.

I’m saying that sharing Jesus is worth any cost.

I’m saying as a Christian.  We don’t get to pick and choose who comes into the Kingdom.  We are to share with the lost of this world.

All of them!

We are called by Scandalous Grace, to share Scandalous Grace.  I guarantee you that I’ve been just as heinous as anyone ever has and Jesus loves me anyway.  Loves me enough to change me.  I’m not the heinous person I used to be because of Scandalous Grace.  Grace that sits with sinners and tax collectors.

The Grace who is Jesus!

Go share with a sinner today!  How scandalous!  To share Grace with one of those!  Oh my.

Love in Christ,

Colby