A Friend of Sinners

John the Baptist, in prison, sent some of his followers to ask Jesus an important question (Mt 11:3), “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus answered them and they departed. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds about John and ended with these words: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (Mt 11:18-19 NASB). Jesus was quoting His critics; they were the ones who accused Him of being a friend of sinners. From them, it was not a compliment.

Accusations were being made of Jesus and John the Baptist. John was separate and strict in his behavior and diet while Jesus mingled with the people and ate at their feasts. Not long before this, Jesus had called Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him and Matthew gave a big reception for Jesus at his house (Lk 5:29). A crowd of tax collectors and others whom the Pharisees referred to as “sinners” were also there, dining with Jesus and Matthew (Mt 9:10). The Pharisees questioned His actions and we see the motives of Jesus in His reply. “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:31-32).

Consider another incident involving this same criticism. In Luke 15:1-2, we are told that “… all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.” Again, the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus never avoided people who needed to hear His message; He always accepted those who came to Him. In the course of His travels and during the times of His teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God, Jesus often encountered people who were considered as the untouchables of society or the outcasts, the sinners, the unrighteous. He always was kind and good in His reception of them, so He was accurately considered as a friend to them. However, Jesus always was in the process of trying to save them from their sins, to be their spiritual “physician”.

The rest of Luke 15 is devoted to three stories Jesus told in response to the accusation that He, “… receives sinners and eats with them.” The first parable was of a shepherd who left ninety-nine sheep to search for and find the one sheep which had gotten lost. After finding the sheep the man calls together his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him. Jesus then declared (v 7), “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

The second parable was the story of a woman who had lost one coin, but swept her house and used a lamp to search for the lost coin. When she finds the coin, she called her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her. Jesus again declares, “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The third parable is perhaps more well known; it is the story of a lost son. We call it the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” This parable is a little different than the first two. In those parables, we see a picture of God searching for those who are lost. That is a picture of why Jesus came to earth and explains the actions of Jesus as He went about preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, bringing the “Good News” of salvation! But in this parable of the lost son, we see the father allowing the son to go his own way and try to live his own life, but eventually finding himself in terrible circumstances and finally seeing himself as lost. He came to his senses and returned to his father with true repentance. And as a beautiful picture of God, our heavenly Father, this earthly father joyfully receives his son back home, declaring (Lk 15:23-24), “… let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

In all this we find that Jesus was truly a “friend of sinners” but not simply for the enjoyment of their company or “hanging out” as people today seem to think. Let’s go back to Matthew 11:19 where Jesus listed the criticisms against Himself. He obviously was not a “gluttonous man” nor was He a “drunkard” and neither was He in the way the critics intended a “friend of tax collectors and sinners.” His final words there are, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Watching all that Jesus did, wisdom will reveal His intentions as well as His actions; Jesus was the Savior searching for those who were lost!

The question for us today, then, concerns our own intentions as we live in a world filled with sin. Are we simply enjoying friendships with sinners or are we praying constantly for the Lord to give us opportunities to share His truth, His good news, with those with whom we are friends, those who need to be saved?