There's an old saying I heard long ago that says there's a right and wrong attitude toward thinking about the local church. Some think it's a rest home for saints, but God intended it as a hospital for sinners.

The Tyngsboro church has a "90 day challenge" in 2010, asking the members to read the New Testament in the first 3 months of the new year. Though I may be falling a little behind, I am trying. As I read the Gospels again, one of the things that impresses me is how often Jesus was criticized for his practice of eating with sinners. I knew it was in the Gospel accounts; I did not know how repeated and fervent that insult was nor how often it was used to discredit the Messiah and his message. But the Truth of Jesus' message was this: He didn't come to reward saints. If he had, his mission would have been brief and unproductive - there was no one worthy of such a reward. He came to heal sinners.

When Levi (Matthew) the tax collector left his work to follow Jesus, the next event recorded (Lk 5:29) is a feast where Matthew invited Jesus to eat with Matthew ... and "a large company of tax collectors and others" (ESV), the others being labeled "sinners" (Lk 5:30 ESV) by nearby critics. They probably were just that. And in that context Jesus made the famous pronouncement that "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Jesus didn't come to reward saints, he came to heal sinners.

Later a similar criticism was given at the house of Simon the Pharisee when an uninvited guest, a sinful woman, cried at Jesus feet (Lk 7:36-49). If he were a prophet he would have known what kind of woman she is. Indeed, he did. Those are the people he came for. Jesus didn't come to reward saints, he came to heal sinners.

In Luke 15:1 the critics are at it again. "This man receives sinners and eats with them." He sure does. And praise God that he does, because every day in my home, Jesus eats with some sinners. The parable of the Prodigal Son was one of the responses to that criticism. It's a horrible thing to shut the door of repentance to others, as the older brother in the parable tried to do, because it's a door we all must walk through. God forbid we should ever find it locked with ourselves on the outside. Jesus came to build a hospital for sinners with doors that don't lock. Jesus came to heal sinners.

Another tax collector shows up in Luke 19, and you know by now what Jesus will do. Jesus invited himself to stay at the house of Zaccheus, "And when they saw it, they all grumbled, 'He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."' (Lk 19:7). And by now the reason should be obvious: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Lk 19:10)

Would Jesus eat at your house? If you perceive yourself to be a sinner, maybe he would. If others perceive you to be a sinner, maybe he would. I'm not encouraging you to be a sinner. But I am encouraging you to recognize what many who saw Jesus did not: Those who perceive themselves to be righteous miss the message of the Son of Man and will probably not get a visit when he passes by. Those who understand that they are sick with sorrow and sin and need what Jesus has to offer will not only welcome Jesus into their homes but they will be thrilled that others who need him even worse than they do are at least trying to find him. Jesus will visit homes like that. But he will not waste his time on homes where they don't need him. Jesus came to heal sinners.

If you find the perfect church that has no sinners in it, let me know where. We can both stand outside and peer in the windows and observe. But we dare not enter, because we would ruin it. "Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (I Tim 1:15). Jesus came to heal sinners.

Vance