Daily Lesson for October 6, 2021

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 9 verses 10 through 13:

10 And as he sat at dinner* in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

I love this story. It's the story that first captured my imagination about Jesus. We read it in Bible Study when I was in high school and Jesus' quick wit and good sense grabbed hold of me. When Jesus said, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick," I was like, "Well, I'm coming back to listen to more that this guy has to say. He's brilliant and isn't afraid to cause a little trouble." The Pharisees were slack-jawed.

This was the kind of community I imagined creating in my first church. The kind of place where sinners were welcome. The kind of place where the sick could find a doctor. I wanted it to be a radical church.

But then I got to church and found out something pretty shocking. I didn't have to gather all the sinners and sick people. They were already there! Philanderers, and tax cheats, and racists, and drunks, and gluttons of all kinds. There they all were -- right out there in the pews.

I was slack-jawed, which means I was a lot more like the Pharisees in this story than I was like Jesus.

We don't really have to worry about gathering all the sinners. They'll turn up.

And that dream of the perfect community of sinners we like will be replaced by real sinners we don't.

And that too is church.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.