September 11 Gathered Flock

Luke 5:29-32 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
 
THERE are times in ministry (I am sure this is true of all ministers.) when I have been among people of the church or others I don’t necessarily know at a potluck dinner or other type of meal. As I ate and conversed with them, there was a great longing in my heart that everyone present would personally experience a close, loving relationship with Jesus. I wanted to wrap my arms around all to say, “Jesus loves you very much. I pray you know and enjoy his love.”
    The gospels record Jesus sitting with his people at meals as described here. I believe what we ministers experience in these occasions was a small slice of what Jesus felt as he sat with his people.
    Perhaps we can more deeply understand Jesus’ emotions during his ministry with these words from Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Jesus knows how deep is their sin. Their sin is the reason he calls them to himself. With a profound love, our Lord “longed to gather” his people to him. Coming to him, they would come out of their sin and gather into his salvation.
    His passion is emphasized with the repetition of “Jerusalem, Jerusalem”. In the Hebrew language, this repetition indicates a deep desire for the city and his people. “The Son of Man, who came to seek and to save the lost,” (Luke 19:10) expresses his longing for the lost to be his own as he created them to be.
    That day in Levi’s home, Jesus sat with men who had committed great sin against his people. Yet, he sat down with them. He conversed with them. He fellowshipped with them. He loved on them. Surely the righteous Lord could have spoken of and condemned their sin. But he was intent to seek and save them.
    Sometimes we need to go into those kinds of places to sit with people who live apart of God. They are lost because they do not know the way. Our work is to not separate them from Jesus, but by our love we are to show them the way to Jesus.
 
Prayer: Grant me a love as yours, Lord. Teach me to teach the lost of the way to Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.