Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning, and though we have in no way deserved Your goodness, You still abundantly provide for all our wants of body and soul. Give us, we pray, Your Holy Spirit, that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness toward us, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever.
What kind of company do you keep? Do you follow Jesus in keeping bad company? Should you for that matter travel around in the “wrong crowd”? Why is it that parents want to know were their children are and with whom they are associating? Could it be that they are simply heeding the advice of St. Paul who reminds us that, “Bad company ruins good morals”?
In Jesus’ day the religious elite refused to associate with certain kinds of and classes of people. Furthermore, they criticized Jesus when He openly associated with and freely ate with those considered to be the “sinners”. Could there be a right and a wrong way to associate with the so called “dirties” of this world? Let us examine how Jesus has given us the proper example of what kind of company we should keep, as together we face a forgiving God in our daily walk with the Savior.
1. Sinners are Bad company.
Jesus we are told openly associated and mingled and socialized with the known dregs of His day. They were the outcastes of society. The ones no one else wanted to associate with. What were the list of those with whom Jesus had an open association? They included tax collectors who made themselves rich by demanding exorbitant taxes, women who sold their bodies to satisfy the sexual lust of their customers. These were people who told dirty stories and used profane language.
In our day there are the Charles Mansons, the Himmlers, the Bonnie and Clydes, the John Dillingers of the world. The list is endless! These people are atheists, anti-God, anti-church, and anti-decency. Are we to associate with these types of people? In a sense – yes. No, we are not to take upon their habits and beliefs. We live in this world but we are called out of this world. And yet, our calling does not mean that we are to disassociate with these people. They too need the gospel of Jesus Christ who desires that we come to Him for salvation and life. These people are in need of a change.
2. Sinners need repentance.
Jesus associated with sinners not because He approved of their way of life. He did not associated with them because He accepted their behavior. He did not associate with them because He approved of their lifestyle. No, He associated with them because He desired that they come to Him for salvation and life.
Jesus knew that these people needed Him. They needed friendship and understanding. He went to them for a purpose, a divine purpose and that was to lead them to repentance and a new life. He went to them and searched them out to show them a better way to live. As He said, ‘I did not come for those who were well but for those in need of a physician.”
Jesus did not, and nor should we, go to them to become one of them. This is where St. Paul’s instruction of bad company bringing ruin to good morals holds true. But we are not to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that there are not people in need of the Savior’s help. That is why Jesus came to these people and especially to us in time and space so that we might become one with Him. Jesus Christ came into this world to call sinners unto Himself and that is why He actively sought them out for He had something to offer. He gives us what we really need. He exchanges His life of holiness for our life of sin and in a great exchange offers to us forgiveness and life.
This is the reason for today’s church to go to the worst, to the prisons, to the criminals, to the anti-God people of this earth. If the church does not go who will reach them? Our mission to the world should discriminate against no one and yet reach out to the highways and by ways and compel all to come in.
3. Sinners are wanted by God.
The gospel story of the waiting father simply reminds us that you and I have a heavenly Father who yearns, longs, and waits for the sinner to come home to Him. There will always be a warm welcome waiting. When one returns there will be no questions asked, there will be no scolding – only the joy or reconciliation. This is how He has received you and me. This is His motive in winning the world and this will be His reception of all who come to Him in repentance seeking His pardon and grace.
Conclusion: In the open, yet nail scared hands of the wounded Savior you and I find forgiveness and life, He waits for us to come to Him in repentance. As we have received His tender mercies we now go out into the world compelling all to come to Him. No matter what the past it shall be forgiven and forgotten. That is the mercy, compassion, and pardon which the Savior has promised for us. He receives sinners unto Himself. That was the title by which people identified with Jesus. May we claim that message even today that w efface life with Jesus facing a forgiving God who receives sinners unto Himself.
Woodcut by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld, a nineteenth-century German artist known especially for his book Das Buch der Bücher in Bilden (‘The Book of Books in Pictures’), ©WELS
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