Jesus ate with Pharisees too!
I think we need to be careful in the Church that we don’t focus so much on the sinner that we forget the Pharisee.
Yes, Jesus came to “seek and to save the lost.”
Yes, Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do.”
But the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were just as sick as the sinner. And Jesus reclined at the home of the Pharisee AND the sinner. He was trying to reach both. We tend to forget that.
Dr. Luke, in his biography about Jesus, records this:
Luke 7:36 (CSB) Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He (Jesus) entered the Pharisees house and reclined at the table.
As Christians and Christian leaders, we need to be careful that we don’t call out the Pharisees at the cost of reaching them too. We need to seek to be like Jesus!
Yes, we should welcome the sinner and love them towards Jesus, but we should also welcome the Pharisee and love them toward Jesus as well. This doesn’t mean that we don’t speak the truth, but we should be willing to recline at their table!
Jesus ate with Pharisees too, just like he did the prostitutes and sinners.