~ by Cindy Lee Myers
Jesus bids us come to Him. And lest we hold back, wondering whether His invitation really includes us in particular, Jesus calls us repeatedly both by His words and through His examples. Again and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus welcomed people whom others discouraged and even despised.
The woman who had been hemorrhaging during the course of twelve years must have known the Law of Moses declared her unclean. Maybe that’s why she snuck up on Jesus, hoping to go unnoticed, yet desperately wanting just to touch His garment.
Jesus promptly rejected her unspoken request for anonymity and insisted she identify herself. He wanted her to know for sure that she hadn’t somehow hijacked her healing from Him without His permission. No, no, she was welcome with Christ.
The lepers certainly knew they were unclean. They weren’t allowed to be anywhere near healthy people. Still they came to Jesus and He welcomed them. He even touched them when His mere word would have been plenty sufficient to heal them!
And besides these, Jesus welcomed the lame, the maimed, the dumb, the blind, and even demoniacs – people with every kind of disease and disfigurement.
Sometimes the crowds tried to hush people. Blind men crying out for mercy from the Son of David were rebuked, happily to no avail. The scribes, the Pharisees and rulers of the synagogues were hands-down champion discouragers. Indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, they demanded that the people go away.
Was it with mocking that they instructed them: “Come to be healed any other day of the week.”? At a dinner in his own home, Simon the Pharisee watched a woman wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. He watched as she anointed His feet with ointment. He watched with disdain, knowing she was a sinner. He knew she was unworthy to be around righteous people, and he judged Christ as no prophet because He was obviously ignorant of her disqualified status.
But Jesus knew full well who she was. He turned the tables and confronted Simon with her evident nobility! She had shown Him genuine honor, while His host for the meal had neglected the most common courtesies of the day. Christ forgave her much and welcomed her “much love”.
Tax collectors must have embodied the essence of all that was despicable. The religious elite of Israel practically spat their hatred of Jesus: “He eats with tax collectors and sinners. He doesn’t even wash His hands!” Yes, Jesus welcomed these horrid people.
He invited Himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ place and called Levi, better known as Matthew, to join Him as an apostle. When the scribes and Pharisees kept on accusing Him of fraternizing with these riffraff, Jesus told three beautiful stories. He told them of a shepherd who jeopardized his own safety to search out and bring safely home his one lost sheep – even when he had ninety-nine more who were far less trouble to care for.
There’s a place for each of us on the Good Shepherd’s shoulders. He welcomes us all – even the one-percenters. He spoke about a woman who swept and swept, searching diligently for her one lost coin. Jesus welcomes us all – even when He has to search through the dirt to find us. And then He told them that astonishing story about the lost son.
Did the prodigal son luck out? Did he just happen to come home on the one day when his father was feeling nostalgic and extraordinarily forgiving? No way! The father was ready to forgive every day. And so is Christ. Jesus welcomes us all – no matter where we’ve been, no matter how much mercy we’ve already squandered. He bids each of us in repentance and faith to come home to Him.
Even the disciples, who had themselves received Christ’s mercy firsthand, still wondered whether some people should be welcome with Him. They marveled that He conversed with the Samaritan woman, but didn’t mention their reservations out loud. Even so, several times they actually took a shot at sending people away from Jesus. They thought the children should be denied an audience, but Jesus overruled them.
They urged the Lord to “send the crowds away” to get food, but instead He welcomed thousands with an astonishing meal. And then they were indignant with the woman in Bethany who broke the alabaster flask and poured expensive ointment on Jesus’ head. They saw only a waste of precious assets. But Jesus overruled them again. He received her sacrificial expression of lavish love as “a beautiful thing” and promised that her devotion to Him would be long remembered “wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world”.
Jesus went on record forever to make sure that every generation knows how completely He welcomed her. Jesus went on welcoming people even as He hung on the cross. Matthew and Mark record that both thieves reviled Him on Golgotha that day. Yet later, as the sky darkened and death drew near, one of them confessed the justice of their punishment and simply asked that Jesus would remember him someday, eventually “when you come into your kingdom”. But someday, eventually was no way soon enough for the Lord Jesus. Instead, Christ granted him “today . . . in Paradise”.
Come to Jesus. Know for a certainty that you are welcome with Christ. He has engraved your invitation on the palms of His hands.