The "defects" of Jesus (Part 5)
(5) Jesus as a friend to sinnersNot just in Jewish society at the time Jesus lived on earth, but in the our society today, it is difficult to accept "the decent people" to hang out with class was rated as "not decent people".
At that time, compatriot of Jesus notion that two types of people in particular that "not decent" was the tax collectors and sinners, especially the prostitutes. The sins which that time was considered unhealthy for those living body, such as lepers, disabled ... Those Pharisees were repeatedly to make questions about attitude of Jesus, and they were reminded the disciples of Jesus.
11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9,11)
According to the Gospels record, not just Jesus goes to meet, greet, or reluctantly to be invited to eat, but really he had sought the tax collectors and sinners, made friends with them and eat with them.
Mr. Zacchaeus is the "head of the tax collector" (Lk. 19, 2); when he knew that Jesus would went through the city of Jericho, because worry about he would not be able to jostle with crowds of people, so he ran ahead, climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was very short. And then, when Jesus passed by, looked up at the tree, saw him and Jesus said immediately: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19: 5).
And to explain the paradox of his attitude, Jesus himself said about his mission, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matthew 9,12-13)
Luke 19:2-10
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
(Blog continues in comments section)
Comments (2)
As I told you in The "defects" of Jesus (part 1) that there is a person has raised defects of Jesus. So who is it? Now I would like to introduce to you some information about that person, he is St. Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
Thank you so much for reading and commenting
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_The_Living_Jesus_Christ.pdf
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