Jesus hung out with drunks, prostitutes, and outcasts.
The religious right of his day pointed this out, asking Jesus’ followers, “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus overheard their question and answered, using three big buts.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The religious right of our day will clap back, ‘Yes, but by the time Jesus was finished with them they weren’t drunks, prostitutes, or outcasts anymore. Jesus came to change people, not indulge them.’
That, my friends, is lousy exegesis and toxic theology. Jesus came to love.
When religious leaders asked Jesus which was the greatest of all God’s commandments, he replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Love does change people. So, yes, Jesus did come to change people, but he did it by loving them. And whether those he encountered—the drunks, prostitutes, and outcasts—changed or not, Jesus kept loving them.
Jesus was tolerant, welcoming, and affirming.
Jesus was tolerant of everyone except the religious folks who rejected, marginalized, and ostracized others. He called them hypocrites, blind guides, whitewashed tombs, and a den of vipers.
He welcomed the bruised and broken. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)
He affirmed any and all who came in faith, no matter what kind of life they were living.
Just about everything Jesus did annoyed religious folks. He hung out with outcasts, because he was one.
He invites all: Come as you are!
Big Buts of the Bible 