Sitting At The TABLE

"Sitting at the table with JESUS were the "tax collectors and sinners;"

But the self-righteous scoffed at this holy dinner

with the SOUL WINNER."

Tiffany Williams

In Matthew 9:9-13, JESUS had given his followers one of His examples and that is not to allow society's culture to dictate who they are to evangelize. When the Pharisees had saw JESUS eating with the "publicans and the sinners," they had asked his disciples why was he eating with them? But when JESUS had heard their inquiry, He said to them; "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Unlike the Pharisees, JESUS did not require people to change before coming to Him. In fact, He sought them out, met them in their present situation and extended grace to them. Eventually, change will come to those who has accepted Christ and this takes time; and time is measured by GOD (Job 38:5-7).

The Invitation given to those to come and sit at GOD's table has been extended to the sinners and it was given at the cross. JESUS came to save all; including the sinners; however, "devout" people who are bound by their traditional values, laws and cultures; will banish whomever they despised. All through-out JESUS’ ministry, He reached out to those who needed Him. He conversed with a despised Samaritan woman at a well while surprising His disciples in John 4:27. He had forgiven a woman who was labeled; immoral in Luke 7, He helped a Syro-Phoenician woman in Mark 7, He touched a leper in Luke 5, and He entered Zacchaeus’s house and dined with him in Luke 19. Time after time, and today; JESUS still touches the undesirable, the untouchable, the loved and the unlovely.

In conclusion, JESUS had chosen to eat with sinners because they needed to know that repentance and forgiveness was available to them; lest we as His followers forget. As a result, JESUS’ ministry and popularity had grew; among the sociably outcasts of society. Therefore, we cannot forget that it is the sick who needs a physician; the lost sheep who needs a shepherd, which is why “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” and for this; I am thankful that he saved a "wretched" woman like me.

JESUS said "because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). Perhaps many of us may had forgotten the kindness of GOD that was once extended to us and lead us to repentance, so let us keep our seat and welcome many to sit "at the TABLE."