Are you feeling a failure as the new year starts?
2,000 years after the Pharisees muttered against their Messiah, the religious world is at it again.
Elizabeth Fiorenza in her book Jesus: Miriam's and Sophia's Prophet Child enlists Jesus as her champion against male domination, while Barbara Thierring unlocks the secrets of Jesus' life and discovers that he is a wicked priest of Qumram! Martin Smith writes about Jesus the Magician - the title says it all. But the real headline-snatcher is Dr. Robert Funk's - The Five Gospels, and his search for the authentic words of Jesus.
Dr. Funk gathered a team of scholars to search for the authentic sayings of Jesus. And their method? Each man dropping different coloured beads into a bucket, the colour of the bead signifying a vote for authenticity or otherwise. The result is staggering: we can only be certain that 18% of Jesus' sayings are authentic! John's Gospel was entirely discarded. Time Magazine reported: 'Just about all we know of the real Jesus it seems is that he had a disciple named Mary Magdalene, entered a synagogue at least once, and met some Pharisees.'
Burning the world
While these pathetic little minds have been fiddling, the real world has been burning. We have been faced with the horrific crimes of Rosemary and Fred West, the murder of Philip Lawrence, Dunblane and tens of thousands of crimes unmarked by the press. Maybe it was your house that was burgled, your car stolen, your neighbour behaving like a pig, your boss totally unreasonable, your friend betraying your trust, your marriage under pressure, your parents who parted, your teenager walking away from Christ, your church divided, your pastor forced to leave or your church members squabbling.
And behind all your bad news is the nation lurching like a drunken sailor slithering across the deck of a reeling ship. We do our best, calling an amnesty on knives and guns and instructing our teachers how to deal with dangerous weapons. We have built bigger and better prisons and passed the 1989 Children Act, and we have wrung our hands in despair. As the real world writhes in agony, the scholars drop their coloured beads into a bucket.
But in verse 2 of Luke 15, in words spat out through the snarling teeth of our Lord's enemies, is the answer to all we now face: 'This man welcomes sinners'. Our glorious redeemer who wept over Jerusalem still weeps over our crumbling world. Cast your eyes back and read Luke 14 about the great King's banquet to which the rude, the ragged and the off-cuts of society were invited. Who invited them? 'This man'. At verse 26, he lays down the condition for following him. He says: 'Hold it! You're not serious enough.' And yet he welcomes all kinds of sinners who are wholehearted for him. If this man did not attract sinners, I would not be writing and you would not be reading this. And who is he? He is the sovereign creator of the universe who, by a word of command and in a moment of time, spun out the galaxies into the heavens, and also the one who became man to die for sinners on a cross.
Ignorant bead poppers
Clearly Dr. Funk and his band of merry plastic bead-popping scholars have never known Christ, or met him at the Cross. They have never walked with him in the reality of life, never gazed into the face of the one who suffered, died, was buried, rose again and went back to heaven to stand on their behalf.
There was a time when the great apostle Paul considered this man merely human but all was changed when he met with Christ. We all once thought of him as merely human but now he is the altogether lovely one, the one who won our heart's affection. This Man has been with us through all the ups and downs of life and he has never disappointed us. The world may mock and scorn, toss its head, write its books, shoot its films and pen its articles but we love this man and nothing can separate us from him. Why? Because this man welcomes sinners.
He receives us
Are you conscious of failure - do you feel spiritually bedraggled and cold-hearted? Listen: this man welcomes sinners. Some translations have the word 'receives', correctly, because that is what the Greek word means. At the same time it is a word that means more. A Queen may receive her subjects in some distant, austere manner, but this word is much warmer than that. You know the mixed feelings you have when you go to the door because you are never quite sure who is on the other side! It can be anyone from the man who has come to read the meter to those other people who are always trying to get a foot in the door! You are not over-warm in your welcome to these folk. When the man comes with his little calculator in his hands, you simply say: 'It's in the broom cupboard under the stairs.'
But how different when you open the door and you are greeted by the smiling faces of friends. When you welcome them you give them dignity and friendship - a warm welcome. Every time I come to Christ in prayer, every time I call for his help, every time I ask for his forgiveness in failure, he welcomes me as a friend to whom he gives dignity and infinite worth.
This is what these Pharisees in their jibe realised. They saw that Jesus loved to be with sinners because he loved them. What kind of man could attract sinners like this? What kind of man could change sinners like our Lord Jesus Christ? He is never out of sorts, short-tempered or hostile. He welcomes me and, when he welcomes me, his Father also welcomes me. This man welcomes sinners and they are the only kind of people he does welcome! These Pharisees thought they were giving their knife its final twist when they said this, but they were giving the greatest testimonial anyone could offer to our Lord.
New Year
As we come to the beginning of another year, do you come with a sense of failure? Maybe 1996 has not been a good year for you or your family - there are problems and you know only too well who is to blame! Perhaps the problems are in your church - and you are inclined to blame your pastor, the elders or the deacons, but you are painfully aware that you are very much a part of the problem. Perhaps as you look back you seem to have done so little for Christ's honour. So you begin another year as a sinner!
The world looks on at us and says: 'You think you are a cut above all the rest of us.' The difference between us and others is that we know we are sinners and that we need a Saviour. This levels us all. We do not come as clergy and laity, minister and members, clever and not clever, educated and uneducated, leaders and young people - we are all sinners! Jesus receives us because he has plans for sinners. He wants to remake us into his glorious image and one day he will certainly present us faultless before his Father. He wants to change us.
We are marching towards that day when, in a moment and a twinkling of an eye, we shall be like him and we shall be welcomed into his glorious Kingdom. So whoever you are, whatever kind of year you leave behind, you come to the Saviour. Receive his forgiveness at the Cross. Be glad that he loves you in spite of what you are - certainly not because of anything you have done. Go into the new year remembering: 'This man welcomes sinners.'
Brian Edwards
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