Luke Chapter Five: Coming to terms with being a scumbag

In the Gospel of Luke, there is an account in chapter five where a tax collector decides on a career switch to become a follower of Jesus instead.

As with all job changes, he throws a farewell party and invites a bunch of his old colleagues, the notorious scumbags of society who cheats the common folk by overcharging taxes. And he invites Jesus.

And so of course the religious leaders who witnessed Jesus attending said party were upset. What’s this guy doing eating with this lot of scumbags?

Then Jesus, as always, comes along and says these wise words, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash

When I first read this passage, it made perfect sense to me. God is no respecter of persons. He came to seek and save the lost, and that’s what Christianity is about. It’s about being open to people and not judging them. It’s about giving hope to even the lowest of people and offering them a second chance. As a follower of Jesus that’s what I need to do — reach out to the awful people: the bullies, the bullied, the unwanted, the prostitutes, the jailbirds. The scumbags.

This Thursday i found myself attending a group therapy session for addicts. Oh, you’re a facilitator? What a great Christian you are, faithful to your calling to reach the lost, following your dear Savior’s example…

Nah. Nothing like that.

I attended the session as one of the addicts. Me, the addict. I’d very much have preferred to avoid going. It’s embarrassing, it’s shameful, it’s dreadful. But I had to go. Because I can’t handle my addiction. After all these years, it still has a grip on me and I can’t get out.

Here I was, in the company of sinners, each of us sharing how broken and how messed up our lives had become.

And then I thought to myself. So that’s what Luke chapter five is really about. It’s not Jesus presenting to us a broad moral principle to be nice and kind to awful people. It’s Jesus telling us that each and every one of us is a sick person, a sinner, a scumbag. I am that awful person. You are that awful person. We all are. And it is only in coming to terms with that, admitting that, that we can be healed. And then maybe…we can help point somebody else to that same healing.

Here I am, the sick who needs a doctor, the sinner who needs repentance. Awesome.