ClearPath Scripture
Discussions about scripture as we read the Bible together, following the ClearPath Church reading plan.
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ClearPath Scripture
Jesus Eats With Sinners (Matthew 9)
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Chandra and Zane have a mother-son chat about how God deals with sin.
Tempo: 120.0
SPEAKER_00Hello, all my friends. Here we are, another Clear Path Scripture Week. What a treat for you all. You get to hang out with my mom this morning.
SPEAKER_01Hello.
SPEAKER_00And uh we're just gonna open up the scripture and talk about it. This week I thought that we should do something a little different, break from the pattern. Most weeks we've been uh, or every week so far, we've been going read a reading out of our main book that we're going through, which has been Genesis lately. And so we talked about the story of Joseph late uh last week. And currently, this week's reading, we're finishing up the story of Joseph and the book of Genesis. But I wanted to highlight a different part of our daily reading, which is the meditation scripture that we have each week. And so this is also kind of a reminder to you guys that in your scripture magazine or PDF, whatever it is you use, you have a meditation scripture for each week. And every day we encourage you to spend a few minutes just meditating on that passage, or even if you don't get to it every day. Maybe you can at least get to it a couple times a week and let God really speak to you. Every week, those are the words of Jesus, and there's not much better that you can sit and think about than the words of Jesus and what they mean to you in your life and what they teach us about who God is. So this week we're gonna be talking about our meditation passage, which is once again the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter nine. And this week it was verses 11 through 13, but I'm gonna back up and start in verse 9 just so we have a little more context for this reading. Side note if any of you are new to this or guests with us and you don't have uh our reading plan and would like to read along with us, send me an email. My email is zane z-a-n e at clearpath.life. Clearpath.life. So send me an email and I'm happy to send you the PDF. And even if you don't go to our church, you're welcome to read along with us. So, enough of that really long intro. Mom, here we go. I'm ready. Matthew chapter nine, verse nine. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said, 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.
SPEAKER_01I love it. So when you said um that this is the scripture you were gonna pick for podcasted, I want to come over and have a chat. And of course, told me I couldn't chat until we got here. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00She started, she started just running away with her thoughts of this scripture about 30 seconds in. I was like, stop, drive to my house, and then you can say it.
SPEAKER_01So now I get to talk. I love this scripture though, and I have meditated on it Zane lots of times throughout my life. And uh I said, this scripture is an anchor point for me that tells me that Jesus is not afraid of my sin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I delight in knowing that he is not afraid of my sin. It has been one of the very formational scriptures that has taught me to not be afraid of another person's sin, like my people that I'm in community with. So I love it how he he is not only um, not only has he been hanging out with sinners, but he is openly and boldly accountable to his choice.
SPEAKER_00That's true. And I I think this is one of the things that I have learned from you throughout my life. There are certain things that we learn from each of our parents or different people, and this was something you always championed was that God wasn't afraid of our sin. And I think that always made you a very approachable person for me, if I had sinned, that I didn't feel like I had to have the Adam and Eve response of blaming someone or hiding, but I it was okay that I had a problem and wasn't gonna get a dangerous response, if if if you will.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So, you know, um I've always known Jesus as the one who would get in the pits with me, right? So it's this scripture constantly reminds me of him in the pit. He didn't just walk by a sinner and observe them from afar, but he would come near, you know, and um desire relationship and those things. And I think it's such a a point for me to do that not only with my family, but even with a stranger. Sometimes you can look from afar and you're like, hmm, you observe sin, you know, and you think I'm not sure I'm I'm called to relationship with that. Because in my upbringing, and it was a lot of your upbringing too, was some of the um the scripture. I don't know, I haven't championed it as well as this one, but it said to not uh don't be hanging out with a bad bad company corrupts good morals. There it was. Yes, bad company. And it is a scripture, not just a good prophet.
SPEAKER_00No, that's a scripture. That's a scripture. I I believe it's probably in Proverbs, and there are many of them in Proverbs that say the same thing. So you're you're on the right track.
SPEAKER_01Surely. So, you know, when there was a there was an era there of my growing up that you were encouraged to to withdraw from sinful situations and you know, uh even avoid the appearance of evil, if you will, right?
SPEAKER_00Which, if it's a temptation for you, is very wise, and you should definitely stay away from it. But if it's not a temptation for you, you you it's kind of a challenge to know yourself, right? And in no way can we say that the most holy people would avoid bad situations or sinners. I mean, it's the very incarnation of Jesus. It's it's actually kind of the whole point that instead of God fixing things from a distance, that he sees that we have a problem, that he sees that we are a total mess. And instead of avoiding it or even just chastising it, he says, Oh, let me enter into that. And so Jesus here in that very same way, you know, we see him encounter Matthew. I think those of us who have watched The Chosen, we probably all love how the chosen, how the chosen has personified Matthew. It's very fun. But I mean, these people were just hated. And I think it's funny how the Bible even just leans into that and it says, and he came to eat with, and it says with other tax collectors and sinners.
SPEAKER_01Yes, right in the same boat. Yeah, yeah, they tax collectors in a special category.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they might as well just be a sinner, right? They're just one of the sinners. And so I don't know who all Jesus is hanging out with here, but definitely some people that would get you a side-eye.
SPEAKER_01Yes, for sure. Well, and when I think about this scripture, it quickly tags me over to um, I guess it must be James chapter five, Zane, because I think of all the times that we have quoted that when we talk about calling for an elder of the church and letting them pray over you and that you would be forgiven of your sins. And that scripture, if you remember, when you get into that, that part ends where it talks about confess your sins to each other and they'll be be forgiven. And right after that it says, and the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. So when I think about him hanging with these sinners and having this communion, this meal with them, like we can just have a conversation over meal zane about the sin in our life. Yeah, we could confess that to a close ally, if you will. Like where I see Jesus here.
SPEAKER_00And that makes me think of whenever Jesus empowers the disciples and he says, Um, you know, whoever you forgive will be forgiven. Whoever's sins you retain, they will be retained. I think he says that to the disciples. Says it's it's somewhere. Yes. Um, but I've always really wrestled with that scripture, especially as someone who's kind of in a you know pastoral posit position. I have come to really cherish the opportunity when someone comes and confesses to me to tell them that they're forgiven, to affirm God's forgiveness over them. Not that I think I'm a uh quite the same as like a Catholic priest who, okay, go do this penitence and you will be forgiven. But just to hear their confession, acknowledge their change of heart, and say, okay, I forgive you and God forgives you. Because it seems that Jesus was already doing this here when he chose to eat, not even just talk to sinners, but to eat with them. Yes. It's going beyond, right? This is definitely being involved in their life. And that I think that he's invited us into that. It's the ministry of reconciliation. That's what the Bible has called us into as priests, the ministry of reconciliation. And so the other thing that jumps out to me here is that Jesus tells the Pharisees, go and learn what this means. And my Bible has a note here that he's talking about Hosea 6, 6. Go and learn what this scripture means that you guys have probably learned since you were kids. This is what he's saying to them. You know it, but you don't live it. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And he's looking at those who are religious, who I've been so many times in my life, that are following all of the right traditions and they're performing their worship properly in the eyes of all men. But their hearts are not right, and they're not humble, and they're not loving, and they're not merciful, and they would rather that these people get judgment than find their way to God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know, on our um online prayer, we have the prayer. I think possibly Jordan might have coined this prayer, one of them that had been written that we would share routinely. And it talks about how um there is this um forgiveness of God. And it makes me think about the words, the prayer hopped out of my head, but it'll circle back around. But it makes me think about the words, even that God will give us in a moment for another to affirm who we're looking at. One of the most transformational things that has happened for me being a part of Clear Path is the way Jordan and yourself and others have encouraged people to um to see the person in front of you and see Jesus in them, right? And that's what it says. It says we don't come and look for the for the righteous and holy, but we come and we look at the humbled and broken. And in them we see ourselves and we find Christ, right? In that, in that online prayer that we would share with each other. And I think about the time that you told the young man that you were meeting with, the uh you felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to tell him he was a good man.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, that was a guy who visited our church. Yes.
SPEAKER_01God stopped me in the middle of national it was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I mean, God cared enough to stop me in the middle of worship and to tell me, go tell that guy he's a good guy. And I'm like, not only am I kind of breaking the flow of worship as the worship leader in this moment, but but God, you're gonna need to give me a better prophetic word than that. Like, you know, uh give me something that will wow him because I'm sometimes more concerned with how I look, my own pride, than I am just doing what God says. Yep. And yeah, that's all God wanted me to tell him. You're a good guy. His name was John. And John came back a month later, shocked, and said, I don't know what happened to me, but I've always been a bad person, mistreated women, been in and out of prison, mistreated everyone, really. And he said, For a month now, I've been a good guy and I don't know what happened.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So the prayer that is frequently spoken over us of having eyes to see and ears to hear, what God is doing in the in ourselves and in the people around us is such a powerful one. One of those, the prayers of a righteous man, are powerful and effective that I mentioned in James 5, right? Yeah. When I think about that, um, to be able to see that person in front of you, not for their sin, but for who God has created them. And to see beyond, I just think that when we really lean in to realizing who he has come for, that that he entrusts us with those eyes to see and those ears to hear of what he's doing in someone else around us. You know, and it gives us that ability to truly partner with him in this verse right here, right? Just like you with John that day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's it's all an expression of his love. So, like even when I've taught on that subject before prophecy, then an easy scripture to end up in is the testimony of Jesus as the spirit of prophecy. And you see Jesus encounter these people, and he's not just seeing them or calling them out for what they are right now, he sees what God's going to make them. And if we allow God to invite us into his love and we see people, no matter where they are right now, if we see them through the eyes of God, what we end up doing is we prophesy to them, meaning that we tell them who they're going to become. We we start to see them as what God's making them, and that they bear the image of God before they are even properly fully bearing the image of God. And so we get to do exactly what Jesus is doing by eating with all these sinners, and we become the testimony of Jesus to them.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And the other part of the scripture that stirs me, or the other side of this, is not only beholding another as a sinner, but beholding myself as a sinner.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And knowing that this is transformational when I can view myself in a shortcoming, but no, this is exactly where Jesus came to meet me in. To not leave me there, right? But to bring me into a new place and to not not ever have arrived in a place of righteousness, but hold um an honest view of myself, right? Yes. Sometimes it's hard to have an honest view of yourself, but to just hold an honest view of yourself and to entrust yourself to God. Sometimes we would entrust ourselves to a friend before we would entrust ourselves to God, who would truly do the work for us, you know, show us where to do the work with Him.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So and I find God to be so merciful when we come to Him with our problems. Like lately, I've God's made me more and more aware of just that I can be very egocentric. Just look at anything that happens in life and apply it to myself. Wonder how it's affecting me before I think about the people around me. Right. And so as I come to him with this over and over and over, I just find his mercy. I don't find him to be scolding me or spanking me. I just, and this has been so life-changing in my life with other people as well. I've had plenty of moments in my life where I came to someone that I trusted and confessed something very uncomfortable. Confessing sin is not particularly enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And so I've come before and confessed very uncomfortable things, things that I could not get past the turmoil in my own soul. But then when I come and confess them to someone who loves me, and I receive forgiveness from them, and I receive the love of God from them, and they don't come down with judgment or punishment as you could imagine in your mind. If I tell someone about this sin, here's going to be all the terrible fallout.
SPEAKER_01The torment of our mind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. To not do the thing we should do. Yes. And the torment of not confessing is worse. I mean, when you confess, it's so freeing. And then especially if you confess to a holy person who gives you the love of God.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And I mean, it's it is, I cannot even properly describe that feeling because it there may not be a better feeling. It's it's such a load off. So if anyone listening to this, if you've been struggling to confess something, do yourself a favor and go to someone that's trustworthy, not just anyone, but someone trustworthy and confess to them and let them, along with God, just take the load off of your off of your soul of that sin. Um, all right, as to not go a long time, because I'm sure we could talk about this for the next couple hours. I'm gonna close us down here. And would you like to pray us out? Sure. All right, pray for all these people listening and pray for me.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna pray for all of us, listening and present. So it makes me think of um before on Sunday, before we had a time of confession, Jeremy had come up and taken the microphone. And I commented to him, I said, You stewarded inviting people into repentance so beautifully. Yeah. Because you said you're not going to be exposed to shame, you're going to be exposed to the kindness and the love of God. And I said, those words made me just dig within myself to find what God was going to reveal to me that morning sitting there, the places that he wanted me to be better than how I had left myself, right? So, God, I thank you for your presence with Zane and I here and those listening on this podcast. I thank you for the work that you are always doing within us, uh, the unique way that you're speaking the language of the one that hears you, as well as the one that hears us sharing the beauty of your love for us today. I pray as you speak to each heart that we would boldly and with great joy allow the Holy Spirit to point out the places that we need to have confession. Because there is a place that we learn that it's a delight to be corrected rather than harshness. The beauty that you have in correcting us is beyond anything I have experienced. And the beauty that we find in the body of Christ when we boldly confess to them as well is also life-changing. Thank you, God, for the ways you have transformed me through forgiveness and you've lightened my load through repentance. And I ask that that mercy would be poured out on every hearer today as they hold this scripture that you have come for the sinner and the sick. That we would not remain in that condition, God, that you would pour out a beautiful love of compassion and the drawing of the Spirit that can be replaced with no other drawing into holiness. I thank you for that, that beautiful love, that we would experience it anew in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Love you, mom.
SPEAKER_01Love you too, Zay.
SPEAKER_00Love all you, friends. See ya.