Notorious (Expanded)

Have come to realize better why Jesus chose to socialize with tax collectors (Jewish officials collecting Roman taxes from their own people and sometimes “snitching” on them) and “sinners” meaning people who were obviously doing wrong and made no pretenses about it. (Luke 5 verse 30) And why he let the ill-reputed woman with the alabaster box kiss his feet, weep over him and anoint him with precious ointment, when his critics said that if he were a real prophet he would know what kind of woman this was. (Luke 7 v. 37) Well he did know better than anyone but it didn’t matter, because she knew how desperately much she NEEDED a Savior and treasured his presence. These unpretentious wrongdoers happened to be the ones who celebrated his presence as it ought to have been celebrated, because they knew they didn’t deserve to be anywhere near him and yet Jesus didn’t see it that way, he WANTED them there. In the dictionary and vocabulary of grace, there is no such word as “deserve.” As these people went on ( many of them) to be dramatically transformed by the power of this grace of his, it made a powerful contrast to their old ways of life. “Do you remember how this one used to look, used to behave, and look at him (her) now?! No way this is the same person!! That HAD to be the power of God to cause such a radical change! And so God was glorified and praised for what was happening. Jesus knew what he was doing in strategically choosing these ones like Levi, and Mary Magdalene and the demoniacs, and the blind man, and the lepers. People who had obvious, undeniable need which drove them to humble themselves at his feet. Their need and their sin was the black backdrop for the vivid colors of his marvelous grace! History including the Scripture is replete with examples of this. Think of Gideon who by his own account was the least in his father’s house and of the least of the clans of Israel yet the MOST High chose the LEAST to better display the greatness of his power and mercy, assembling a mere three hundred like him as a means to do it. Think also of the prodigal son who wasted his living until his change of heart came, and his father’s surprising response. Think of Augustin and Francis of Assisi who led privileged but riotous, immoral lives before hitting rock bottom and crying out frantically to God, who stooped and lifted them from pits of sin and misery only to “reinvent” them for his high purposes. Augustin’s mother Monica had pleaded in prayer on his behalf for years, had pleaded with tears that God kept in a bottle and remembered. God doesn’t just get the work of salvation done, God gets it done with the deepest impact possible on a surrounding, observing, and otherwise perishing world. True, all of us may not have descended as equally or dramatically deep into the pit of sin, but all of us did descend equally deep into the awareness of our own weakness and abject need for the Savior, either way God gets the greater glory!