The Notorious

Come to realize better why Jesus chose to socialize so much 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 woman with the alabaster box kiss his feet, weep over him and anoint him with precious ointment, when his critics said that id he were a real prophet he would know what kind of woman this was. 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 he didn’t see it that way, he WANTED them there. 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 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 Magdalen 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 backdrop for the vivid colors of his marvelous grace!