Re:Verse reading–Luke 15:1-2, 11-32 (day three)
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” As it turned out, Jesus would do even worse than that. But that’s because he understood people were lost. In the days before that word denoted a demographic or a class of persons who don’t subscribe to a particular version of theology, Jesus felt the giant wound of the human race. He sensed acutely, agonizingly, that people were missing. You can hear it in his story of the two brothers. You can hear it in his metaphor of the lost sheep. You can hear it in his parable of the banquet. Jesus is grieved at a great absence. What do you think about that?
As I read, “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them”, I thought about an attack of one’s character. Jesus’ character was under attack for His association with sinners. We, human beings, tend to separate ourselves from those whose character is under questions, such as sincerity, honesty and integrity. Those sinners were reason that Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to save those who knew they were lost sinners. The Pharisees apparently did affirm Jesus’ mission on earth by saying, “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus was a prophet, the light and the Son of God! He was doing His job to bring the sinners back to God. God loves and values each soul. The Kingdom of God will have a big celebration, I am sure, when more and more lost souls were found and returned to God! I just wonder if there is a “Lost and Found” Division in Heaven and whether there is a statistical data to tell us how many lost souls were found or were still missing?