Looking for someone or looking down on someone?
Luke 15:1-10. November 3, 2022 - Thursday, 31st Week.
Today’s Gospel begins with a statement that “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1-2).
The first time Jesus ate in the company of tax-collectors and sinners was when Levi (or Matthew) gave a farewell party for his colleagues in the profession - he was leaving them to become Jesus’ apostle (Luke 5:27–31). But it was also the first time, the Pharisees and the scribes publicly expressed their disapproval of Jesus’ behaviour - a respectable rabbi should not associate himself with morally questionable characters. Then, we see Jesus again going to a house of a chief tax collector and a rich man, named Zacchaeus, and eating there, and again he was criticised for such inappropriate behaviour (Luke 19:1–10).
We all have lost something, searched for it and upon finding it rejoiced. Why did we search for it? Because it was valuable to us. For Jesus, like for the shepherd and the woman from the parables, every person counts and so he does not spare an effort to search for us. The tax collectors and sinners felt His love and concern and so they loved to listen to him. In the presence of Jesus, you do not feel judged, but you feel regret about the wrong direction you have chosen in your life. And so you want to listen more and more to his stories in which lost are found, sick are healed, tax collectors become evangelists and sinners saints.
There is great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, but there are constant wars on earth between peoples and nations when one thinks that they are better than the others. Why can’t things be on earth as in heaven? Perhaps, too few people pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father, …, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, and too many people pray the prayer of the Pharisee, “I thank you, God, that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:12). Jesus looked for the lost, the Pharisees looked down on the lost. How about us?