Read Luke 5:27-6:11
Jesus eats and drinks with sinners. These words are more than simple narration describing events in Jesus’ ministry. They are, in many ways, a summary of life with Jesus. Jesus eats and drinks with sinners—which includes everyone except Himself.
In Luke 5, He dines with those who think they are doing just fine and with those who know they are not; with those who believe they are good people and with those who know they are not; with those who assume they have a rightful place with God and with those who are certain they do not. Yet if we fail to see ourselves as sick with sin and in need of a physician, as many of the Pharisees did, we may quietly excuse ourselves from the table—unwilling to be identified as “one of those” sinners.
This does not mean that a place has not been set for us. Nor do we need to fill our lives with more sin in order to secure our seat. We do not need to sit among other sinners as a performance meant to signal humility. God’s Word is clear: we are already sinful enough, already sick enough, to require His life-giving and healing grace.
Luke’s Gospel makes this unmistakably clear—Jesus invites us, and indeed all people, to sit, eat, drink, and recline with Him at His table precisely because we are sin-sick and sin-bound. He calls us to come without defensiveness, without excuses, and without rationalizations, because He came not for the healthy, but for the sick.
Prayer: Jesus, while I may hide it from others, you and I both know the depths of my sin. I make no excuses. Please forgive me of all my sins. Amen.