BSFL Sunday School Commentary for week of September 13, 2009

The People Jesus Knows                              Mark 2

Relationships can be complicated. And each relationship opportunity poses many questions. How involved do I want to become with this person? What is this person asking of me? What will others think if I form a relationship with this person? What would Jesus do? What would Jesus have me do?

All of us naturally gravitate towards people like ourselves. As believers we must be circumspect about our associations, ever mindful of temptation and our testimony. But we all too often limit our associations completely to other believers. We become insulated from the plight of the lost, and isolated from them altogether.

I am often intrigued with how Jesus managed this balance. He formed and maintained associations with all manner of people, with whomever wanted to be with Him. He crossed the social boundaries of His day and ate with people considered to be religiously unclean and off limits. In Jesus' day to eat with someone signaled acceptance and fellowship. While Jesus never once condoned sin, sinners were nevertheless drawn to Him. He is our model of compassionate relationship and ministry to the lost, while at the same time holding up holiness and opposing sin. In a nutshell, Jesus loved and accepted the sinner while never winking at their sin.

Mark 2 shows Jesus relating to people in different settings. Jesus shows compassion to the hurting, acceptance to the sinner, and even patience with the self-righteous. In fact, God's Word is full of narratives about the least, the last, and the lost. People who don't matter to others matter to God. Virtually all of Jesus' earthly ministry related directly to social outcasts, hurting people, and those who were so far from God that they would not even know where to begin to find Him.

When we see people in need and without Christ, are we more likely to look for ways to minister to them, or to pray that God will send them someone to minister to them? In this year's prayer guide for the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions, day 3 highlights a new church start in Madisonville called Outreach Across America Church. This new work deliberately targets those who are broken, outcasts from society and family, and hopeless. These are the people Jesus knows, that many churches do not. Jesus said it best (of course!) when He said, "Those who are well don't need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17 HCSB)

Jesus knew people through and through. He looked past the physical to the spiritual condition of His hearers. He heard the words His critics spoke with their mouths and with their hearts. He could see past the labels everyone else put on the tax collectors and sinners, and understand their emptiness. He could do all this because He spent time with them. Knowing the people Jesus knows requires spending time with them, listening to them, understanding them, loving them, showing compassion to them, and lovingly showing Jesus and His truth to them.

Oh Lord, help us to see people through Your eyes and to love them with Your heart!