THE CHURCH JESUS ENTERED

THE CHURCH JESUS ENTERED

Today, we present a challenge that is difficult but necessary: Jesus spent much of His time among the very people that religious society often preferred to avoid. The Gospels repeatedly show Him eating with tax collectors, welcoming sinners, touching lepers, speaking with outcasts, and drawing near to those whom others judged unworthy. The question is not whether sinners belong near Christ; the question is whether Christ’s followers are willing to be where Christ Himself chose to be.

Jesus declared, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31–32). He did not come searching for the already convinced, the already respected, or the already accepted. He came seeking the lost, the broken, the wounded, and the repentant. The presence of sinners around Jesus was not evidence of failure; it was evidence of His mission.

The religious leaders of His day criticized Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10–11; Mark 2:15–17; Luke 15:1–2). Yet Jesus never measured holiness by distance from broken people. Instead, He revealed that true holiness moves toward the wounded in order to bring healing, toward the lost in order to bring restoration, and toward the sinner in order to bring repentance and life.

A church that welcomes only the comfortable may preserve its appearance, but it risks forgetting its purpose. The Gospel was never intended to be a reward for the righteous; it is God's invitation to those who know their need for mercy. The church is not a museum for the perfected but a field hospital for those being transformed by grace.

Therefore, the question every congregation must ask is not, "Who is worthy to enter our doors?" but rather, "Would the people who gathered around Jesus feel welcome among us?" For wherever Christ is truly present, the broken find hope, sinners find grace, the lost find a Shepherd, and repentance becomes the doorway to new life.

The church most closely resembles Jesus when it becomes the place where mercy is greater than judgment, restoration is greater than exclusion, and the love of God reaches those whom the world has forgotten. For the people Christ sought are often the very people He still seeks today.

Pastor Steven G. Lee
St. GMC Corps
June 8, 2026