Prepare To Be Offended!

¹⁵ As Jesus was at supper in his house, many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples. For there were many, and they followed Him. ¹⁶ When the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Mark 2:15-17 

Have you noticed how much time and energy we waste being offended and defensive?  Someone says something that hurts our feelings, and we break out in the "I'm offended" song and dance.  Someone does something that we don't agree with and we put on the "Time to be Defensive" mask and wreak havoc.  And the sad part is, we don't care about the TRUTH because we can make anything we want sound like the "truth" if we say it enough and loud enough.  Now, what is the purpose for our being offended? 

The "Church Folk" got very offended because Jesus chose to befriend, care for, and even *gasp* eat with the outcasts of the Jewish Society.  Jesus was invited by Levi (Matthew) to come to his home for a banquet with the only other people who would accept Levi....other outcasts, the dregs of Jewish Society, the "undesirables" and, here's the part that was so offensive, Jesus accepted the invitation!

Mark records that the Scribes and Pharisees SAW Jesus eating with this collection of riff raff.  This means they were either following Jesus around just to be judgmental of Him or they heard a banquet going on to which they had not been invited and came to be judgmental of the host.  Either way, they were offended because of Jesus' actions.

The Scribes and Pharisees spoke loud enough (or were standing close enough) to be heard over the banquet saying, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" because, you understand, the "Church Folk" are always perfect and above reproach.  Notice how Jesus chose to answer them, not with judgement but with a simple analogy.  He simply said, "Those who are not sick don't need to go to the doctor, but those who ARE sick do."  And then Jesus states the remarkable, "I did not come to call the 'Perfect Church Folk' to repent, but I came to call those who know they need a new beginning to make that change."

So the question for us becomes, do we need a new beginning or are we already perfect?  Think about it honestly and truthfully.  A new beginning means CHANGES must be made and, as humans, don't like change even if it's good for us.