Day 210: Inside The Prison Walls: Sharing A Table With Sinners?
Read: Matthew 9:9 - 13, Mark 2:14 - 17, Psalm 107:10 - 16
Yesterday, I asked each of you to consider what it was for you to
testify to love inside the prison walls. As I can probably guess, your
immediate reaction was to look at the high thick walls of the Prison facility itself with all the barbed razor wire and fences. I agree that this is ONE proper place to consider taking your testimony
to love. But, it was not the ONLY proper place, the only prison walls
that I was referring to. Most of us can agree that going inside a state
or federal penitentiary in holy response to a call from God is a very difficult one. It was for me too. There was much self examination. The very first obstacles to overcome were the high, well razored prison walls surrounding my very own heart.
Why should this one be the first obstacle for us to consider aside from the foreboding walls of concrete, steel, and razor wire? Because it is the first one you will encounter with the resident should your response ever be "Yes, send me, Lord." Hard to think of your own heart as being a prison unto itself? Consider where you are in your attitudes about the 'untouchables' that first the Pharisee's would never touch,
the lepers, the crippled, the sinners, all the ones they would not give
the time of day. "11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His
disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and
sinners?” Ask yourself: "Why would, nay why should, I ever dare to share a meal with them too?"
Consider the call of Levi, who would be called Matthew by Jesus. Tax collectors were widely vilified as the very worst collection of criminals by the Jews.
Untouchable for they made money for the Romans. They put their booths in
the most public of places to be sure the people gave to Caesar
what was Caesar's. These are the equivalent of the drug dealers on the
street corners of our neighborhoods today. Bleeding our communities red
with corruption and poisoning the whole of populations with their wares.
Like Levi, they collect more that their fair share at the expense of
others with no thought of 'the other guy'. In the streets - a menace, in
prison, a man within a cell not made of just concrete but also of flesh.
Rightfully so, you say. And I would absolutely agree with you 100% that is where they belong - in prison. They are out of our sight and out of our minds and out of our lives. Good Riddance Amen!? But as the call of Matthew reveals, they are not very far from the mind and the sight of Jesus Christ. And Jesus wants them to be a
part of His life! That is a seriously tough one to contemplate. I was
seeing them through the eyes and heart of the Pharisees as I guess
you are too. Rightfully so! This is where our hearts need to begin
considering the implication of sharing a table with the ultimate
sinners.
My prayerful encouragement for you would be, in God's Kairos, to read and consider Matthew 9:12-13.
Let Us Pray: Kairos time, God's special time, God's anointed and
appointed time - I ask you to take into the prison walls of your heart
the words of King David, the Living Words of Psalm 20, in particular
perhaps the depths of truth to be mined from 6 - 9.
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Read: Matthew 9:9 - 13, Mark 2:14 - 17, Psalm 107:10 - 16
Yesterday, I asked each of you to consider what it was for you to testify to love inside the prison walls. As I can probably guess, your immediate reaction was to look at the high thick walls of the Prison facility itself with all the barbed razor wire and fences. I agree that this is ONE proper place to consider taking your testimony to love. But, it was not the ONLY proper place, the only prison walls that I was referring to. Most of us can agree that going inside a state or federal penitentiary in holy response to a call from God is a very difficult one. It was for me too. There was much self examination. The very first obstacles to overcome were the high, well razored prison walls surrounding my very own heart.
Why should this one be the first obstacle for us to consider aside from the foreboding walls of concrete, steel, and razor wire? Because it is the first one you will encounter with the resident should your response ever be "Yes, send me, Lord." Hard to think of your own heart as being a prison unto itself? Consider where you are in your attitudes about the 'untouchables' that first the Pharisee's would never touch, the lepers, the crippled, the sinners, all the ones they would not give the time of day. "11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” Ask yourself: "Why would, nay why should, I ever dare to share a meal with them too?"
Consider the call of Levi, who would be called Matthew by Jesus. Tax collectors were widely vilified as the very worst collection of criminals by the Jews. Untouchable for they made money for the Romans. They put their booths in the most public of places to be sure the people gave to Caesar what was Caesar's. These are the equivalent of the drug dealers on the street corners of our neighborhoods today. Bleeding our communities red with corruption and poisoning the whole of populations with their wares. Like Levi, they collect more that their fair share at the expense of others with no thought of 'the other guy'. In the streets - a menace, in prison, a man within a cell not made of just concrete but also of flesh.
Rightfully so, you say. And I would absolutely agree with you 100% that is where they belong - in prison. They are out of our sight and out of our minds and out of our lives. Good Riddance Amen!? But as the call of Matthew reveals, they are not very far from the mind and the sight of Jesus Christ. And Jesus wants them to be a part of His life! That is a seriously tough one to contemplate. I was seeing them through the eyes and heart of the Pharisees as I guess you are too. Rightfully so! This is where our hearts need to begin considering the implication of sharing a table with the ultimate sinners.
My prayerful encouragement for you would be, in God's Kairos, to read and consider Matthew 9:12-13.
Let Us Pray: Kairos time, God's special time, God's anointed and appointed time - I ask you to take into the prison walls of your heart the words of King David, the Living Words of Psalm 20, in particular perhaps the depths of truth to be mined from 6 - 9.
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