City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

-Luke 15:1-7

Reflection

It’s hard to find modern groups analogous to the tax collectors and sinners mentioned above. With regard to tax collectors, Democrat vs. Republican analogies fail to capture the element of disloyalty to one’s country. Tax collectors were working for the Roman Empire. Tax collectors got rich by collecting more taxes than were due and keeping the surplus. They were seen as disloyal, greedy, traitors who got rich off Rome’s subjugation of Israel. 

Regarding “sinners,” think of pornographers, drug dealers, or any other grossly immoral person with whom you would feel uncomfortable being seen publicly. “Sinners” were irreligious Jews, but in a society so thoroughly and conspicuously religious, their lifestyles represented a purposeful rejection of God’s law and the Jewish religion. 

So, these traitorous and religion-rejecting Jews were coming to be near Jesus and hear him, and rather than rejecting them, Jesus welcomed and even ate with them. In that culture, dining with someone was seen as an indication of social acceptance and covenant fellowship. Jesus demonstrated that when cultural or social norms are used to exclude people from hearing the gospel, those norms must give way.

To demonstrate the point, Jesus then told three parables, each of which showed the value God placed on seeing the lost repent and be redeemed. The takeaway though is not that we should merely love and accept people who don’t know Jesus. This is the mistake liberal Evangelicals often make. Conservative evangelicals often make the opposite mistake in avoiding relationships with non-Christians. 

Christians should neither merely reject nor merely engage in relationships with non-Christians. Instead, Christians should engage and relate with a purpose. That purpose is to lead the lost to repentance and a relationship with Jesus.

This is the explanation Jesus gives the Scribes and Pharisees by ending the Parable of the Lost Sheep with the shepherd finding the lost sheep (salvation) and rejoicing over it (vv. 4-7). Jesus makes the same point in the Parable of the Unrighteousness Steward. See Luke 16:9 (“ . . . make friends for yourself by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”).

Application

If all this sounds too transactional for you; not to worry. This is not a quid pro quo. You are not seeking or maintaining relationships with the lost to get anything from them but to give something to them—a path to redemption. It’s not a quid pro quo but a quid pro nihilo (“something for nothing”). 

To continue this Latin digression, we are to upset the status quo and not do so on an ad hoc basis but on a pro bono basis. It should be our de facto mode of interacting with the lost because while pursuing such relationships is not per se good or bad, the relationship is made holy by its magna causa, to which we should be ad finem fidelis. 

Prayer

Lord, help me always to be purposeful in my relationships with those who do not know You. Amen.