Chapter 15—“This Man Receiveth Sinners”
This chapter is based on
Luke 15:1-10
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As the “publicans and sinners” gathered about Christ, the rabbis
expressed their displeasure. “This man receiveth sinners,” they said,
“and eateth with them.”
By this accusation they insinuated that Christ liked to associate with
the sinful and vile, and was insensible to their wickedness. The rabbis
had been disappointed in Jesus. Why was it that one who claimed so
lofty a character did not mingle with them and follow their methods of
teaching? Why did He go about so unpretendingly, working among all
classes? If He were a true prophet, they said, He would harmonize with
them, and would treat the publicans and sinners with the indifference
they deserved. It angered these guardians of society that He with
whom they were continually in controversy, yet whose purity of life
awed and condemned them, should meet, in such apparent sympathy,
with social outcasts. They did not approve of His methods. They
regarded themselves as educated, refined, and pre-eminently religious;
but Christ’s example laid bare their selfishness.
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It angered them also that those who showed only contempt for
the rabbis and who were never seen in the synagogues should flock
about Jesus and listen with rapt attention to His words. The scribes
and Pharisees felt only condemnation in that pure presence; how was
it, then, that publicans and sinners were drawn to Jesus?
They knew not that the explanation lay in the very words they
had uttered as a scornful charge, “This man receiveth sinners.” The
souls who came to Jesus felt in His presence that even for them there
was escape from the pit of sin. The Pharisees had only scorn and
condemnation for them; but Christ greeted them as children of God,
estranged indeed from the Father’s house, but not forgotten by the
Father’s heart. And their very misery and sin made them only the more
the objects of His compassion. The farther they had wandered from
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