Daily Reading 16

"I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." -Matthew 9:13 (Msg)

This time we're talking about how Jesus hung around a lot of people that were not perfect. The very religious people, the ones who tried to tell everyone how wrong they were, did not like this about
Jesus. Pastor Donnie is actually preaching through the book of Matthew this year. It just so happens that one of the biggest outsiders of the church back then was a guy named Matthew. He was a tax collector. Most of the people that knew him considered him a dirty crook. I don't know about you, but I am not a great supporter of the people who work in the business of taking money from my paycheck anyways. I would definitely have some strong opinions about a guy that was also taking more off the top for himself!
And yet, this guy was one of the closest followers of Jesus. One day Jesus walked up to him on the street, while he was working his tax collector both, and said, "Follow me." When Matthew responds, he doesn't just follow Jesus, he invites him over to get to know him. He wants to know more about this God Man. I'm sure that we can all picture what the religious types did when Jesus went to eat at Matthew's house. They weren't happy about it at all. But do you think Jesus cared?
He was sitting at a table with Matthew. he was letting him ask questions. He was probably helping Matthew get over some doubts that he had. In this story, we can see that Jesus wasn't here for the religious. Those guys thought that they had it figured out already. Matthew, on the other hand was just the type of guy with whom Jesus wanted to share his message. Think about it. What would the religious types do with this message that said their laws weren't everything? Go and plan to kill Jesus! And what about Matthew? He would be able to share a life changing message with other people like him.
Who can you share this message with? If you were in church on Sunday, who did you put in your fave five?