Jesus in the gospel reading is accused to be a “friend of sinners,” along with the charges of “a drunkard” and “a glutton.” Jesus also receives criticism of his feasting and not fasting like John the Baptist. A number of his parables describe banquets, weddings, parties, and celebrations, and it seems that he considered meals to be special occasions to enact the celebration of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. The gospels, in particular Luke, portray Jesus going to meals or coming from them. His eating with sinners is mentioned frequently, and they form an important part of his ministry. Jesus scolds scribes and Pharisees for their table manners by taking the best seats. It is interesting that Jesus, who has no house of his own, enters another’s home and immediately takes over the household as the host of the meal.

The gospels associate him with disreputable people, tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes. The scribes, connected to the Pharisees and the Temple priests, ask, “For what reason does he eat with tax collectors and sinners.” (Mk. 2:16) How do we answer the question?

Jesus first deliberately seeks out disreputable sinners and people; they are colorful folks. I understand that too well; overly religious people can be boring and snobbish. Disreputable people have colorful lives, they are interesting sinners. .
Secondly, have you ever noticed how righteous religious folks are always concerned about sin and sinners? This is true in Jesus’ time and our own. They are obsessed with sins of the flesh and ignore the sinful conditions that lead people into poverty and homelessness, the desperation of prostitution especially in patriarchal societies when women have little opportunity to earn a living. Or in our own time, the victims of war and disease, people denied basic human rights, undocumented workers, environmental degradation and racism, the exploitation of the planetary resources and consuming fossil fuels and releasing vast amounts of carbon and other toxic chemicals resulting in global warming.

I have a theory why self-righteous religious folks are concerned about sinners: First, it separates the pious from the sinner. Remember Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:   “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Lk. 18:9-14)

You can just here the sneer in his voice as he looks down with despise at the tax collector. By putting someone down and separating yourself from them, you have made yourself better than those people.

The religious self-righteous always excuse themselves from the need for repentance when they compare themselves with what they consider as sinners, the wicked, or the impure outsider. The tax collector, however, never repents or reforms his life; he humbly acknowledges himself a sinner and asks God for mercy. Jesus commends the tax collector who is a sinner.

Jesus ate and drank with sinners; he was proud of the title—“friend of sinners.” Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.” ( Mt, 21:31) Jesus claimed that sinners were closer to the reign of God than the righteous religious people. But I want you to pay attention to the fact that Jesus seldom tells individual sinners to repent or reform their lives. He never concentrates on sexual sinners of prostitutes nor does the expected extortion and corruption of tax collectors.

There is only one story where Jesus says to the women caught in adultery. He defends the woman from her male accusers whose hearts are hardened against he. Jesus writes in the sand, indicating the law is written in sand and not hardened in stone. He tells the accusers, “Let anyone among you without sin throw the first stone.” The self-righteous accusers fade away, and Jesus comments,

“Has anyone condemned you?” She says, “No one sir.” Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” (Jn 8:10-11)

The earliest manuscripts of John’s gospel does not have this story, and it was added as a floating story that made second or third generation followers of Jesus uncomfortable at his compassion with sexual sins. I suspect “from now on do not sin again” was added by a scribe in John’s community. Why do I say this? It does not fit in portrait of Jesus and his relationship with sinners in the other three gospels. It seems a third generation Christian addition when Christians were trying to prove that they were very moral to fit in the Roman Empire.

The other three gospels portray Jesus as befriending sinners with requiring repentance. Jesus generally does not single out common sinners, and his call to repentance is a generalized call to repentance to society in the opening of Mark’s gospel: “The time is fulfilled and the reign of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the good news.” (Mk. 1:15)

Jesus frequently directed his message of repentance at the scribes, Pharisees, Sabbath fundamentalists, and or Temple priests or religious folks of high status. He engages actively in conflict with them, criticizing hypocrisy, religious abuse, oppression of the poor and the elderly, and the rich. He condemns such behaviors that abuse power or exploits the poor and the vulnerable. He challenges Sabbath fundamentalists who are upset with his violation of the Sabbath law to heal the afflicted or those lacking compassion for the sick and the poor. Jesus affirms that common sinners will enter God’s reign before them.

There is no question that Jesus upset the religious self-righteous and powerful because he did not require sinners to repent in the traditional manner of sin offering sacrifices. Jesus tells his holy critics, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” (Mt. 9:11) On one level, Jesus is criticizing his accusers for their lack of compassion, and on another, he challenges their exclusionary practices and requirements for sin offerings. God’s forgiveness is already there in his meals celebrating God’s unconditional love.

Sinners and self-righteous both called Jesus “friend of sinners.” A closer look at the term helps to understand what is really going on when he does not require repentance of common sinners. He invited sinners into fellowship with himself to celebrate God’s forgiveness of sins. I want to share a quotation from the book Sinners by Greg Carey:

Jesus’ companionship with sinners opened the path for people to challenge his uprightness. Some people, perhaps many people, believed that a respectable religious leader like Jesus had no business cavorting with sinners. Yet Jesus identified himself with sinners. And some sinners joined his movement. That is how the Gospels tell it, perhaps, because early generations of Christians identified with the sinners of the stories.

So “friend of sinners” not only a title given to Jesus and his ministry, it also was his method of reaching out to sinners and bringing the good news of God’s unconditional acceptance and forgiveness of them.

I have left discussion of centering prayer reading from Sinners until last. The boy Brian imitates his father’s violence and threats of his mother by pulling a gun out of the gun cabinet and placing the barrel his mother’s chin, saying “If you say another word, I’ll blow your fucking head off.” Brian imitates his father’s violence with his sister over eating the last of the cereal and takes a gun and shoots his sister dead. His action is horrific, and he is sent to a youth home for his crime. A counselor tells him one day that he is a neat kid. Brian replied, “you wouldn’t say that if you knew why I am here!” And the counsellor said, “Of course, I do; we all do.” And Brian breaks down sobbing confronted with unconditional love and acceptance.

Jesus chose the method of companioning with sinners; he did not have to require them to repent. He proclaimed that God had forgiven them. They were beloved children of God, and God accepted them unconditionally, forgave them unconditionally, and love them without any string attached.

For Jesus’ critics, his companioning with sinners was offensive because it violated the purity laws with which they wrapped up their religious self-righteousness. Sin is after all very contagious; it will spread like a disease unless we guard against it. He proclaimed God’s forgiveness to them without requiring them to reform their lives with the traditional means of paying for a sin offering at the Temple. In fact, Jesus celebrated with sinners God’s forgiveness and unconditional acceptance in his meals; they celebrated God’s presence and forgiveness dining together.

Does the method of becoming a friend of sinners without repentance work? Many of his disciples were sinners—Levi the tax collector, Simon the Zealot, and Mary Magdalene. They changed the directions of their lives and became disciples as they experienced the blessing of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. They changed their lives because they encountered God as love.

We companion with people who are hurt, oppressed, different, undocumented, and considered outcasts because our mission as disciples to become vehicles of God’s unconditional love to others. Often people change their lives by the radical unconditional love from God, and we become disciples to make the mission of Jesus as friend of sinners alive today. But we also are very conscious that we too miss the mark often and that we too are sinners but live with the climate of God’s extravagant love and grace. Many sinners, including myself, became followers of Christ as we felt God’s tender mercies and unconditional love for us.

As we read in the First Letter of John 4:7-11,
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love is was revealed among us in this way: God sent God’s only Child into the world, so that we might live through hi. In this love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent God’s Child…. Beloved since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
Jesus gave us an example of loving our enemies with unconditional love despite their hostility to us. God send us into places where are considered sinful because there we can be companions to the one Christ who was a friend of sinners.

Go and companion with sinners. Be friends and exude the unconditional love of God has for all sorts of sinners.