The Christian church should be the most offensive and most beautiful place in our culture. In reply to the Pharisees who were offended that Jesus ate with tax collectors, our Savior answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32). Do you find his words offensive? beautiful? I say both.

Jesus was saying, “You’re right. Matthew and his friends are sick. The way they love money, rob people, and ignore God’s Word is so sick that if it kills them, they will end up in hell. But where do you expect to see a doctor? Are you scandalized when a doctor is in the same room as the sick? So why are you shocked to see a Savior and sinners together? Oh, you thought me being here was an approval of their lifestyle? Not a chance. I am here to call them to repentance, to show them that God is better than anything money can offer.” 

Can you imagine Matthew’s face as Jesus said that? Was he offended? comforted? both?

This is what true Christianity is. It confronts our sins, calls our hearts sick, and commands our repentance. In the next breath, it comforts us, offers healing for our hearts, and points us to Jesus. Like surgery for a cancer patient, God slides his scalpel over our souls in hopes of taking out what would otherwise kill us.

Don’t run from a church that does the same. You have found one that is just like Jesus.