“For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Jesus calls those who are likely to pick up the phone.
Huh?
That’s what Matthew 9:13 seems to say, doesn’t it?
People who deemed themselves righteous and not in need of forgiveness from God were not the focus of Jesus’ ministry.
The verse above said He didn’t come to call them into a relationship with God.
Instead, Jesus directed His Words, His actions and His passion toward those who recognized their fallen state and inability to be holy in the eyes of the Holy God in heaven.
The Gospels confirm this pattern. Time after time, Jesus sought out those who were realizing that their inner emptiness could not be filled by things of this world.
Time after time, He sought out those who were rejected as sinners by the “high and mighty” crowd of spiritual elitists.
The fornicating, six-time-divorced woman at the well. A Samaritan at that.
The prostitutes.
The crippled.
The greedy tax collectors.
The demon-possessed.
The list goes on.
These people and many others like them had realized in their hearts that they’d been dialing the wrong number for their entire lives in search of inner peace yet they had just kept dialing and dialing via failed effort after failed effort.
Then they encountered Jesus.
Then they connected with the God whom they realized loved them and wanted the best for them.
Then they embraced the remedy for their emptiness — a heart filled with the presence of the Messiah who left heaven in order to forever be in fellowship with them.
So how do these facts relate to you and to me?
We all have many people in our lives who aren’t in a saved relationship with Jesus. The Christian view is to want them all to find salvation. The biblical view, however, is that most people want nothing to do with Jesus (remember the broad path vs. the narrow path).
That being the case, let’s pray for God’s leading with our evangelistic efforts.
Let’s ask God to lead us in discerning who is aware of their heart-troubling fallen state yet unsure of how to find true peace. Our outreach efforts will be more efficient and effective that way.
Jesus invited “all who are thirsty” to come to Him.
There are thirsty people in your life and mine who simply don’t know where to drink.
Join me in praying for wisdom in recognizing who is thirsty and best showing them that we’ve found the well and want to share it with them.
As always, I love you
Martin
