Blog
“Jesus' Preferred Companions”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Meditations
OK. It’s meme-check time again. I encountered the above on Facebook a few days ago. It plays off of two common beliefs: first, that Jesus preferred the company of sinners and primarily associated with them, and second, that Christians are a bunch of stuck-up modern-day Pharisees who prefer the company of their own kind.
I think the first belief reveals a lack of familiarity with Jesus’ actual ministry rather than the pop-culture conception of that ministry. Yes, Jesus was the friend of tax collectors and sinners, but those weren’t the people He associated with above anybody else. Instead, He spent the most time with His disciples.
The disciples are around when Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners (as in Mark 2:15). They’re around when He is debating with Pharisees, chief priests, and what have you (Mark 7:2; Matthew 23:1). They’re around when He is teaching the multitudes (Matthew 13:1, 10).
However, there are also several occasions during which Jesus separates Himself (or at least tries to do so) from everybody but His disciples. John 11:54 is only one example of this kind of conduct. In short, when we ask the question, “With whom did Jesus spend most of His time?”, the answer is unequivocally, “His disciples.”
When we consider the class of disciples, several characteristics emerge. They abandoned their previous lives to follow Jesus. They often suffered great personal and financial loss as a result of having done so. They were more interested in His teaching than anyone else was. The best of them continued to follow Him even when they found Him hard to understand.
Are you trying to tell me that modern Christians wouldn’t accept with open arms people who had those characteristics? Come, now!
However, even granting that Jesus spent “most of His time” with sinners and the poor (though I think that the gospels have more to say about His interactions with the crowds and even the Pharisees), I don’t think it’s true that “most Christians” don’t want those people in their church either.
For instance, across the street from the Jackson Heights church building is the Columbia Inn. It’s one of the lowest, if not the lowest, motels in the city. Lots of folks on the down-and-out stay there with government assistance. With great frequency, they show up at services Sunday morning asking for money.
In two and a half years, I’ve never seen the brethren treat these people badly. They are uniformly welcomed, treated kindly, offered a visitor’s packet, and conducted to a seat. Commonly, kind-hearted individuals give them money. They’re offered the chance to study the Bible and are even baptized if they want to be. At the end of the service, they’re invited back.
To be blunt, this is not a ministry that bears much fruit. I’ve neither seen nor heard of someone from the Columbia Inn sticking it out as a Christian for more than a couple months. And yet, the Jackson Heights church has been welcoming these people into their assembly for decades, for no other reason than Matthew 22:39.
I don’t know whether “most Christians” would want sinners and the poor to join their congregation. I do know that the Jackson Heights church does, and the same has been true everywhere I’ve been a member.
When others paint Christians as self-righteous hypocrites, it becomes much easier to dismiss them and the gospel they proclaim. However, before we rely on such a portrait, we ought to make sure it’s not a caricature. Otherwise, we will make the same self-righteousness we condemn in others plainly evident in ourselves.
