Being invited to dinner is one of the great pleasures in life, in my opinion. But I wonder if Jesus would have agreed with me. So often we read in the gospels about him going to dinner at the home of a Pharisee and being placed under a microscope. The Pharisees, teachers of the Law and respected religious leaders, were in equal measure fascinated with Jesus, and alarmed by him. They seemed always to be observing and interrogating him, even at dinner.
As we will see, Jesus returned the favor, watching and commenting on their actions as well. But today let’s stay with this introduction to the story.
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely…
I almost wish people nowadays were scrutinizing Jesus this closely. Many have no interest in getting to know him – and maybe that's because we haven't made the introductions. What if we were to invite people we know to investigate Jesus – to read about him in the Gospels, to invite communication with him in prayer, to examine the work done in his name.
Of course, it's also up to us to represent him well. People will be more likely to want to know more if we demonstrate the sweetness of being a Christ follower more than we do the judgmentalism of the Pharisee. Christians – at least in the United States in these times – are more known for judging than for loving, and that’s a real loss. As I heard one evangelical leader, John Maxwell, put it recently, “Christ-followers should stop correcting and start connecting.”
And maybe we need to investigate Jesus again for ourselves. Many of us grew up in church, inherited faith from our parents, have heard the stories thousands of times – but when did we last read the gospels all the way through? When did we last make a study of Jesus’ encounters with people, or of his healings, or his parables? Many of us need to fall in love with Jesus again – or for the first time. And the best way to do that is to get to know him for ourselves.
Let’s metaphorically invite Jesus to dinner this week – or breakfast. Let’s commit to reading a story about him every day, and make a note of what we observe, as though he were right in front of us. I think we’ll be surprised by something he says or does that is outside our expectations. We don’t have to scrutinize, but we can certainly get to know him better. Then we’ll be better placed to introduce him around.
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