Matthew, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the one caught in adultery, the sinful woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee, tax collectors, sinners, and Samaritans: the list of first-century undesirables — named and unnamed — is long. And yet, Jesus of Nazareth was seen with them all. In fact, Jesus made a habit of associating with lowlifes. So much so that sincere and upstanding Jews could not overlook it.
But when they challenged Christ openly about it, he challenged them in return. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:31-32). “Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk 19:9). “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (Jn 8:7). “The one to whom little is forgiven loves little” (Lk 7:47).
Unlike the other religious teachers of his time, Jesus did not treat people according to their merit. Instead, he separated sinners from their sins. That is, after all, what a savior must do. Separating the sinner from his sins is, in the basic sense, the definition of salvation.
Loving sinners is hard. That’s why so few of us commit ourselves to doing it. Even more, there are plentiful facsimiles and alternatives that demand much less of us. Two-thousand years ago, it was much easier for people of faith to keep sinners at a safe distance and tell themselves that holiness and virtue required them to do this. Sinners were the spiritual equivalent of lepers. Anyone who associated with them was risking contamination. But there was also an element of pride in play. Those who kept the law were likely to consider themselves superior to those who did not. For these, Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican must have been jarring.
But before we shout “Yay, Jesus!,” bask in the apparent superiority of our enlightened times, and applaud the Nazarene for putting it to observant people of faith, we ought to fully consider how Jesus treated sin. And in that, Christ’s willingness to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin tells us everything. Jesus did not ignore the seriousness of sin in the slightest. On the contrary, the Son of God treated sin even more seriously than the religious leaders of his day did. He died for it.
I don’t think today’s Christians apply the teachings of Christ any more correctly than the Pharisees did. We are much more comfortable with sinners but have also become very comfortable with sin. We use words like “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Mt 7:1) as a pretext for excusing ourselves and the people we love from sinful behavior. Instead of genuinely loving sinners, we deny or accommodate their sins. That is, we ignore the seriousness of sin and its consequences.
A very large number of us are more than willing to do this when the sin we’re ignoring has to do with sexual morality. Sexual sins aren’t necessarily worse than other sins. But it seems to me that we are more willing to overlook — and even justify — them. That’s a poor substitute for the saving grace of conversion. When we minimize sin, we rob the Gospel of its power.
When I minister to women at the local jail on Monday evenings, I cannot reach them unless I remember that I am not better or more valuable than any of them. I, too, am a sinner. Under the “right” (read “wrong”) circumstances, I would be capable of committing any of the crimes of which they are accused, and the fact that I am not in jail testifies more to God’s mercy and grace than it does to my goodness.
On the other hand, sidestepping the sinful and destructive choices that brought these women to where they are doesn’t help them either. Seeing them as separate from their sins and loving them where they are might. But that is only possible when we are honest with ourselves about the seriousness of sin.
If the Cross of Christ shows us anything, it is that loving sinners requires a willingness to suffer. There are no discounts, shortcuts or tricks. The good shepherd who leaves the 99 to search for the one is the same good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Loving sinners will cost us everything. And that’s why it has the power to make us more like Christ.
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