In Matthew 9, Jesus highlights a conflict that still plagues the faithful.
When leaders condemn Jesus for hanging out with the ritually impure and traitorous, he responds incredulously. It as if they think he ought to hang out with those who don’t need the help. Clearly they did. And many do.
We probably don’t need to parse this out to understand the meaning, but some of it is important. When the gospel refers to “sinners,” it isn’t with Augustinian theology in mind. It is most likely to speak of people whose life puts them perpetually outside or ritual purity. This is important because the tradition didn’t condemn people themselves for immoral behavior at a fundamental level. It is about the fact that they are doing things that pull them out of ritual purity and draw others into the same.
In this way, it is way easier to condemn people for the sex, for example, than for dealing with any of it actually means.
The other problem people here are the tax collectors, who are seen as traitors and exploiters of the poor. Which, we remember, makes them sinful by collecting taxes for the empire and pocketing some for themselves. Remember that Rome understood this and used this tactic so that the oppressed would fight among themselves.
These are the people Jesus was hanging out with. And the people the religious leaders refused to hang out with and condemned Jesus for hanging out with.
And Jesus is like, my dudes, would a surgeon operate on someone who is fine?
But that’s the thing here—a lot of Christians are doing precisely that.
Today
Faithful people of every age create walled communities for the faithful and refuse contact with the outside world. They make their own music and reject having any kind of real relationship with people outside their tradition.
Many grow up in a walled garden Christianity which both provides for all of the people’s needs and prevents the access to secular options.
It doesn’t have to be so extreme as this, however. How many well meaning grandparents tell their grandchildren to meet a nice young person at the church and berate the idea of meeting someone at a bar?
We can see how easy it is to fall into the thinking the religious leaders offer. But the better question is why do so many people today ignore Jesus on this?
I think its because much of protestantism has focused on our all being such sinners in need of this from Jesus. It means we don’t see ourselves in the story in anyone’s shoes but the sinners’. And in this, we are always in need of saving from him.
This misses the other half of what Jesus is communicating here: that the faithful don’t need the attention. They’re good! They’re in already!
They must focus on giving some of that attention, too.