What about our friends and family members who have never followed Jesus? Or our children or siblings who grew up in the church but have now rejected the faith handed down to them?
What will become of people who have lost their faith—or who never had it?
Is God’s grace wide enough for them?
Paul reminds us that all people dwell in disobedience. All people. Including all of us.
We are not saved because we deserve it. We are saved because God is good.
God’s mercy is deeper than we can understand.
God’s faithfulness reaches farther than we can see.
“For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable”—
and God’s promises… unbreakable.
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Jesus is not sitting with sinners because our sins are harmless. He is sitting there because we need the mercy and healing of God. We can make promises. We can explain ourselves. We can hide it. We can dress it up. We can promise to do better. But we can no more fix ourselves than the bleeding woman could. There are places in our hearts that need more than improvement. They need the healing mercy of God in Christ Jesus—our Great Physician. Because Jesus does not come only for Matthew. Jesus comes for every place in us that is sick and tired and ashamed and afraid. He comes for the part of us that has done wrong. He comes for the part of us that has been wronged. He comes for the part of us that wants mercy. He comes for the part of us that refuses mercy. He comes and sits at the table beside us. And that changes everything.”
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“The Spirit takes people who think they have nothing to say and gives them a word. The Spirit takes people who have been silenced by fear, by pain, by shame, by grief, by disappointment, and gives them a voice.”
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“In a world that moves quickly… discards quickly… forgets quickly… leaves quickly… the followers of Jesus remain. We stay. We sit beside hospital beds. We keep showing up with casseroles. We keep making phone calls. We mentor other people’s children. We forgive one another. We show up at funerals because nobody should grieve alone. We pray when words come hard. We keep loving even after disappointment. Because Christ has abided with us.”
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“Christ the King Sunday isn’t strange because it competes with democracy — it’s strange because it competes with despair. Our world is full of strongmen and cynicism, people who fear kings and people who long for them. But the Gospel points us to a different kind of King. One who meets us in our suffering, one who remembers us in our worst moments, one who says to a dying man — and to us — ‘Today you will be with me.’”
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