Jesus Disciples: The Criticized Misfits!

Jesus Disciples: The Criticized Misfits!                                    Kelly Durant 4-27-25

Luke 5:27 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28 So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

2. How many of you have had or have unusual friends? People whom are not usually liked? Let’s do a test right now and raise your hands, how many of you have ever befriended (though Jesus with no bad intentions) a prostitute?  Or a drug addict or alcoholic?  Or a Hedonistic partier? Or an extremely poor person living in a very poor house or homeless? What about vulgar people, ex-cons, and misfits? 

Well, these are just a few of the extreme types I have befriended in my life! That is the beauty of Jesus, you and I are able to mingle and converse with all kinds of people and by friendship lead them to grow spiritually and live a better life once they are saved!  

Here is my unusual circumstance; I have been friends most of my adult life with people who do not even speak English but rather Spanish, Portuguese, or sign language! I have had several friends dying of cancer, friends with artificial limbs, mentally challenged friends, friends who had no friends at all; plus thousands have been immigrant strangers living outside their country of origin. I have ministered to people in the markets in Bolivia who made less than $10 a day, and then in the afternoon walked into million dollar mansions of rich factory owners to tutor their children. Through the years I have had opportunity to spend hours in the homes of professional musicians, converse in parties with governors, senators, and mayors, and experience friendships with an extreme mix of cultural, racial, and social status backgrounds. How is this possible? Because Jesus led me into it for His mission! I just pray to adapt and relate! I thank God all the time for the wealth I have, and have had, in friendships of all kinds!  

3. Here is the circumstance: many people forget that Christian Churches, especially the Salvation Army ones, are places where all the misfits and sinners are welcomed without question. William Booth our Founder said, “Go for souls, and go for the worst!” And I have tried my best to do that, but I know not everyone accepts that, nor does that their selves, but that is the mission! It should be the mission of everyone who is saved, we are saved to serve.

I recall in one Corps I attended that there were just a few families that came for years and the Corps Officers were trying to recruit new people. It turned out that over time a new homeless shelter was opened up and all the folks from there started coming in. I was happy to see that, but not all of them there were! It turned out many of them smoked and right after service there would be half a dozen people smoking right in front of the Corps and many were very unhappy and gave them ugly looks! The unwelcomed looks, were harmful!

As you can imagine many complained that we cannot have smokers around like that, others said nothing hoping it would go away, and I looked upon it as just one of those challenges we face when we include new people with the love of Christ!  The contradictory thing is that I, along with some others there, had even smoked in our ancient past, so we were no one to throw stones. Some people stopped coming due to the ugly vibes and in transition people were constantly moving on, but I never will forget that some long time Christians did have a problem accepting new people which were not up to their expected standard. We must all remember from whence we came as David, Psalm 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.

4. I’ll share with you this, I have a problem with modern day churches that do not include others, be they misfits, immigrants, or the poor. When we were Cadets everyone in the school went to visit a few mega-churches in Atlanta as a group (an experience for writing a lesson) and we got to ask questions to some of the leaders there so we could redact what we observed.

My wife asked one of them, “In your area here 1 in every 3 people are Hispanic, what services do you offer them?” Do you know what the response was? The reply was that their church was focused only on the baby-boomer audience (the middle aged white class with money) and that they did not see a need to reach out to the Hispanics as that was not in their mission objectives?! Their mission did not include helping the poor either, and their church was very rich.

It is sad but there is discrimination in the church today and some of it comes from the majorities, and some of it comes from the minorities as well. That’s why I had been studying the 7 churches in Revelation with you, the church today is no better off today than what they were in their beginnings; the people still are committing mistakes that they are blind to. Those that know me know that no one can ever accuse me of not trying to mix all kinds of people together for the greater good of God’s kingdom! But I am embarrassed by some other Christian denominations that are either too closed minded, or too open minded as they are accepting certain sins as just part of the trends we need to accommodate. Not all mixing is correct to do.

5. So what about Jesus and his motley crew of sinners? The verses of today in Luke 5:27 reveal that people were very offended that he partied with the tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus put the self-righteous ones in their place and stopped their negative judgement by letting them know He was there for the sinners, that sinners are people who are hurting and needed healing. He was not going down to their level but rather bringing them up to His.

Jesus is the great physician, and thank God Jesus does heal all kinds of people, even the worst of sinners such as the thieves and prostitutes.  We see that God and Jesus gives people second and third chances but we as humans are not so holy in this regard. It is natural that when someone has taken advantage of you or me (such as a tax collector, customs official, or a dishonest repair shopman) that we are not so forgiving. We want restitution and justice!

It is hard, it hurts, but you and I have to let grudges go. If we see God is doing a work in someone’s life, no matter how low our concept of that person, we must conform to the fact that God is doing the work we cannot do and just get out of the way and let Him work.

6. We can allow certain heathen, pagans or sinners practicing sin, in our midst for a time to see if they are people searching for God’s truth for a new start, or see if they are just people hanging around because they like our kindness towards them. Anyone who comes to Jesus must start showing fruits of repentance, or if not, that person is just playing with God and everyone else, and that is unacceptable. 

From this verse we learn we are to show tolerance and patience, so that they might learn God’s truth and gain salvation. 2 Timothy 2:25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,

On the flip side, those who remain unrepentant, in other words they show no progress of improvement in behavior, character, or deeds of kindness and no increased love for Jesus, if they prove that they have their own ideas and opinions and they are not willing to allow their total transformation of heart and mind through the Holy Spirit, then there comes a time we must show them the door.

7. Here, in these verses below, are some harsh words for those who want to hang with us but their motives are to remain being their same old sinful self.  

2 Peter 2:12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

There comes a moment in time when we all must evaluate if a person is in Christ, or in their own rebellion. But I have even more to say about this.

8. I have known people that have been in our alcohol and drug rehab programs that have pretended to be good for a while, but then leaving they to go back to their old sins again but wait to hear the full story. You know how the word describes this?  We are in 2 Peter still. 2 Peter 2:22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

But despite the ugliness, foul smell, and repugnance we get from seeing people go back to their horrible sins destroying them and others around them, we still must have a certain level of patience. 

So here is where I was going, some people have been in and out of our rehab programs lasting 6 months up to three times and then finally after the third time get a breakthrough and then remain clean 10 or 20 years (or the rest of their lives) ever since. 

9. So be open to mix with all kinds having the vision that one day they might accept Jesus and start a new life, living in purity and holiness as you did.  People can be drinking, smoking, and cursing around you and you are just letting it ride because in the end you are not going down to their level, you are on a higher level on the Rock, Jesus, that cannot be moved. 

Most people resist change, and if any church or Corps is going to grow, they must be willing to take in new people that are like new born children.  And babies grow to be toddlers who fall down and wreck the house, they spill food all over the furniture, and they scream when they don’t like something, but we still help them along to grow into adults. 

So be mature in your inclusive love!  Some things like your race, social status, and character you and I are just born with! But a positive change in Jesus can occur when a person realizes that the standard the of the world, of doing all of what your partying friends are doing,  is not the standard of Jesus. When Jesus (Jesus in you!) is in the house (or party) then those who realize their lives are a big mess and need Him get awestruck by His transforming words and love. How well do you represent Jesus to others? And representing Him to others you may not even like?