Oh come, all ye faithful,
joyful and triumphant,
oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem…
But wait: The sinners need Jesus, too. Fortunately for them, Jesus was not one to turn them away. He sat with them and ate with them, while the so-called religious people of the land derided them and scorned them. As a result, sinners flocked toward Him, and heard His message of new beginnings, new hope, unity, fellowship, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice as a tremendously appealing concept. Think about the kinds of people who might be inclined to a message focused on starting over, or think about who it is that might have no qualms with being told there is a better life available, or think about what kind of people wouldn’t struggle with being told they must put to death the old way they were living and pick up a new way.
Now think about the kind of people that would struggle with those ideas. A comfortable, wealthy, privileged, powerful, self-satisfied person would balk at such talk. Why did those kinds of people reject Jesus as the Messiah? It’s frequently pointed out that Jesus wasn’t the kind of Messiah they were expecting; they thought He would be a great military hero, and instead He was a humble carpenter’s son from Nazareth. That’s a true reason for why He was rejected, but it doesn’t go far enough.
The kind of people who rejected Him, did so not only because He wasn’t what they thought He’d be, but also because they weren’t willing to become the kind of people He commanded them to be. They were too comfortable to take up their crosses and follow Him. That’s WHY they expected their Messiah to be a military hero: They wanted someone to come in and do all the dirty work for them, driving out the Romans and giving them their freedom on a silver platter. Instead, along comes a Man saying “you must deny yourself…”
By and large, that kind of message just doesn’t play with that audience.
Sinners on the other hand (a people with nothing to lose, a people down and out, a people already outcasted and defeated, a people who—wrongly—felt abandoned by God and—rightly—abandoned by their peers) gravitated toward Him en mass.
Everyone needs Jesus, and sadly many will never come to Him. But you know what’s a remarkable thought? Everyone who has ever come to Jesus has been a sinner, and everyone Jesus has ever saved has been wicked.
Oh come, all ye unfaithful…
mournful and defeated,
oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem…
Come and behold Him,
born the King of sinners;
oh come let us adore Him (x3),
Christ the Lord.
…
Sing, choirs of outcast,
sing in exaltation,
sing all ye citizens of gutters below:
“Glory to God, glory in the Highest!”
Oh come let us adore Him (x3),
Christ the Lord.
~ Matthew