The night Little bit came to church.
When I was a teen-ager there was a guy in the community who I'm going to call Little bit. As you would guess... Little bit was little. But Little bit had a reputation... he liked to party... he smoked.. legal stuff and probably some illegal stuff.. and he drank and ran with other folks who did the same. Most of these folks were not in Sunday School, if you know what I mean. Going to church wasn't something Little bit did much of. But one Sunday night, Little bit showed up at church.
Most of us who knew Little bit were... well, we were shocked. Some even said sarcastically, "The roof's going to fall in." When he heard that Little bit just smiled. He knew what that meant... the roof was going to cave in out of shock that Little bit had come to church!
But we were wrong for saying that... we were making fun of Little bit. We should have welcomed him and said, "Little bit ... man, good to see you."
But, you know what, there are "Little bits" in every community who may know they need help... they may have some questions about Jesus.. they may want to be forgiven... and they come to church trying to find Jesus. When they do, how do we receive them? Do we get off to ourselves and whisper "Hey.. you see who's in church? Man, there's Little bit. What is HE doing here?"
Well, "What is HE is doing here.." is..He is trying to find forgiveness in Jesus. The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. That's not just a neat quote that might draw some "Amen's" in a sermon. It's fact.
Jesus tells us how we should reach out to the Little bit's of the world.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus invited Matthew to follow him and received criticism for it. Matthew was a tax collector and tax collectors were considered crooks.. they didn't have a good reputation. Jesus saw Matthew and said "Follow Me!" and Matthew got up and followed Jesus.
That night, there was a party and Jesus was mingling with other tax collectors and sinners.. probably some of Matthew's friends. When the Pharisees saw this, they were angry and asked Jesus disciples WHY Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners. I mean, "the very thought of Jesus eating with these unsightly sinners!" What's the world coming to? lol
Jesus heard them and said "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick" (Matt. 9:12). Jesus was saying, "Guys, this is kind of why I came... (sarcasm)... I know these guys don't have sterling reputations... and they don't have good reputations because they need a spiritual heart change. That's why I came."
We do the same thing today.
Jesus came for sinners. Repeat that several times to make sure you remember it. Jesus came for sinners. Jesus came for sinners. Jesus came for sinners.
The church exists for all of us.. people with bad reputations and people with good reputations. In fact, those who have good reputations need to remember that even though they have good reputations that doesn't make them any better than anyone else.
Jesus came for me and you and Little bit... And we need to be careful that we don't let the "Little bit's" of the world think they have messed up so bad that Jesus wouldn't want to see them. The roof will not cave in when Little bit shows up and neither should we.
I would like to say this story has a happy ending but it doesn't. No, Little bit didn't stay in church and at least some of the reason is.. we made fun of Little bit rather than reaching out like Jesus would.
Is their a Little bit you need to reach out to today or welcome them when they come to church?
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