Today’s passage stands as a testament to just how much Jesus sees knows and loves us and that he is so kind to meets us right where we are. There is so much that we can learn when it comes to these verses, but have you ever considered how it could impact the way we do life in community? Let’s focus on a few things from this passage that guide us in doing life with Jesus and with people.

• Jesus doesn’t ask us to clean ourselves up enough to come to him. He came all the way to us while we were still sick to provide healing.

• If Jesus cared for the lost, the last, and the least despite what others thought, we should too.

• Jesus made space for people to belong.

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Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, yet sometimes we can have such a hard time not focusing on what others do wrong, as if it creates some sort of barrier between us and them. What would it look like if we started viewing each other like Jesus does in this passage? Would the sin, imperfections, and messiness start to look more like something that needed healing? Could we begin to see the things that we perceive as a personal threat or offense start to look more like an opportunity to render aid and guide them to a physician?

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It can be really easy to fall into surrounding ourselves with people like us, in similar places of life. But there are people out there who don’t even know that they are lost. What about the people that are far from what our lives look like or our preferences? These are often the people we would probably have the easiest time walking by without noticing. How about those who are either a product of something they have done or of things completely outside their control – do we not often think of them last? The people who might be thought of as dirty, untrustworthy, or even downright scary? These people, just as much as you, I, or anyone else, are on equal footing apart from Jesus. They too, just like you and me, are just as much in need of the restoration that can only be found in the Living God.  

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Jesus was fully aware of all that was wrong with the tax collectors and sinners he was gathering with, yet his abundant grace, love, and mercy for them was still on full display. Shouldn’t we emanate that to others, too?

Wherever the people God puts in your life are at on their journey, they are far more likely to be receptive to the healing that God desires for them if they experience our true care along the way. These people may look like the last, the lost, or the least – from people we might not prefer to those society has condemned. The good news of the gospel is for everyone, and being in community is for everyone, too. In Jesus, we have the joy and the calling to live this out. Ask the Lord today to give you eyes to see people the way he sees them and to love them how he loves them.