compassion 2

It’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ time at the moment. I have to admit it – I like it! It is fun, entertaining, at times genuinely moving, at other times excruciating and presents variety and talent from all sorts of different people with real stories, real hopes and fears. There is a rawness about it that makes such a change from all the highly professional productions. I love the way that everybody gets the chance but of course from that point on only one act makes it to the Royal Variety Performance.

What I love about Jesus is that with him the process works in the completely opposite way. Jesus finds the one and then everyone gets invited in. At the end everyone who responds to Jesus favourably is a winner. In Matthew ch9 v9-13 it tells how Jesus finds the one (Matthew) and how it spreads from there. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I love the fact that Matthew invites all his friends and associates to come and meet Jesus. And they come! They eat together and they experience his kingdom with him. The religious people were upset and that was tragic. The religious Pharisees, the ones who were trying to please God were totally missing the point. They believed that if everyone could behave themselves for just one day then the kingdom would come and there they were, unable to see what was right in front of their noses. In Matthew ch21 v31 Jesus warns - the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

The tax collectors and prostitutes welcomed Jesus; despite their lifestyles they were moving towards him, they were responding to his invitation. Such is the compassion of Jesus that he calls all and welcomes all to his feast. When Jesus invites he doesn’t invite the best and the great. He comes for all those who recognise that they are the sick and have need of him. Without Jesus I am lost. With him and by coming to him I can know and experience his life. If we all did it, it would be ‘Britain’s got Jesus’ and Jesus would have us. How good would that be!

Geoff Lawton, 10/05/2012