These are such interesting chapters because they really showcase a certain element of Jesus that I really love: Jesus was incredibly controversial. His teachings, his interactions with people, the type of people he chose to rub shoulders with all send the message that his teaching and ministry was different than anyone else. He came to really seek and save the lost, the people who really needed help, those who had no hope other than to be delivered by the Deliverer.
What I find interesting is that even the healings he performed caused controversy. You would think that you’d want to keep someone around who was healing the sick, casting out demons, and making people’s lives better but that wasn’t how the Pharisees thought. Jesus was a threat to their way of life and even to their identity. What they thought it meant to be Jewish was certainly not Jesus’s thoughts about being Jewish, and that was controversial. They wanted Jesus to worry about rules, but Jesus was worried about people instead.
As followers of Jesus, we need to get comfortable with a controversial Jesus, and we also need to get used to being controversial ourselves. Jesus calls us to follow him; to associate with people who society normally wouldn’t, to love people sacrificially, to teach a message of grace and mercy so radical that we may be considered too gracious and merciful. It’s okay to be controversial, and it’s okay to rock the boat. Because that’s what the message of grace and mercy does; it completely disrupts the status quo of the world we live in and for good reason: the message of Jesus is controversial. He forgives sinners and does not treat us as we deserve; in fact, he blesses sinners. If that’s not controversial I don’t know what is.
