"The crucial point here is that, in
general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those
estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and
attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of
Jesus’s life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a
sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast
(as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in
Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the
elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious
leaders ‘the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before
you’ (Matthew 21:31)." ~ Tim Keller
The more I learn about Jesus the more his life makes me consider my walk with God and how I view the world and church-life. It fits in with the verse from Hosea quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and Matt 12:7, which has been in my mind a great deal recently: "I desire mercy not sacrifice".
From: Keller Quotes
Hat tip to this post: Christianity and Respectability
4 comments:
I read those same verses in Hosea just this past week. I am reading a devotional called "Finding Jesus in the Old Testament."
Sounds a fascinating book, who's it by?
p.s. I got your letter, did I already tell you that? lol
Nancy Guthrie and yes you did. :)
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