Why Would Jesus Want Me?
What if we're not the kind of polished saints a man organizing a church would be looking for?
He had perhaps the best education of any of the twelve disciples, and would have had to be fluent in the Aramaic, Greek, and Latin languages. He also had likely committed more fraud than any of the twelve disciples. His name is Matthew. As a tax collector he relied on extortion to rip off his Jewish neighbors, demanding more from them than the Roman government asked him to collect. For that reason Jewish people in Jesus’ day snorted the title “tax collector” with disgust and associated them with the rest of the filthy rabble of society, such as prostitutes. Fitting, I suppose. Both sell themselves to make dirty money.
When you imagine Jesus scribbling on his prospect sheet the names of men he’d like to join his team of disciples, you can picture him writing the name of a prominent businessman known as a charitable supporter of hospitals and foundations in the community. You can see him wanting a hard-working single father who juggles kids and work and coaching soccer and doing laundry with persistence and patience. You can figure he’d be looking for that college student who took off a year from school to join the Peace Corps and help make the world a better place.
Nope. Instead Jesus called … Matthew … to be one of his disciples. Yes, this [snort of disgust] … tax collector! So much for a polished image! And that’s exactly the point.
There’s a different image Jesus wants to promote with the makeup of his ragtag group of disciples, which included some simple Simons, an embezzling Judas, a doubting Thomas, and this pair of brothers he called “sons of thunder” because they exploded with impatience at people who didn’t see things their way. Later on Jesus even employed as his number one spokesperson a former felon and serial killer named Saul.
Jesus knows that human nature makes it easy for us to feel excluded from his love. “Why would Jesus want me?” we ask ourselves. We’re cheaters and liars. We’re lazy and we doubt too often. We’re angry and impatient. Not the kind of polished saints a man organizing a church would be looking for. But, these are exactly the kind of hurting, needy, imperfect sinners a Savior offering mercy is looking for. Matthew the [snort of disgust] … tax collector, for example.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick,” Jesus told a group of self-righteous critics who scoffed at him for eating a celebration meal at Matthew’s house with a bunch of other [snort of disgust] … tax collectors and [turn nose up and look away] … sinners (Matthew 9:11,12).
Why would Jesus want you? Because you need him to. That’s enough for Jesus. Like a doctor wants to hang around sick people. Like a surgeon wants to fix broken people. Like a psychologist wants to calm fearful people. None of these professionals advertises, “Please get better before you come to see me.” Neither does Jesus.
Matthew knew from personal experience what that meant. Jesus wants people who are unwanted. Jesus loves people who are unlovable. Jesus welcomes people who aren’t too sure about getting close to him. We call that mercy.
PRAYER: I sure don’t understand you, Jesus. There are so many people out there who represent you better than I do. They don’t struggle to believe like I do. They don’t lose you in the pile of daily responsibilities like I do. They don’t question your rule of the world as much as I do. The only answer to my question, “Why would Jesus want me?” is your mercy that bends down from the perfection of heaven to touch my imperfect life with grace, forgiveness, and love. Thank you, Jesus, for your mercy. Make it always my only hope for being part of your kingdom and one of your followers. Inspire me with your mercy to be merciful to others, and to show your mercy to those who don’t know it that they might follow you too. Amen.