Responding to a very common and false assumption that since Jesus ate with sinners that He was okay with people sinning which isn’t true.
Below is my response to a very common assumption that people have about Jesus eating with sinners as referenced in the scriptures: (Matthew 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-17, Luke 5:30, & and in Luke 15:2).
Some people have the assumption that just because Jesus ate with sinners, that He also was a partaker of the works of sin and did not “judge” those who were sinners at the table with Him; but this assumption is not true. Below is my response to this assumption:
No Jesus ate with sinners who were interested in hearing about salvation FROM sin and were interested in the kingdom of God.
So the fact that Jesus was eating with sinners shows how He knew those who wanted life; because they were interested in what Jesus had to say and Jesus is Life.
Do not take scripture out of context, because to hang out with somebody is like saying that Jesus was powwowing and best friends, and doing the same thing with sinners that sinners do, and He was not doing anything of that.
Because remember that Jesus also says:
How can two walk together, unless they are in agreement?
~ Amos 3:3
Jesus also says through His apostle:
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.
~ 1 Corinthians 10:21
So we see that when people are dining and eating with Jesus and Jesus also knows the heart that is in people; what you’re seeing is people that are interested in eating from Jesus who is the Bread of Life.
You will also notice that the Pharisees and scribes that did not believe in Jesus did not want to sit down and eat with Him, and they were the ones who were the hypocrites as Jesus called them and said about them that:
…they worship God with their lips but their hearts are far from Me.
~ Matthew 15:8-9
Those were the ones that pretended to be real Christians or the ones who pretended to follow the Word of God but they did not follow the Scriptures as the scriptures talk all about Jesus.
Instead, they followed their own interpretations of the Scriptures and not God’s interpretations, and this is already messed up because the Scriptures are not left up to the private interpretation of man.
When Jesus says take of my body and eat of it, and take of my blood and drink, he is talking about Himself since He is the Word of God.
The very act of people sitting down and eating with Jesus, as He is talking is showing again that they wanted life and they wanted to eat and dine with the Son of Man instead of dining at the table with demons, because when you are listening to people you are eating what people are saying. If people are listening to the devil’s speech, and not the speech of God then you’re going to be eating from the devil, and not eating of Jesus.
Eating in the Scriptures is very symbolic.
For it is written that: life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its choice fruit.
The last supper where the disciples were eating with Jesus is significant in many different ways. But I want to point to the fact that, even though 11 of the disciples were eating with Jesus at the dinner table (both physically and spiritually in their hearts) that 11 were devoted to Jesus; we see that Judas was at the same dinner table with Jesus and his heart was not devoted to Jesus but was devoted to the devil, which is why it is written that the devil entered Judas before he left to go turn Jesus in.
Now clearly, Jesus was sitting at the same dining table with Judas, but Judas was not eating from Jesus. Judas was eating from the devil.
Jesus was also not eating the same that Judas was eating. So even though they both were at the same dinner table they both do not have the same appetite. So you can’t just assume that Jesus eating with sinners was the same as Jesus eating and drinking and thinking the same way that sinners do. That’s not righteous judgment.
Jesus was sitting at the dinner table with sinners, but he was not eating from the devil or enjoying and partaking in sinful works and acts because we know that Jesus had no sin and had never sinned.
The people at the dinner table that were sinners were feasting on the Bread of Life, as Jesus was eating and speaking.
Because you are what you eat, right?
Jesus is Life and that’s why He says to eat of His Body…
We also see this is very common in today’s culture when you go on social media and when you’re scrolling down different voices of information and posts. What do they call that? A feed, right?
If you are enjoying and partaking with other people who post toxic, negative things, then you are also eating at the dinner table with those people because you went on your feed and you ingested what they were feeding you. The dinner table in this instance is symbolically the social media platform.
But for me when I come on here, I have one reason and purpose and that is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, so just because I’m on this platform does not mean I’m eating the evil that may come on it and across its feed. I’m at the same dinner table, but I am at the dinner table for a different cause and mission Just as Jesus ate at the dinner table with sinners with a different cause and mission in mind and that was the Father’s Will to be done.
Jesus did not eat from people, but rather people ate from Him as they were eating at the dinner table together.
It is also written that Jesus did not trust himself to the people that were following Him, because He knew what was in them. Sin was in them. And since Jesus is God, and only listens to, and fulfills the Will of God, He would not trust Himself with sin. So you have to get rid of the thought that he was hanging out with sinners because to hang out with somebody and do the same things that they do, you have to also be trusting one another.
But when a person believes in the name of Jesus Christ, they will be saved of their sins, and be purified of their sin by believing in the Word of God, which sanctifies and purify the soul of man.
That is the only time when Jesus will enter and dine with you because you would be dining with Him because you believed in Him.
The fact that He was dining with sinners showcased a precursor to what will happen to those who were once called sinners. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God and have sinned against God, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we are no longer called sinners by God but called children of God and saints of God who eat with God.
Jesus was showcasing this prematurely of what is to come and what is already happening right now when you believe in Him. You and I were once a sinner, but when you listened to the call of God and by sitting down at the dinner table to eat with Jesus you’ll be listening to and only eating from Him because you believed in Him.
And remember what Jesus says,
That He stands at the door and knocks, and anyone who hears my voice and lets me in I will come in and dine with them, and He with me….
Cover Image credit: Dan DeAlmeida on Unsplash
