Start Where They Are
OPENING PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I come with a heart that I ask you to make willing to listen and apply your truths to my life. I come as a living sacrifice that I desire to be holy and pleasing to you this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:27-32 (NIV)
REFLECT:
In our passage today, why does Jesus’ new disciple, Levi (or Matthew), reach out to the “sinful” while the religious leaders avoid these same people? I would suggest that the difference stems from how they view themselves compared to how they view others. Levi knew that “we all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and need a Savior. The religious leaders saw themselves as righteous and better than others. Years ago, Beverly Lowry wrote a song including this line – “You may live in a mansion, all the world knows your name; but at the foot of the cross, my friend, everyone stands the same.” If you are a believer, it is so easy to forget who you were before Christ reached you. Your sin condition was terminal. You needed the Great Physician. In my teenage years I broke my leg in a backyard accident. The doctors did not pick me up and start physical therapy. Instead, they immobilized the leg, set the fracture back in place, cast the leg and took me through a healing period. It was only later that I got crutches and relearned how to put weight back on that leg. Just as in that journey, to walk with someone else we all must start where they are. No judgment. No comparison. No expectations. Just a simple humble willingness to listen, understand the need and offer what care you can for where they are currently.
APPLY:
Who will you be willing to walk alongside this week? How will you view them? Level the ground so you stand the same, regardless of where they are at the time. All of us need to come as we are to get a proper diagnosis and the needed treatment. Only in that way can you see what Jesus has for you and them in this relationship.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Dear Father, help me to see myself and others as you see them. Guide me with compassion and insight to help them take the proper next steps. Level my ground. Today we pray also for all of those in the medical professions this day. Revitalize them and give them special grace today. I ask this all in the powerful name of Jesus, Amen
CONTINUED READING:
Luke 7:36-39
WORSHIP: