A Scandalous Meal: Jesus Delights in Eating With You

Introduction

Matt Marvane continues a series he began a few weeks ago at SOS Lyon church: the meals of Jesus. There was the table of forgiveness and reconciliation, then that meal where Jesus took a towel to wash each of his disciples' feet and make himself the servant of all. Today, another meal, with a title that sets the tone: a scandalous meal.

We're at the point where Jesus, in his thirties, is starting his public ministry. For thirty years he lived in anonymity, an ordinary family life with his parents, his brothers, and his sisters. And suddenly he becomes someone people follow, seek out, even chase after. He is building his "dream team," as they say at SOS Lyon when talking about everyone who serves: in worship, with children, at welcome, in prayer. Jesus knows that in three years he will leave, and that what he's starting has to be able to continue. So he prays, the Father gives him a list of names, and he goes to find his disciples. The most recent one is no ordinary person.

Outline of the Message

1. Jesus invites himself to a tax collector's house (Matthew 9:9-10)

• The most despised job in Jewish culture. Jesus has just called a tax collector. Israel is under the Roman Empire, and Rome hires Jews to collect taxes from Jews. The people are giving up around 40% of their income. And most of these collectors demand a little more than what's owed to line their own pockets. In everyone's eyes, Matthew is a collaborator, an extortionist, a thief plundering his own people.
• Matthew leaves his table. Jesus speaks to him and invites him to follow. Matthew decides to leave the tax collectors' table, the place where he does his business. Following Jesus back then meant every day, not now and then, not once a week. It demanded total surrender. Matthew leaves his job immediately and takes to the road with Jesus.
• One idea: do something with Jesus right away. The first thing Matthew does is invite Jesus to his house for a meal. And they won't be alone: the Gospel says there were many of them. Matt Marvane imagines Matthew inviting his colleagues, other tax collectors, and people of ill repute, known sinners who didn't obey the law. Almost as if to say: this is my last day on the job, I'm changing bosses, here he is in front of you, I wanted you to meet him, and maybe you could do the same.
• Jesus never misses a chance to gather around a table. Of course he says yes. He loves the table. He walks into the house, he eats, he delights in it, he doesn't hide. He didn't say to Matthew, "Your house is well hidden, because I can't be seen with you like this." No. And in fact, ever since his early years, Jesus has only ever shared meals with sinners. If he'd wanted to eat only with people without sin, he would have eaten alone his whole life. He would have had to tell Mary, "Mom, I'll eat on the other side, I can't eat with you. And Dad, even less."
• What sharing a table means. In the tradition of the time, eating with someone carried real weight. It wasn't sitting next to someone and eating your plate without caring who was there. It was a chosen, wanted bond, a sincere fellowship. I consider the people at my table, I value them, I'm at peace with them, I love them.

2. Another group cries scandal (Matthew 9:11)

• Two large groups. Around Jesus, a large group of sinners, and not just any sinners: "high-profile" sinners, publicly known. And another large group, the Pharisees, religious Jews, not in the room but close enough to see who's at the table, to take note of everything happening, and especially of who is there.
• What they say. Why does he eat with them? How can he share a table with people like that? It's shameful, a meal with criminals, thieves, cheats. And his disciples are right there too. What kind of teacher is this? What kind of rabbi? It's unacceptable, it's shameful. A scandalous meal.
• Jesus hears it all. He's there with his friends, enjoying the moment, but he keeps an ear open enough to hear what they're saying, despite the noise of a table where everyone is celebrating. Just a reminder for us: even when we think we're hidden, we never are. Jesus hears everything, examines everything, even knows our thoughts.

3. Jesus' sharp reply (Matthew 9:12-13)

• The text. "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus is speaking to the religious critics, not to those around the table.
• Jesus gets straight to the point. There's no beating around the bush with Jesus. When he wants to say something, he knows who he's addressing, how, and why. He seizes the moment because the subject is too important: he's sharing a table with sinners he loves, and that's the most important thing to him. He absolutely does not want anyone to disturb this meal.
• He puts some in their place and secures the others. First he puts the Pharisees in their place, in a way: go look elsewhere for someone to bother. Then he secures and protects everyone at the table. Why? Because he delights in it. "I delight in being with the ones you reject, the ones you judge, the ones you condemn."
• If you don't need forgiveness, you don't need me. To the Pharisees who examine themselves and say, "I don't need forgiveness, reconciliation, grace, mercy," Jesus essentially replies: then you don't need me, or a seat at this table. Off you go. The ones who come are the sick, and he's not just talking about physical illness: those who are sick because of sin, separated from God, whose spirit is condemned. Jesus came to heal, to save, to restore those who recognize themselves as sinners.
• "Go and search the Scriptures." In passing, Jesus points these men who claim to know the Word inside out back to that very Word: you'll read that I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He who is the Word himself corrects them and sends them back to the Word. Not easy to hear when you claim to keep the law perfectly and do everything required to please God.
• What Jesus is attacking: pretension and legalism. The Pharisees were known for imposing a standard on the people, an unbearable pressure, that even they couldn't live up to themselves. "Do as I say, not as I do." That's legalism: imposing on someone what you don't do yourself, trapping people in something you don't master. This is precisely what Jesus came to defeat. He came to give grace, redemption, forgiveness, mercy. His love matters far more than our pretentious sacrifices.

4. A paradoxical Jesus: the lamb and the lion

• The Bible is full of paradoxes. Jesus is described both as the lamb and as the lion. You don't approach a lion the way you approach a lamb. And in this text, both images are present at the same moment, in the same place.
• The approachable lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For whom? For sinners. And there he is right in the middle of them: letting himself be seen, touched, heard, held. Whatever sin you've committed, whatever distance has stood between him and you up until today, if you take a step toward him in humility, he will be the lamb you can touch.
• The roaring lion. At the very same instant, he's this lion capable of speaking with force. Listen carefully to who he roars against: against anyone who would keep one of them from coming near him. He calls out the religious people scandalized that someone would dare approach the lamb. Jesus will never stop anyone from coming near him, and he will protect you from anyone scandalized that you, given where you come from, after everything you've done and said, could be forgiven.

5. Jesus delights, the religious are scandalized

• Not just accepted, not just tolerated. Have you ever had that realization that Jesus delights in being with you? Why? Because you recognize yourself as a sinner. To declare "I am a sinner" is simply to say: I need you, Jesus, my Savior. Only sinners need a savior. If you've never seen yourself as a sinner, you've never needed Jesus Christ.
• A second, a third, a hundred-thousandth chance. His unconditional love doesn't change. Where sin abounds, his grace abounds all the more. As long as we see ourselves as sinners, Jesus will delight in spending time with us.
• A sinner by nature, but Christ in me. Matt Marvane clarifies: I'm not a sinner because I live in sin. I'm a sinner by nature, but Christ is in me, my nature is no longer sin. Yes, I still sin sometimes, but I know where I came from. Every day, I remember where he came to find me: in the mud of sin. He was that pure, spotless lamb who took the mud of my life and made me white as snow. That's what stirs up praise and feeds gratitude every day.
• Accessible grace or visible sin. Jesus makes grace accessible; religious people love to make sin visible. They see themselves as God's enforcers: expose it, condemn it, judge it. Jesus offers forgiveness; the religious spirit encourages condemnation.
• Which side of the table are you on? I hope we're firmly seated at the table with Jesus, on the sinners' side, and that we stay there. Because if we're not on the sinners' side, we're part of the other group, the one watching from a distance saying, "how scandalous." Let's be part of the right group: forgiven sinners, condemned by sin but freed by grace in Jesus Christ. "I need to be at the table with Christ. I need to be at the table with you, a bunch of sinners. I don't need to be at the table with people who claim to be better than me."

6. The grace of God is a scandal (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

• This is why Christ was crucified. It was a scandal that Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery when she should have been stoned. A scandal that he healed the sick on the Sabbath. Jesus essentially says: I am the Sabbath; if one of your animals falls into a well on that day, you'll go pull it out; if one of my sheep falls into a well on the Sabbath, of course I'll rescue it.
• A scandal to some, the power of God for us. Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, the power of God and the wisdom of God. It may seem unlikely, unjustifiable, that I could be forgiven. Yet he is my righteousness. A scandal to you, the power of God for me.

7. A table is ready: he's knocking at your door (Revelation 3:20)

• "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Imagine: you're at home and Jesus is standing right behind your door. He hasn't come in, he's knocking. Gently. Just enough for you to hear that someone is behind the door. And that's exactly what he's doing right now at the door of your heart.
• Hear, then open. "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door." Through songs, prayers, the Word proclaimed, you hear his voice. But hearing it is one thing; then you have to open. You can look through the peephole to make sure it's really him, but eventually you have to open.
• The first thing he does: eat with you. "I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me." Jesus doesn't say: I'm going to expose your sin, condemn you, remind you where you came from and who I am. He says: let's share a good meal together, you and me, let's talk, you can tell me everything.
• A God who offers himself without imposing himself. A gentleman God, polite, who comes and knocks at the door. Could he force it open? Of course. Do you think he needed angels to roll away the stone from the tomb? He is wherever he wants, whenever he wants. He's not the one who needs us; we're the ones who need him. And yet he knocks. He knows your name, whoever you are, and he's not standing at the church door: he's standing at your door.
• The table is already set. You open, he welcomes you with a smile full of compassion, he takes you in his arms: finally, you opened for me. You lead him to the living room, and the table is already ready: the chairs, the napkins, the finest dishes, the best meal. You didn't set it. That's the miracle of it: the moment you open the door to Jesus Christ, you step into the supernatural, into things prepared in advance for you. "When did you do this?" "Don't worry about that, I do things differently than you do. Come, sit down."
• Daniel's steak. Matt Marvane closes with a memory. His father, Michel, had been invited to eat at Daniel's house, a brother from the church who loved to eat well. Michel arrived five minutes late. Daniel welcomed him, sat him down, then confessed: "You were five minutes late, I couldn't help it, I ate your steak." They shared the vegetables together. With Jesus, that will never happen: Jesus will never eat your portion. There is abundance in the house of the Lord. If you're hungry, you can eat his Word and drink in his presence.

Key Takeaways

• Jesus doesn't hide to eat with sinners. He walks into Matthew's house, he eats, he delights in it. He has only ever shared his table with sinners.
• Sharing a table is a chosen fellowship: I consider, I value, I love those who are with me. That's what Jesus does with you.
• Those who need a physician are the sick. If you never see yourself as a sinner, you've never needed Jesus. To recognize "I am a sinner" is to say "I need you."
• Jesus is the lamb you can touch, and the lion who roars against anyone who would keep you from coming near him.
• Legalism imposes on others what we don't do ourselves. Jesus came to defeat it through grace and mercy. The religious make sin visible; Jesus makes grace accessible.
• He knocks at your door without forcing it open. If you open, the first thing he does is eat with you, at a table already set.

Personal Application

1. Which side of the table are you on today: with the forgiven sinners around Jesus, or with those watching from a distance saying, "how scandalous"?
2. Have you ever had a moment in prayer where you felt Jesus was glad to be with you, not just tolerating you? What keeps you from believing that?
3. Is there a standard you impose on others without carrying it yourself? How could you replace that pressure with mercy this week?
4. Like Matthew, who could you invite to your table to introduce them to Jesus, without waiting for them to change first?
5. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. You've heard him, but have you opened for him? What would it look like, concretely, to open the door for him today?

Scriptures Cited

• Matthew 9:9-13 · the call of Matthew, the meal with the tax collectors, and Jesus' answer to the Pharisees.
• Hosea 6:6 · "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice," the Scripture Jesus quotes back to the Pharisees.
• John 1:29 · the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
• Romans 5:20 · where sin abounded, grace abounded even more.
• Matthew 12:11-12 · the sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath.
• 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 · Christ crucified, a scandal to some, the power and wisdom of God to those who are called.
• Revelation 3:20 · "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."

FAQ

Why was the meal at Matthew's house a scandal?

Matthew was a tax collector, a Jew hired by the Roman Empire to collect taxes from his own people, and most collectors demanded more than was owed to pocket the surplus. To the Pharisees, sharing a table with tax collectors and known sinners was unthinkable, because at the time eating with someone meant a chosen bond, a sincere fellowship. Jesus, though, goes openly and delights in it.

What does "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" mean?

In Matthew 9:13, Jesus points the Pharisees back to the Scriptures they claim to know: God's love matters more than showy sacrifices. Jesus is confronting their legalism, that unbearable pressure they placed on others without carrying it themselves. He came to give grace, forgiveness, and mercy, not to encourage condemnation.

What happens when you open the door to Jesus (Revelation 3:20)?

Jesus stands at the door and knocks, without forcing his way in. If you hear his voice and open, he says he will come in and eat with you. The first thing he does isn't condemn you or remind you where you came from: it's share a meal and talk with you. And the table is already set: by opening to him, you step into what God has prepared for you in advance.