A Scandalous Meal: Jesus at the Table with Sinners

Introduction

It's sweet to be together. The preacher, Gaetana, opens her message by saying she loves coming to church on Sunday, whether it's on a pew, in front of a microphone, or even in the nursery when her son decides she won't be making it to the service. It's good to be in the house of God.

She's about to turn 33, and every passing year reminds her of God's faithfulness: a slow, deep work, year after year, the work of the Holy Spirit in her. Today she's speaking in place of pastors Math and Sarah, and she wants to continue a reflection she started on Jesus' meals (a previous message talked about the foot washing, a meal of humility).

The title she's chosen is direct: a scandalous meal. Jesus is in his thirties, he's just come out of thirty years of anonymity and is beginning his public ministry. He's putting together his "dream team," the disciples he's going to train, because in three years he'll be gone and everything needs to keep going. And now he's just chosen a new disciple, a name that will cause a scandal: Matthew.

Outline of the message

1. Matthew, the tax collector who invites Jesus to his table

• Jesus has just invited Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him. A tax collector was someone who collected taxes on Rome's behalf, publicly despised, lumped together with notorious sinners. Matthew leaves his booth, gets up, and follows Jesus.
• His first reaction is to throw a meal. He gathers his colleagues, his friends, everyone he knows. The preacher imagines his intention: "I wanted us to celebrate together, and above all I wanted to introduce you to Jesus. I wanted to tell you why I chose to know him, to follow him. Maybe you could do the same thing."
• Does Jesus respond favorably to the invitation? Of course. As Gaetana puts it: "Jesus never misses a chance to gather around a table. He loves the table."
• In the tradition of that time, a meal wasn't just a practical gesture. It was a chosen sharing, a sincere communion. Eating with someone meant valuing them, honoring them, being at peace with them, loving them. And Jesus eats with a large group of sinners, publicly recognized sinners, "high-level sinners," in the preacher's words.

2. Another group is outraged: the scandal of the religious

• Off to the side of the table, another group is watching. They're not invited, they don't share the meal, but they're close enough to take note of everything happening, and especially of who's there. These are the Pharisees, religious Jews.
• And they cry scandal. "How can he share a table with people like that? Crooks, thieves, swindlers. And his disciples are right there. What kind of rabbi is this? It's shameful." A scandalous meal, in their mouths.
• A small reminder the preacher slips in as she goes: "Jesus hears everything. Even when we think we're hidden, we're never hidden. He examines everything. He knows our thoughts." There's noise around the table, everyone's rejoicing, but Jesus still hears these criticisms rising up a little further away.

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

• Jesus speaks to the religious leaders, not to those at the table. "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. 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."
• The preacher points out the clarity of the reply: Jesus never beats around the bush. He knows who he's talking to, how, and why. Here he does two things at once. First, he puts the Pharisees in their place. Then, he secures the table and protects everyone around him.
• The message to the religious leaders is simple: "You don't consider yourselves sinners. You don't consider yourselves sick. So you don't need me. That's fine. But go on your way, and let me do what I have to do with the people at my table." Then he adds almost in passing: "By the way, go take a look in the Scriptures you claim to know inside and out. You'll read there that I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Now go study what I'm actually saying."
• Jesus goes after their pretension. The Pharisees were known for placing an unbearable standard on the people, a standard they themselves didn't live up to. "Do as I say, not as I do." That's called legalism: imposing on others what you don't do yourself, imprisoning people in something you can't handle yourself. And that is exactly the thing Jesus came to defeat. He came to give grace, redemption, forgiveness, mercy.

4. Jesus, the lamb and the lion at the same table

• This passage presents a paradoxical Jesus. The Bible is full of paradoxes, and Jesus' very nature carries one: he's described as both the lamb and the lion.
• At this meal, he's the lamb you can touch, that you can approach, that you can hold in your arms. He lets himself be seen, he lets himself be taken hold of. He's 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.
• At the same time, in the same place, he's the lion. A lion that roars, one you don't try to outsmart. Who does he roar against? Against anyone who would stop one of these sinners from coming near him.
• Here's the promise: Jesus will never stop you, and will never stop anyone, from coming near him. No matter the sin, no matter the distance that once stood between him and you. If today you take a step toward him, he'll be the accessible lamb you can touch. And in that same moment, he'll be the roaring lion who protects you against everyone who would be scandalized by your coming.

5. He delights in being with sinners

• "Those who recognize they need me, those are the people I delight in." The preacher asks you directly: have you ever had that revelation, that Jesus delights in being with you? Not just that he accepts you. Not just that he puts up with you. He delights.
• Why? Because by declaring yourself a sinner, you're simply declaring that you need him, your savior. Only sinners need a savior. If you've never seen yourself as a sinner, you've never needed Jesus Christ.
• "I'm no longer a sinner living in sin. I'm a sinner by nature, but because Jesus is with me, I'm no longer a sinner. Christ is in me today. But I know where I came from. I don't forget. Every day, I remember where he came to find me (in the mud of sin), and that's what allows praise to rise up to him."
• Jesus delights. The religious, meanwhile, are scandalized. What a paradox. And Gaetana follows with a line she hammers home: "Jesus makes grace accessible, but the religious make sin visible." They see themselves as God's enforcers: they must denounce, condemn, judge. Jesus offers forgiveness. The religious spirit encourages condemnation.

6. Stay on the side of the forgiven sinners

• Where are you today in your walk? The preacher hopes you're seated at the table with Jesus, on the side of the sinners. Because if you're not on that side, do you know where you are? On the other side, with those who watch, who judge, who find it scandalous that "people like that" come to worship Jesus.
• "Let's be part of the right group: the group of forgiven sinners, the group of sinners who were condemned by sin but set free by grace in Jesus Christ."
• Gaetana testifies about herself: "I'm a sinner. If I doubt it, I can ask my kids or my husband, they'll remind me of a few things. I'm a forgiven sinner. My nature is no longer sin. I need to stay in contact with the nature that saved me, the nature of Christ. I need to be at the table with Christ. I need to be at the table with you, you bunch of sinners."

7. Grace is a scandal (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

• Yes, it's scandalous. But the preacher reminds you: the grace of God is a scandal. That's exactly why Christ was crucified. It was scandalous that he forgave the adulterous woman instead of stoning her. It was scandalous that he healed the sick on the Sabbath. Jesus said: "I am the Sabbath. If one of my sheep falls into a well on the Sabbath day, of course I'm going to rescue it. I act with love and with compassion."
• Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24: Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• "It's a scandal to you," Gaetana says, "but it's grace and the power of God revealed for me. It might seem improbable, unjustifiable that I'd be forgiven, but he is my righteousness. A scandal to you, but the power of God for me."

8. A table is already set behind your door (Revelation 3:20)

• She closes with a very simple picture, drawn from Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me."
• Jesus doesn't break down the door. He knocks gently, he offers himself, he doesn't force his way in. He's a gentleman God, a polite God. He clearly has the power to enter (he didn't need angels to roll away the stone from the tomb), but he chooses to wait for you to open.
• And if you open, the first thing he offers isn't to remind you of your sin or to condemn you. It's to eat with you. To take all the time it takes, as many times as you want. He calls you by name. Whoever you are, he knows you.
• When you open the door, you discover the table is already set. You're not the one who prepared the meal. The chairs, the place settings, the best meal you'll ever have tasted in your life, it's all already ready. "That's the miraculous part. The moment you open the door to Jesus Christ, you step into the supernatural with God. There are things prepared in advance for you."
• Gaetana closes with a story about her father Michel, who arrived five minutes late to the home of a brother from church who loved to eat. Daniel opens the door and confesses: "You were five minutes late. Honestly, I couldn't help it. I ate your steak." They shared the vegetables together. But with Jesus, you'll never arrive too late. Jesus will never eat your portion. There is abundance in the house of the Lord.

Key takeaways

• Matthew's meal is scandalous because Jesus sits down, willingly and publicly, with notorious sinners, and he delights in it. It's not polite tolerance, it's joy.
• Facing Pharisees who make sin visible, Jesus makes grace accessible. He refuses the legalism that imposes on others what one doesn't live out oneself, and he sends the religious leaders back to the very Word they claim to know.
• Jesus is at once the lamb you can touch and the lion who protects. The lion doesn't roar against the sinner who draws near: it roars against anyone who would try to keep that sinner from coming to him.
• Your entry into grace begins with a simple confession: "I need you, Jesus." Only those who recognize themselves as sinners need a savior, and those are the ones Jesus delights in.
• He stands at your door and knocks. When you open it, the table is already set. The best meal of your life is already ready: there's nothing to prepare, everything to receive.

Personal application

1. Which side are you sitting on right now: at the table of forgiven sinners, or in the group watching from a distance and judging? What does your reaction to grace shown to others reveal about your own heart?
2. When was the last time you held others to a standard you don't keep yourself? Where has legalism crept into the way you talk about a brother, a sister, or an unbeliever?
3. Have you ever had that revelation, that Jesus delights in being with you, not just that he puts up with you? Take a quiet moment this week to let him tell you that personally.
4. Is there a door in your heart that Jesus is still knocking on? An area you keep closed while he patiently waits to share a meal with you? What's keeping you from opening it today?
5. Who in your life could you offer a meal to, like Matthew did, a simple opportunity to introduce Jesus, no speeches, just around a table?

Verses cited

• Matthew 9:9-13 (WEB)
• Revelation 3:20 (WEB)
• 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (WEB)
• John 13 - the foot washing (WEB)
• John 8:1-11 - the adulterous woman (WEB)
• Luke 6:1-11 - Jesus and the Sabbath (WEB)

FAQ

Why is this meal called "scandalous"?

That's the very word the preacher chose to title her message. The scandal isn't in the meal, it's in the guests. Matthew, a tax collector working for Rome, gathers his sinner colleagues and friends to introduce them to Jesus. And Jesus publicly agrees to sit with them. For the Pharisees watching from a distance, this violates everything they believe: a rabbi doesn't associate with people of bad reputation. Yet Jesus delights in this table. The real scandal, Gaetana says, is the grace of God itself, improbable, unjustifiable in the eyes of the world, yet the power of God for the one who receives it.

What does Jesus say to the Pharisees?

He quotes Matthew 9:12-13: "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick." He does two things at once: he puts the religious leaders in their place, and he secures the table where he's sitting. Then he sends them back to the Word they claim to have mastered: "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." His answer is direct, targeted, protective. He doesn't get pulled into a theological debate, he defends the people at his table.

What should I actually do if Jesus is knocking at my door?

Revelation 3:20 says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me." The preacher insists: hearing is one thing, opening is another. Opening means deciding (in a simple prayer, out loud or in your heart) to let Jesus into your life just as it is. What happens next isn't up to you. The table is already set. You don't have to prepare the meal, you don't have to make yourself presentable. He welcomes you by name, with a smile full of compassion, and he starts by eating with you.