Good news for sinners

Luke 15:1-2,4-7 NKJV

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. [2] And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." [4] "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? [5] And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. [6] And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' [7] I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Wonderful words in the first verse - the so called "dregs of society" back then then we're drawn to Jesus and eagerly listened to Him.

All the religious and respectable folk were disgusted that Jesus mixed with such people. But if they could've seen themselves dressed in their soiled menstral clothes of self righteousness, perhaps they would've realised their lost state too!

Today the "respectable" elite of polite society may mock the likes of Tommy Robinson daring to embrace the message of Jesus and trying to put the Christ back into Christmas, but Jesus still draws the unlikely and unlovely, the rough and ready to Himself - that's why He came, friends.

If you feel like you've been left in the sheepfold while Jesus is on a mission to find the lost one, please, find it in your heart to rejoice when He returns with him or her on His broad, all-embracing shoulders!

Don't shoot from the sidelines and scold Jesus for mixing with "sinners" - you and I are of the same sin-stained ilk.

Father God, give us loving hearts to see ourselves as You see us, lost sheep, saved by Your precious Son Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us joyfully join in the angels' party as another lost is found.