I hope I will always be surprised by how Jesus loved people.
Or rather, surprised by who it was that he loved.
Being soaked, or perhaps pickled, in a Christian culture sometimes dulls our hearing of the stories of Jesus.
This Sunday at the Gathering Church we will look at a story that should always surprise us. Found in Matthew 9:9-13, it is officially referred to as The Calling of Matthew.
Jesus asks one of the most irreligious people he could find to become one of the first people to eventually announce that God had shown up.
Matthew throws a party for Jesus and invites his friends who are likewise disengaged from anything that looks spiritual or godly.
Why is it that people who found religion and spiritual practices irrelevant, found Jesus irresistible?
Perhaps the better question is, why were such people irresistible to Jesus?