Loving The Wrong People?

Jesus was always loving the wrong people. It’s what set him apart from everyone else around him.

Jesus loved the lepers, and the lame. He loved the broken, and the brokenhearted.

Jesus loved those who were poor, despised, rejected and cast out.

He loved Samaritans, and Pagans. He loved prostitutes. He loved drunkards.

He loved people who loved to party, and he felt right at home in the midst of those who were called “sinners” by the religious elite.

Jesus loved all the wrong people, and he suffered abuse for it.

He was called “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. [Matt. 11:19]

When they called him a “friend of sinners” it was not as a compliment, but as a rebuke.

He loved the unlovely. He even loved his enemies.

Simply put, Jesus loved people. He loved all sorts of people. But most of all, he loved the wrong people. He loved all of the people that we find it most difficult to love.

How many of us would be called the friend of a whore? How many of us would invite a homeless man into our home to share a meal? How many of us would take a meth addict who lives in his van out to dinner? How many of us would be willing to love the wrong people the way Jesus did?

Are we willing to love people who are living in sin? Can we love people outside our faith community? Are we open to loving someone with a different sexual orientation? Can we love those who disagree with us politically, doctrinally, morally?

The truth is, Jesus still loves all the wrong people. He loves them with an unending love and he wants you and I to love them, too.

Jesus loves all the people we hate. But we shouldn’t hate anyone.

As people who have been touched by his love, we need to be changed by his love into people who can love like he loves.

“Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” [1 John 2:6]

If Jesus loves all the wrong people, it’s time for us to love them, too.

-kg