This past Sunday Bible Class I attended was was on Matt 9:9-13.

Matthew 9:9–13 ⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. ¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

We spent a lot of time discussing the fact that Jesus ate with sinners. Of course He did! If He didn’t eat with sinners, He would always have eaten alone. It was for sinners, including you, that He came into this world.

Because many in our society are observing what they call “Pride Month,” the pastor asked whether or not we thought Jesus would attend a Pride parade. It made for an interesting dialogue. It is sometimes hard to know the correct way to show love to people caught up in a sin without approving of their sinful behavior.

Today’s world has tried to tell followers of Jesus what it means to love. They will say that if you love someone, you will accept them as they are, including their sin. They want us to condone sinful behavior. And they are sometimes reluctant to be around Christians because they are afraid of being condemned. I remember when the AIDS epidemic was in full force, an organization was established in our county to render assistance to victims. They asked for volunteers to help deliver meals and run errands for people who had this terrible disease. I called to volunteer. When they found out I was a pastor, they told me I was not welcome. Evidently they were afraid that, instead of showing God’s love, I would be condemning and judgmental. I was very disappointed that I could not help, and also that they assumed the worst about those who were followers of Jesus.

I would rather try to follow the example of Jesus. He showed us how to love. He spoke the Law forcefully at times, but He was also gentle and kind. His love led Him to lay down His life to pay for the sins of the world. Paul affirmed that in his first letter to Timothy:

1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Jesus did not do that so that we would continue to sin or insist on our right to behave in ways contrary to His will.

Getting back to the question: Would Jesus attend a Pride parade? I shared with the class that I could not think of a single time Jesus celebrated or affirmed people in their sins. Instead, He would spend time with sinners and encourage them to “go and sin no more.”

Our pastor shared the thought that while the world says we should love them just as they are, God loves us too much to leave us where we are. That is why Jesus paid the price for sin, so that we could be forgiven and live a new life, starting now.

Our challenge is to show God’s love to those caught up in their sins, along with the message that God has something better for them. God help us to do that in our living.