Luke 15:1–2

The Jews had a special horror of tax-gatherers. They were their own countrymen. Yet they made themselves tools of their Gentile masters to collect the taxes. Their position gave them constant opportunity to misuse their authority. They could oppress the Jews and extort money on false pretences or beyond the lawful amount.

The older translation says, "Then drew near." But the words do not describe something that happened once, at one moment. They describe what kept on happening. We see that everywhere through the gospels. At least from the day He called Levi from the tax booth, and Levi made Him a feast in his own house, "tax collectors and sinners" flocked around the Lord. Before that they had gone out in large numbers to John's baptism. That call invited them through the gate of repentance to come and find forgiveness of their sins. Now grace sought them more openly. You would expect them, beyond others, to welcome it. And they did.

Let us give to Him in whatever shape or way we please, it will not do; we must receive from Him. The Pharisee gives Him a feast inside the house. The crowd give Him their respect and admiration outside. But He is either grieved, or at most unsatisfied. He passes on through all this until "tax collectors and sinners" draw near to hear Him. They do not come to give Him anything, but to get something from Him. Luke 15:1. Then He rejoiced in spirit; His heart tasted the fruit it had journeyed for, and was satisfied.

How wonderful it is to see tax collectors and sinners drawing near to listen to His words. How different the words that came out of His mouth from the words spoken in the ears of the people from Mount Sinai. There the mountain burned with fire, in blackness, darkness and storm. There was the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words. Those who heard that voice begged it to say no more to them. They could not endure the command.

The light in which God has drawn near to man in Christ is attractive to the heart. It does not repel the poor sinner. It may be, and will be, hated by the proud and the self-righteous, but it is attractive to the wretched and the weak. We find the worst and lowest type of sinner drawing near to hear Jesus.

Still, His words drew to Him the outcast and the degraded, too wretched not to feel and admit their need. The tax collectors and sinners were not pushed back. They were coming near, strongly attracted, to hear what they felt to be the truth. Their conscience bowed to it, though they had never heard it before... For the Pharisees and scribes had no thought of following Jesus, any more than of coming to Him. They made a god of self in the name of God... Grace goes down to the common level of ruin that sin has already made.

The Pharisee had charged Him with receiving sinners, as though His ministry did not secure righteousness, but gave liberty to evil. Of course He might have offered various answers to this. He might have defended His grace to sinners on the ground of the necessity of the case, or on the ground of God's glory. But in this chapter, from beginning to end, He defends it in each of the lovely parables. His one ground is the joy that He, and the Father, and all heaven itself, were finding in it.