Matthew 9:11-12
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?  But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

We can’t have the Pharisees’ attitude about sinners.  Everyone needs Jesus.  And thankfully, our own righteousness is not a condition of receiving His precious gift of salvation, or else we would all be doomed.  Thankfully Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, because without Him, we are all very lost, indeed.  Thankfully, the Great Physician came to heal our sin-sick souls, because if we are honest, we will find that in our sin and apart from Christ, we are nothing but unwhole and unwell.

So if we can see our need for Jesus, He is available for us to give us exactly what we need.  If we look within ourselves and realize there is no good there and nothing worthy there, He will give to us His righteousness.  If we can understand that our hearts apart from Him are so empty and barren, He will fill them with His Spirit and bring life to those dead places within them.  And if we can honestly admit that we’re sinners who need a Savior, Jesus will gladly be our very own personal Savior.

Once we’ve seen ourselves so clearly and then experienced His love so fully, don’t we want that same thing for those other sinners all around us?  Those who have yet to experience the refreshing cleansing of Christ’s forgiveness are not to be looked down upon and sneered at and cast away.  They are sick people who need a doctor, and they are the exact people Jesus died for, the hearts He still wants to impact, the lives He still wants to change.  So can’t we do everything that we can to draw them to Him instead of driving them away with some callous, prideful attitude?

The love that Christ has for sinners is a truly wonderful thing.  And now that we are His own dear children, do we have that same love for them?  He came to us while we were in a truly wretched state, when our hearts were dark and full of evil.  He didn’t give up on us because we were sinners, but He sought us out.  So let us continue His work and obey His commands to tell every needy sinner that Jesus is near and can cure them of that horrible disease of sin.