Welcoming Sinners

Part 3, A Prevenient Transforming Grace

That conversion was on the agenda in Jesus' welcoming of sinners is obvious in how he described his practices of table fellowship. In each of the synoptic gospels (Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, and Luke 5:31), Jesus says in defending his practice: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Again, "calling sinners" cuts across how progressives tend to read the stories of Jesus' table fellowship. Progressives generally read these stories as tales of tolerance and acceptance. But Jesus describes his actions a medicinal, tending to the sick. He is calling sinners back home as he regathers the lost sheep of Israel.

And yet, there was something provocative and shocking about Jesus' practices that offended the righteous and pious of his day. Jesus had a different diagnosis of the sickness which caused him to apply different medicine.

Simply stated, rather than erecting a moral barrier between the righteous and sinners, Jesus crossed over into the territory of the sinners to proclaim a prevenient grace, inclusion, and welcome. "Prevenient" is an adjective that means preceding in time or order, something which comes before something else. As he regathered Israel, Jesus announced the inclusion of sinners prior to their repentance. As children of Abraham, they belonged. And in Jesus' practices of table fellowship he announced and enacted that belonging. Again, the story of Zacchaeus is illustrative:

• Prior to any repentance or conversion, Jesus goes to Zacchaeus' house. Jesus enacts prevenient grace, inclusion, and welcome.

• This act triggers moralistic murmuring among the people, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

• But Jesus' medicine works. Zacchaeus' experience of grace prompts conversion. “Look, Lord!" he says, "Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

• Witnessing the change, Jesus announces, “Today salvation has come to this house." The medicine of prevenient grace, inclusion, and welcome has effected a cure. As Jesus goes on to say, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

• Finally, Jesus connects his actions with his goal of regathering the lost sheep of Israel. He came to Zacchaeus' house "because this man, too, is a son of Abraham." Though wayward, Zacchaeus was a part of the family and had to treated as such.

Again, notice the cross-currents that cut across simplistic progressive and conservative readings of Jesus. Progressives don't like how Jesus' actions had a soteriological agenda, healing the sick and seeking and saving the lost. For their part, conservatives don't like Jesus' enactments of prevenient grace, inclusion, and welcome, how sinners, as sinners, were already a part of the family.

Stepping back, it seems that Jesus' strategy was to enact a prevenient, transforming grace. Zacchaeus changes because he was welcomed and included. A prior embrace prompted a moral change. And it was this reordering--embrace before repentance--that made Jesus' table fellowship so provocative. Consider the older brother's reaction in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Or the pride of the Pharisee in the Parable of the Tax Collector and Pharisee. Torah piety was being used to create a caste system, with righteous insiders (the older brother, the Pharisee) shunning sinful outsiders (the prodigal brother, the tax collector). With his mission to regather Israel, Jesus broke down this caste system to seek out and embrace all the lost sheep of Israel. For Jesus, it seems, being a "child of Abraham" was more important than Torah observance. Identity trumped moral performance. Any moral change of these lost sheep, Jesus appeared to assume, would happen upon their experience of grace and inclusion.