Rev Dr William Morton - Thought for the Week: Reflecting on God's mercy and love

St Luke uses the image of table-fellowship to demonstrate the inclusive nature of Jesus’ ministry - the way He ate with sinners, outcasts, and those on the margins of His society.

Meals show who is included as part of the group, and who is excluded. Jesus is certainly inclusive, dining on various occasions with Pharisees, tax collectors, sinners, and friends.

It is important to realise as well that Luke presents a picture of Jesus as welcoming outcasts and sinners. The Jesus we encounter in Luke’s gospel is one who seeks to include not only those who had previously been excluded because of who they are – whose race or religion, gender or age had kept them on the outside, but those who were excluded because of what they had done.

So, enter here, the person of Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who would have been ostracised in the society of those days, classed with thieves, extortioners and murderers, and regarded as a source of uncleanness. Yet, Jesus welcomes Zacchaeus - and in style at that! Jesus even ends up going to Zacchaeus’s house for dinner.

Jesus, on his final journey to Jerusalem where he will be put to death, still reaches out to sinners, and welcomes them. It is Luke alone who has Jesus praying forgiveness for those who crucified Him, and only in Luke does Jesus proclaim salvation for the repentant criminal on the adjacent cross, promising that the thief will be with Him in Paradise.

The meal points forward, as does our receiving Holy Communion, to the banquet in the Kingdom of God. And, of course, Jesus had this to say about those whom one might invite: don’t invite the people you know, the people close to you, the people who can invite you back; instead, invite those who can’t repay you with their own hospitality: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. We are encouraged today to reflect upon the mercy, love, welcome and acceptance of Jesus.