By Joe Clarke, serving in Coimbra, Portugal
Read Mark 2:13-17
It’s the most wonderful time of year. It’s the period of goodwill towards all men. It’s the season to be jolly. And yet, did you know that Christmas isn’t for everyone? Of course, most people in Portugal don’t know that. That’s why everywhere you go, there is Christmas music, Christmas decorations and Christmas food, for the Portuguese think that Christmas is for everyone. But that’s not what Jesus says, and he should know!
You see, having caused outrage amongst the religious leaders who couldn’t understand why he was choosing to eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’, this is what he says to them in Mark 2:17:
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
Jesus, then, hasn’t come for those who think they don’t need him. That is, he hasn’t come for those who think they are good enough, nice enough or spiritual enough for God. Rather, he has come for those who know they are sinners, who recognize their sheer unworthiness before the holy God, and who therefore come before him with empty hands, leaning wholly on his mercy and grace. So then, Christmas isn’t for everyone. But it is for you, if you recognize your helplessness before the Almighty God, and come to him through Jesus for salvation.
As you meditate on this truth today, why not listen to the relatively new carol ‘O Come, All You Unfaithful’ and pray for your friends and family who aren’t yet trusting in Jesus. Here in Coimbra, we long for many in our local area to know Jesus this Christmas. Please join us in praying for our evangelistic family carol service, happening tomorrow, on 17 December – that this is an opportunity for neighbours, colleagues, friends to come, be convicted of their need for Jesus and fall before his throne of grace in repentance and faith.