Love for the Far Gone
Perhaps the greatest criticism of Jesus’ life was his love for those who everybody else considered too far-gone for love. People didn’t understand the way that Jesus reached out to the lowly, the nobodies, the unimportant! But the gospels share one story after the next of Jesus loving the unexpected types and being tough on the religious types:
- He loved the poor and spoke harshly towards the rich.
- He loved known sinners and got tough on the Pharisees and Scribes.
- He touched lepers when everybody else refused to.
The religious leaders saw all this and said “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 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.” (Mark 2:16–17)
Tony Campolo's Late-Night Birthday Party for Prostitutes
Jesus went to those who the religious types didn’t go to!
It reminds me of a story I read about author Tony Campolo who was eating breakfast at a diner when a group of prostitutes walked in. He heard one of them mention that the next day would be her birthday, but she’d never had a birthday party. Campolo decided to throw her a birthday party, and arranged this with Harry, the owner of the café:
At 2:30 the next morning, Campolo brought decorations and Harry had baked a cake. Word had got out and it seemed as if every prostitute in Honolulu was in the café. When Agnes entered with her friends, she was flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open and her knees wobbled. As she sat on a stool, everyone sang “Happy Birthday”. “Blow out the candles,” people shouted, but in the end, Harry had to do it for her. Then he handed her a knife. “Cut the cake, Agnes, so we can all have some.” She looked at the cake. Then slowly said, “Is it alright … would you mind … if I wait a little longer … if we didn’t eat it straight away?” “Sure. It’s okay,” said Harry. “Take it home if you want"’ "Can I?” she said, “Can I take it home now? I’ll be back in a few minutes.” And with that she left, carrying her precious cake out the café.
There was a stunned silence. So Campolo said, “What do you say we pray?” And they did. Campolo lead a group of prostitutes in prayer at 3:30 in the morning. When they were done, Harry said, “Hey! You never told me you were some kind of preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” Campolo answered, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” Harry waited for a moment. Then he kind of sneered, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that.”
Embracing the 'Far Gone' with Christ-like Love
You know what I hope? I hope that my church will always welcome the “far gone”. That we will care for the people that nobody else cares for. That we never consider ourselves too good or too holy to love the ones the world rejects.
If we want to love like Jesus, we not only offer grace and mercy and kindness to our family, friends, and foes, but to the supposedly ‘far-gone’ too.
