NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE FRIEND OF SINNERS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 11:16-19
APRIL 27, 1997
It was Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “Whenever I see an empty throne, I feel the need to sit upon it.” The truth was whenever he saw any throne, empty or occupied, he felt the need to sit upon it. The French people called Napoleon “la petite caporal,” “the little corporal,” and they called him this because in the year 1796 at the Battle of Lodi near Milan, Italy, Napoleon aimed and fired the cannon which was the signal to send the troops into battle. Normally the cannon was fired by a lowly corporal because that was a dangerous job, but Napoleon did this even though in 1796 he was already a general.
He continued to ascend, and he became the first counsel. And then ultimately on December 2, 1804, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Napoleon Bonaparte took the crown from the hands of the Pope and he placed it on his own head and he crowned himself Emperor. But, you see, the enemies of Napoleon had other titles for him. They called him “The Destroyer.” They called him “The Destroyer of the Peace.” In fact, after Napoleon’s escape from Elba and before the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington signed a document which declared Napoleon to be “the destroyer of all the peace on the earth.”
And, you see, that’s how it is in life. That’s how it is throughout history. Famous people are given titles. They are given honorable titles by those who admire them, and they are given dishonorable titles by their detractors. This was true of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this morning we examine a title of Christ given to Him by His enemies. It was the Pharisees who called Christ “The Friend of Sinners” and they could not have known how precious this title would be to those of us who love Jesus. He is “The Friend of Sinners.” In conjunction with this title, I have two teachings this morning. The first teaching is this: Jesus Christ loves us unconditionally. He has unconditional love for each and every one of us.
Now we live in a world where generally this is not true. We live in a world where love is generally very conditional. Children learn this very early on. They learn that love is sometimes conditional or contingent upon things like beauty. In fact, as children see movies like “Dumbo” and as they read stories like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” they learn from those kinds of stories that if you look different than other people, you have a hard time fitting in. When they hear stories or when they see an animated version of a story like “Cinderella,” they notice that they wicked stepsisters are ugly, and they notice that Cinderella is beautiful. Children decide very early on that they don’t want to be ugly. They decide very early on that they want to be beautiful. Children when they read “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” understand the question “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
Children understand that if Sleeping Beauty were actually Sleeping Ugly, the handsome prince would not have come along and planted that awakening kiss on her face. They understand, children do, that the Ugly Duckling was rejected because of his ugliness. They know that the Ugly Duckling eventually became a beautiful swan, but they know, even though they’re children, that in real life this doesn’t happen. In real life, when you’re ugly, you tend to stay that way the rest of your life.
And so, we live in this world where love is contingent sometimes upon beauty and sometimes upon intelligence and intellect and sometimes upon personality. They’re some people who have a hard time competing, you see. There are some people in this world, perhaps some in this room, who have a hard time competing for love in a world where beauty and intelligence and personality are so important. Some people seek to be loved through their accomplishments, maybe in the world of athletics or maybe in the corporate world. Psychologists tell us that some people seek money and wealth and power because down deep they really just want to be loved.
Love is not always that easy to find, not in this world. You see, Jesus loves us. This is the great promise of holy scripture. Jesus loves us. Just as we are, He loves us. He loves every single person in this room. He loves every single person in the world. His love is unconditional. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life…” Jesus said, “God so loved the world…” You see, Christ loves us and Christ knows us. That’s the incredible thing. He knows us and loves us. He sees us as we really are. He has your soul under a microscope. He can see the germs. He can see the disease of sin. He can see the bacteria, the viruses that attend your soul. Even though He sees these sins, these sins that we would hide from the world or maybe even from ourselves, He still loves us.
You see, that’s why Karl Barth, that famous German theologian, years ago, when asked what he believed to be the greatest truth of Christianity, responded simply by saying, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And yet it would be a mistake, wouldn’t it, to conclude that because Christ loves us all that we are all His friends. That would be a mistake because we are not all His friends. Not every person in this world is a friend of Christ. His love is unconditional but that is not true of His friendship. His friendship does have conditions and I would not be faithful to the word of God if I said otherwise.
Because His love is unconditional, He loves us. Because His love is unconditional, He wants to be our friend. There’s not a single person in this world that He doesn’t want as a friend because He loves us all, but He does require something for friendship. He requires repentance and faith. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend,” Jesus said. “You are My friends if (contingency) you do what I command you.” What did He command us to do? He didn’t command us to be sinless. He didn’t command that we be perfect (because we are not able to do that), but He did command that we repent and believe. This is the gospel taken to the world, that all might be friends with Christ.
You know, there’s a beautiful passage in scripture and I know most of you are familiar with it. It’s the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s Gospel, the 15th chapter. Luke describes this beautiful parable told by our Lord Jesus Christ. He conveys it in the words of Christ. Of course, the parable describes a son who took his share of the inheritance and ran away from his father and ran away from home, lived a debauched life and then finally came to his senses and came home in repentance. There’s that beautiful moment in the story when Jesus tells us that the father looked out from the hilltop and saw the son coming from afar. Jesus said the father, moved with compassion, ran to meet his son.
Did you know Aristotle said, “Great men never run in public”? Did you know that? Aristotle, the great, great philosopher, said “Great men never run in public.” This was what the Greeks believed. This is what the Hebrews believed. This is what the Jewish people believed. “Great men never run in public.” It was undignified. So, what gave wings to the feet of this father? Well, his son whom he loved, was coming home in repentance. He said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” His father hugged him and kissed him and embraced him and welcomed him.
Do you realize that’s how God feels about us? That’s how God feels about every person in this world. He wants to run to us. That’s how Christ feels. He wants to run to you if you would repent and believe. He wants to run to you. He loves you and He’s waiting to be your friend.
You know, Louise Dickinson Rich tells the story of her grandmother. Her grandmother lived in a little town outside of Boston years ago. Her grandmother had a good friend and strangely enough she had never met this friend. They communicated by letter through the newspaper. Louise’s grandmother took the daily Boston paper and in that paper there was a household section and it had cooking tips and all kinds of things, but it also had a letter exchange section and people would exchange letters right there in the Boston newspaper. They would use phony names. For instance, Louise’s grandmother took the name Arbutus. Every time she wrote a letter, she signed it, “Arbutus.”
The woman who began to write her back and with whom she began to exchange letters took the name Seagull. And so it was that Louise’s grandmother wrote this woman who only called herself Seagull. They wrote each other for a quarter of a century. For 25 years they corresponded, and they shared everything except their names. They shared their joys and their sorrows, their hopes and their dreams and their despairs. Louise’s grandmother talked about her children and her grandchildren. They counseled each other, and they encouraged each other, and they helped each other through life. This other woman that Louise’s grandmother only knew as Seagull became her best friend.
There was another woman in her grandmother’s life, another woman who Louise’s grandmother hated. This other woman was named Mrs. Wilcox. Mrs. Wilcox and Louise’s grandmother had had a long feud. They really hated each other. They went to the same church in this little town outside of Boston. The church was over 300 years old. That church had survived the War of Independence. It had survived the Civil War. It barely survived this war between Louise’s grandmother and Mrs. Wilcox.
They fought over the public school, and they fought over the public library. They fought over everything. Finally, Louise’s grandmother and Mrs. Wilcox just quit talking to each other. They didn’t talk anymore, and this was particularly difficult because they lived right next door to each other. Mrs. Wilcox was Louise’s grandmother’s next-door neighbor. They began to do petty things in their hatred for each other like stealing the food from each other’s garden. They would take skunks and snakes and put them in the other’s yard.
This just went on for 49 years until Mrs. Wilcox died. In this little town when someone died, if he was your next-door neighbor, even if they were your enemy, you were supposed to go to their funeral. So Louise’s grandmother went to the funeral of Mrs. Wilcox. Afterwards there was a little gathering at Mrs. Wilcox’s house right next to Louise’s grandmother’s house. Her grandmother went there and when she went into the house of Mrs. Wilcox, she saw a scrapbook on the table. Louise’s grandmother began to go through that scrapbook. She began to turn the pages and she was stunned when she saw page after page clipped out of the daily Boston newspaper, all having to do with correspondence between a woman named Arbutus and a woman named Seagull.
It was only at that moment that Louise’s grandmother realized that Mrs. Wilcox was the woman that she had known as Seagull, the woman that she had written letters to for 25 years, the woman who had helped her through everything. Her best friend was also her worst enemy. Louise Dickinson Rich said that her grandmother went back to her house that day and just wept. She just cried because she realized that Mrs. Wilcox could have been, in the flesh, her best friend and somehow she had missed out. Somehow she’d missed out.
And isn’t life like that? Don’t we go through life and there are so many friends we could have had if only we had chosen to treat them different or view them differently? There are so many friends we could have had. I think it’s true as you go through life you miss out on a lot of friendships. But there’s one friendship you don’t want to miss and that’s friendship with Christ. This is one friendship you can’t afford to miss, friendship with Christ. Maybe you’re angry with Him. Maybe you’re just confused. But I promise you He loves you. He loves you and if you’d just come home in repentance and with a measure of faith, He’ll run to you and He’ll hug you.
You know, as we come to the communion table, there’s one who has normally taken communion with us who will not be with us today. Of course, that’s Rich Elrod. Gene mentioned Rich in conjunction with his prayer. Rich Elrod is a friend to many of us and loved deeply by many of us. A great, great guy. He’d served faithfully and wonderfully as an elder. He was the best of friends. He was taken very suddenly through a very aggressive form of leukemia that snuffed his life out in only a matter of days.
We are all praying for Sandy and for their kids, Jake and Casey, and for Jason and Larry and Rich’s parents. We’re praying for them in their pain and in their loss but we’re not grieving for Rich. We’re not grieving for Rich because we know where Rich is today. Rich is with the Lord and in His presence is fullness of joy. You know, we say Rich has gone home to be with the Lord, but in a sense, Rich went home a long time ago. Rich went home a long time ago when first he believed and he came in repentance and Christ ran to meet him.
You know, Jesus doesn’t promise us longevity. Rich was only 47 years old. He does not promise us longevity in this world. You look at the disciples and all of them but one died prematurely. They died early deaths. But Jesus does promise eternal life. No other friend can give that to you. Jesus doesn’t promise that there will be no pain in this life. He does promise that there will come a day when death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. He also promises in this life to use our pain to bring good. I know Jesus is going to use this pain, the pain that we feel from Rich’s departure, for some great good because there’s never been a friend like Jesus.
And so, this morning we invite you, as we come to communion, to remember and look back not only on what Christ has done for you when He died on Calvary’s cross but remember back to when you first came home. Remember back to when you first believed and came in repentance and He ran to you. Maybe as you come to communion this morning, you know that even though you’ve come home, you’ve kind of got Christ in a different room of the house and the intimacy of your friendship is not as great as it needs to be. Maybe you’re harboring some sin and you need to repent; you need to repent today. Maybe you came home long ago but you’ve built a second home and you’ve got another god you’re serving, and you need to repent. You need to repent today. Maybe you’ve never come home. What a morning this would be, this Communion Sunday, if you are prompted by the Spirit of God to come home, let Jesus run to you, embrace you, and hold you. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.