In Luke chapter 15 the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complained that Jesus was associating with tax collectors and other notorious sinners, even eating with them.

In judging Jesus’s behavior, the Pharisees committed the same mistake we often make, that is trying to put Jesus in a conventional box.  A box that we have tailored to the way we have come to believe by custom, tradition and bad teaching of the way Jesus should be. 

Jesus in the parables of Luke 15 reveals that God seeks out the lost like the people Jesus ate with.  Withholding nothing to bring the lost back rejoicing when the lost are found and is willing to pay the price necessary for the forgiveness of the lost.    

In the parables Jesus also exposes the devout church goer like the Pharisees as hypercritic sinners.  Showing the motivation of these pious living people in following every law, rule, and decree of the faith is to look down and put down the obvious sinner. Jesus displays the true reason for the Pharisees show of religious zeal is an ill-fated attempt to put God in a position of owing them because of their so-called choice of righteous living. 

The conventional mistake of making the unconventional Jesus conventional continues today as we turn our backs on the least, the lost and the marginalized. 

The conventional mistake of making the unconventional Jesus conventional continues today with demands that God’s church keep on during traditions, customs and rituals that turn the lost off and have nothing to do with the faith. 

The conventional mistake of making the unconventional Jesus conventional continues today as church leaders have embraced political leaders who lack the competence, capability, or character to be the true servant leader that all our people need.

God gave us Jesus to taking us away from the conventional thinking that has led us to a life of misery and sin. As we approach Thanksgiving Jesus wants to eat with us.  He is serving up an unconventional feast of joy and salvation, so let us all go eat and enjoy.