Mark 2:17
"When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”"
To clarify, what Jesus was saying here is that He came not for the self-righteous, but for sinners. In this passage we find three kinds of sinners. Mark mentions tax collectors. These were people who had compromised their ethnic and national identity by working for the Romans at the expense of their own people. These were equivalent to the white-collar criminals of today, swindling money out of the vulnerable through unethical and shady business practices. They tried to look clean on the outside as if everything was kosher but Jewish society wouldn't let them forget that they were not welcomed in their religious clubs.
The second category of sinner is simply called "sinners." These are the run-of-the-mill individuals who did little to cover up their sins and didn't particularly care about the label. Their sin was openly visible and their reputation preceded them. They may have tried to make things right through ritual and sacrifice however the Jewish community wouldn't let them forget that their behavior, whether spiritual or carnal, didn't change their identity, they were sinners. They knew this.
The final category of sinner is those who didn't accept the fact that they were sinners, self-righteous religious people who looked down on those who couldn't escape their sins and the reputation that came with it. These sinners were the ones who made the rules in Judaism and determined who would be in and who would be out. These were the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes and teachers of the Law who's sin was the most subtle but the most toxic of all; pride, arrogance, ignorance and self-righteousness. Their sin was most toxic because it prevented them from seeing and accepting their true condition; sinner.
The label "sinner" actually has no hierarchy. Sin is sin. And there is only one type of sin that God is tolerant of; repented sin. No self-righteous person could possibly receive the forgiveness of sins sins the first step in forgiveness is recognition of sin followed by repentance.
I suppose, in light of this understanding, there really are only two types of sinners in this world; ignorant and repentant. Which one am I?
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