1485. The Attitude of Christ Toward the Outcast

The Attitude of Christ Toward the Outcast

"And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (Joh_8:11).

According to the concepts of men, we are going down the rounds of a descending ladder; the rich, then the poor, then the sinner, and now the outcast.

We may be able to understand how the Lord Jesus would receive the rich, the poor or even the common run of sinners, but is it possible to comprehend how He receives the outcasts, the ones whom even the world and the devil have set aside? Yet, it is true, Christ will receive, forgive and save even them.

1. Consider a moral outcast. There was a woman who had had five husbands and was living with one who was not her husband. To this woman, known as the woman of Samaria, Christ said, "If thou knewest * * who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water."

The result of the conversation was the salvation of this woman. Then she immediately entered into the city and said, "Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" In this instance Christ saved a moral outcast.

2. Consider a social outcast. A woman who was by her infirmities ostracised, and cut out from all social privileges pressed her way through the crowd toward Jesus, saying to herself, "If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole."

The Lord Jesus stopped and said, "Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me."

The disciples wondered at the Lord's words, for a great crowd pressed upon Him.

When the woman, however, saw that she could not be hid, she came and confessed before them all, that she was healed. This instance shows how Christ healed a social outcast.

3. Consider a legal outcast. Here was a woman whom the cold hand of the Law had touched. She was not only a moral and a social outcast, but a legal one. They dragged her before Christ, and roughly said, "Moses in the Law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou?"

Jesus Christ finally said: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Then, as they all left Him alone, with the woman standing in the midst, Jesus said unto her: "Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

It is true the Lord Jesus received the moral, the social, and the legal outcasts. However in all of this we must remember that the Lord washed them and made them whiter than snow before He received them into His presence-chamber. An outcast saved is a saint fit to sup with the Lord of Glory.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR