Isaiah 54:1-10 / Luke 7:24-30
It is interesting that Jesus should mention the tax collectors among the people who listened to John the Baptist's message of repentance.
We may know what kind of reputation the tax collectors had at that time. They were called great sinners, traitors, extortionists, criminals, blood-suckers, etc.
Hence they had had no witnessing rights in the court of law and neither were they allowed to participate in worship.
So who are the "tax collectors" or great sinners in our present time and in our society?
They can't be you and me because it is not likely they will read this.
Maybe they are those loan-sharks, the drug peddlers, those pimps, the gangsters, and those who commit horrid and terrible crimes and yet couldn't care less.
So what does God see in them that is worth saving?
Well, there is nothing more wonderful and marvelous than the conversion of the most unlikely people. And the fact is that it happens.
That points to the fact that everyone has that inborn capability to respond to God's saving grace.
The frightening thought is that could we be the Pharisees and the lawyers that Jesus was talking about who thwarted God's saving grace.
And just who are we to call others great sinners when we ourselves can't even say that we have no sin.
The choice to be a Pharisee or a tax collector is ours.
Let us not forsake the everlasting love God has for us.
For the mountains may depart and the hills be shaken, but God's love for us will never leave us.