Jesus…shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”
Matthew 9:12-13 MSG (quoting the prophet Hosea 6: 6)

How do we define an “outsider”? Is it someone who doesn’t fit in to our group or our culture? Is it someone who chooses to keep themselves to themselves, to not mix or join in? Is it someone who thinks or acts differently to the way we thing people should, someone who’s just not respectable, or who’s lifestyle is anti-social?

In my case being a bit of an outsider has recently resulted from a simple geographic move of 64 miles, which has also meant moving from one country and culture to another. For 16 years we lived in a village in The Scottish Borders and have recently moved back to a small town close to Newcastle in England. Now you’d think that as theoretically both areas are part of the UK that things wouldn’t be so different, but in reality some things are done differently each side of the border. Add to that the web of relationships and familiarity left behind and it’s very easy to see how a simple thing like a move might turn you into an outsider for a while at least.

In the Jewish world of Jesus time, outsiders were easily classified…if you weren’t Jewish you weren’t in! The religious authorities also classified the degree of people’s outsider-ness…some people were worse than others.

And Jesus chose to mix with them all…foreigners, women, children, collaborators, adulterers, tax-collectors, corrupt politicians, prostitutes and sinners of all kinds…were all worthy of his company and his love.

I don’t seem to spend much of my time in the company of the kind of people that Jesus seemed to spend much of his time with, and moan a bit about trying to fit in at church…and to be honest, I find it really hard to befriend people who are not like me!

Even as I typed that last sentence, I was reminded of times when I have been an outsider, even in my family and church community, sometimes because of the life I lived (positively, I hope) and sometimes because of the people I stuck up for or cared about.

I was the only follower of Jesus in my family, which sometimes caused friction as I was growing up. I remember my parents saying they wished I was like everyone else on a number of occasions. Then when I was in my early twenties there was a time when I didn’t really follow Jesus for a while…my parents said they wished I was the way I used to be!

There was the time I stood up to the well-educated elders in church who disqualified a builder from leadership because he ‘wasn’t educated enough’, and the time when we were hounded out of a church because I supported and encouraged women in leadership and ministry. Or the time when I was sidelined because of being divorced and remarried (more of that in a future post), and criticised for believing that Jesus could love gay people (I think they said, “How dare you suggest that my Jesus could love such filthy people!”…’their Jesus’ must be different to the one I know).

Jesus lived freely and lightly with the people around him (and promised his followers could too…another future post), and didn’t seem to be picky about who he associated with. It sounds as if children loved to be around him…that says a lot.

The only ones who struggled with Jesus were the religious and powerful. Come to think of it. It’s often been those people who’ve struggled with me too. I hope that despite that, I’ve tried to associate with them, finding reasons to rejoice in our similarities and respect the things we disagree on. I’ve sometimes enjoyed the company of people who have no faith or are of a different faith and respected mine, more than I have the finger-pointing people who say they’re followers of Jesus but spend their whole time ticking boxes to decide who’s in and who’s out, which is not really our job anyway.