There is a great scene in the ministry of Jesus.  It’s filled with drama and a mic drop.  It’s a call story – my favorite type of story.

Jesus approaches a tax booth and says “follow me” to a tax collector.  Surprisingly the tax collector gets up, leaves everything behind, and follows the miracle working itinerant preacher.  I wish I had such courage.

If this were a movie the orchestra score would swell with cellos at this poignant moment.

Yet, in real life this life transformation is met with grumbling.  The religious crowd is upset that Jesus would hangout with such a lowlife.  They ask the question:  Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

With all eyes on Jesus, he responds:  It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteousness, but sinners to repentance.  

This mic drop moment is the type of moment that challenges me as a follower of Jesus Christ and as a preacher of the gospel.  Jesus reached out to those deemed unreachable.  Yet, he did not offer them reassurance, pats on the back, or the latest self help bestseller.  No.  He offered them transformation through repentance.

I pray that I would follow such an example.