WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: As a Christian you are a disciple of Jesus, a learner of his ways. Disciples followed their rabbis around seeing how they interacted and copying their way of life. In this time pray that God will help you to glimpse something new of Jesus.

Including the excluded
I love the image of Jesus walking and teaching followed by a ragtag crowd of colourful characters. These outcasts were used to seeing rabbis with their disciples, walking along, eating together, sharing life and learning the ways of God. This certainly didn’t include them.

Until now! Jesus’ deliverance was profoundly practical: he included the excluded, he touched the leper, he ate with the prostitute, he called the fraudulent official to be his disciple (v 14). This unexpected deliverance actually offended those who were most keenly looking for God to move.

Good news
The Pharisees were horrified, because for them God was detached from the dust and sweat of this world, accessed by extensive purity rituals. But Jesus bears good news – God isn’t detached, he is involved. He doesn’t require human effort, simply humble acknowledgement of our need of him.

Respond: Throughout Scripture God repeatedly condemns the proud. Spend some time surrendering yourself to God again, repenting of any pride or striving; relax in the incredible reality of his love and grace. Commit today to be a disciple of Jesus, to copy him in befriending the outcast in whatever setting he has placed you.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-01-25