Seeking Jesus From the Edges – A Morning Devotional

April 10, 2024 – Seeking Jesus from the Edges
Pastor Calvin
Scripture: Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV)
“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Recently someone asked me why I call these devotions From the Edges. It has taken me some time to realize that the reason is regardless of our situations or life we are all on the edge of something. It is when we realize in the bustling almost chaotic business of our lives, Jesus is calling us from the edges – from places we least expect, from our comfort zones. Matthew, a tax collector, found himself on the fringes of society, he was an outcast due to his association with sinners and tax collection, an occupation despised by many.

Yet, amid community judgments, Jesus saw in Matthew something others could not see. Jesus looked beyond the surface and saw the real Matthew. He looked straight into the heart of Matthew and said, “Follow me.” In response to this invitation, Matthew didn’t hesitate; he got up and followed the Lord. Jesus saw value in Matthew when others saw only a tax collector, and He chose to dine with him, breaking the barriers of social norms. Jesus also continues to see below the surface of your hurt, pain, attitude, environment, oppression, sinfulness, and so much more that keeps you from surrender and says “Follow Me”. “Come to me you who are carrying the weight of the world and lean into me”

Years ago, I heard that call “Follow Me”. I never quite understood and probably never will, why me. Yet I have tried to remain faithful to that call, even when I have wondered away, turned my back on God, I still hear the call “Follow Me”. Come on Calvin get it together come back to the one who will show the way, who will give life and give it abundantly.

How often do we find ourselves on the edges of life, feeling unworthy or excluded? The beauty of the Gospel is that Jesus is not intimidated by our flaws, sins, or labels. He deliberately seeks those on the margins, inviting us to follow Him. It’s a call to rise from the edges of doubt, pain, and sin and follow Jesus wholeheartedly.
I have always had a passion for those who are living on the edge. Living on the edge is looked at in different ways. We are either living on the edge of the next great thing or living on the edge of personal destruction. I have always related to those who have been classified as unworthy, unwelcome, someone or something different. Partly because I too am that one, who is unworthy, have had situations in life where I have been cast aside. Yet Jesus has always said and still does “Come to Me”. It is Jesus who makes me worthy by realizing his sacrifice, his life, the atonement for my sins.

The prayer is that wherever we are, who we are, what our past has been, whatever situation we are living through, that Jesus is calling and saying “Follow Me” is saying “Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest”.

The question is now how will we respond? Will we see Jesus from the Edges and respond by following.