1
"Did Jesus Disobey the Law in order to Evangelize `Sinners'?
Dr. John Harrison
National ETS Meeting
November 16
th
, 2001
In the Synoptic Gospels, the Pharisees strongly object to Jesus' relationship with
certain suspicious characters (Mt. 11:19//Lk. 7:34; Lk. 19:7). In Mt. 9:11//Mk. 2:16//Lk.
5:30 some Pharisees ask Jesus' disciples why he eats and drinks with
.
On the basis of these objections, some scholars have claimed that the very act of
calling "sinners" to repent (not to mention eating with them) was enough to get Jesus
killed. Jeremias writes, "It was an act of unparalleled risk which Jesus performed when
from the full power of his consciousness of sovereignty, he openly and fearlessly called
these men (the sinners) to repentance and this act brought him to the cross."
1
At one time
it was even generally assumed that Jesus' actions with these people was an affront to
common decency because the rabbis had forbidden all such associations.
2
Specifically, commentators think that Jesus committed two offences. The first
offence was eating with "sinners". Trilling believed that by eating with "sinners" Jesus
showed he was not afraid of becoming unclean in the eyes of the law.
3
Since the rabbis
taught that food should be prepared in a certain way to be lawfully eaten, and since
"sinners" did not care about such laws, eating in their home would unquestionably lead
1
Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, trans. F. H. & C. H. Cave, London: SCM Press, 1969.
267.
2
A. Plummer, An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Matthew, London: Elliot Stock,
1910. 138-139.
3
Wolfgang Trilling, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 2 vols. London: Burns & Oats, 1969. 162.