Freaks, Weirdoes and Oddballs
Matthew 8:1-13
You may find the title of today’s message a bit peculiar but the bottom line is that the people that we choose to avoid can fall into this category.
Ironically, these are the very kind of people that Jesus hung out with.
These were the people who Jesus taught and healed and most importantly forgave!
Jesus looked for and served in His earthly ministry seeking and saving those who were lost.
We all should get down on our knees daily and thank Him that He did too.
When Jesus began His earthly ministry, the religious system in Israel had basically become a caste system where 2% of the population had 98% of the wealth.
That 2% was made up of the religious leaders.
It was the age old problem that we still deal with today
The “haves and the have nots”
One thing that we should all be glad about is this
Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus taught us a lot of lessons in the Gospels.
I can assure you that I will never be able to teach them all in my life time.
The truth is that Jesus loved everyone that He ever interacted with and He did it freely without any difficulty.
So whether you are a freak, weirdo or oddball, Jesus loves you just the way you are.
Case in point
Matthew 8:1-4 (NKJV)
1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
When Jesus came down from preaching the Sermon on the Mount, the people followed Him.
They were the original groupies.
The place where the Sermon on the Mount took place must have made a natural amphitheatre because hundreds of people heard Him and were impressed with what they had just heard.
Then it happened!
Like the guys who get over enthused at a baseball game and run out onto the field, a leper approached Jesus.
He walked up and started worshipping GOD.
Wouldn’t it be great if we were all so quick, brave and bold to worship Jesus so openly and so uninhibited!
But there’s more here than meets the eye.
Levitical law stated that a person with leprosy was supposed to be isolated and not come in contact with anyone else as long as they had the leprosy.
They were considered unclean.
They had to cover their mouth with a garment and call out
“Unclean! Unclean! Anywhere they went.
Yet here was the leper, no doubt desiring to be clean.
The common belief behind leprosy was that the person got the disease from sin they committed.
The rabbis felt that leprosy was God’s judgment for the sin.
Anyone who came in contact with the person with leprosy was considered unclean as well.
So these people were forced to live with other lepers, isolated from the rest of the world.
And don’t you just love how Jesus healed this guy?
Not only did He heal him but Jesus did the unthinkable by touching him.
The leper hadn’t felt the compassionate touch of another human in a really long time.
Jesus taught us all a valuable lesson that we need to remember.
1st point
I. Love the people that others shun.
This may seem simple to you but stop and think about the kinds of people you avoid.
They may be members of your family.
They may appear to be dirty.
They may use bad language or have bad breath
They may not be as smart as you think you are
Yet the point is that Jesus loves them just the way they are.
Jesus didn’t wait till the leper was clean before He loved him.
The leper didn’t wait to come to Jesus until he was clean.
He showed remarkable faith.
He believed Jesus could cure him so he went.
He took a very big risk.
I long for the day when we take risks like the leper.
Lord if You are willing, You can make my marriage clean!
Lord if You are willing, you can make my job clean
Lord if you are willing, you can save my children, save my health or SAVE MY LIFE!!!!
Jesus didn’t wait for the leper to straighten out to love him. He just did.
You can’t decide that you’ll love someone after they get straightened out.
The truth is that that day may never come.
You can get them a whole lot closer to being spiritually clean by not shunning them as a lot of Christians would do.
You can and will impact the people around you by not shunning imperfect people.
I really appreciate how Paul explained the way he ministered to people of all walks of life.
1 Corinthians 9:22 (NKJV)
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
How will you become all things to the freaks, weirdoes and oddballs that you come in contact with this week?
Will you love them where they are and for who they are like the Lord does?
Or will you walk to the other side of the street to avoid them?
Imagine the relevance that we as the church would have just by loving the unlovable people that other churches won’t have anything to do with.
Matthew 8:5-9 (NKJV)
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." 7 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." 8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 "For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Jesus first healing came to man that other people avoided at all costs. He sinned, he got leprosy, and therefore he is evil!
But the next person who approached Jesus was part of the conquering army of the Roman Empire.
And this wasn’t just any garden variety roman soldier either.
He was a centurion. He had rank and he didn’t get it from being a nice guy.
He had proven himself in battle and had made a name for himself.
He was hated by the average Jew on the street because of what he stood for.
He was the enemy!!!!!
Any Jew caught associating with this guy was considered a traitor.
Yet here was this Roman Centurion coming to Jesus asking for His help.
He could have sent someone to do his bidding but no he felt that this was a request he needed to make on his own.
Despite that this man was a Gentile, a soldier in the conquering army and considered inferior by the average Jew, Jesus offered to go to his house to heal the servant.
He had just touched a leper and now He was going to the house of a Gentile.
What kind of radical thinking was this?
Jesus showed love, respect and compassion for two people that the people had been taught to avoid at all costs!
Yet when Jesus offered to come to his house, the centurion who had authority over 100 men, refused because he didn’t feel worthy of Jesus entering his home despite his position in the Roman military.
The centurion had a very good understanding of authority.
Despite the authority he had over soldiers, he recognized Jesus was the ultimate authority.
This man was submitting himself to Jesus authority.
Here was a man that the Jews hated pleading with Jesus to heal his servant
Here was Jesus breaking tradition and being very willing to go to the house of Gentile
The religious leaders would have had nothing to do with this.
In fact they were all probably blowing a vein knowing what Jesus was doing.
But Jesus teaches us a valuable lesson again
2nd point
II. Love people that you don’t like.
This may be a trouble spot for all of us.
How many people here today have ever held a grudge against someone?
How many of you have ever held back kindness because you didn’t like the person who needed it?
How many of you are currently holding back your witness because you secretly hope that person goes to Hell?
We all know people we don’t like very much.
The average Jew hated Romans but Jesus taught us all to love each other.
Today, Jews hate Palestinians and Everybody in the Middle East hates the Jews.
Liberals don’t like Conservatives. Gays don’t like straights.
Blacks don’t like Hispanics and whites don’t like anybody.
Even so, Jesus is calling us to love an unlikely cast of freaks, weirdoes and oddballs that we don’t like and don’t share our opinions.
There is probably someone within our church family that you don’t really care for.
I challenge you to love that person.
There are people who belong to other denominations that you don’t like for that reason alone.
I challenge you to get to know that person.
Have you ever paid any attention to the people walking around downtown at night?
You probably don’t feel very comfortable around those Godless heathens!
The Lord loves them just the way they are. Why don’t we all give it a shot?
Matthew 8:10-13 (NKJV)
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 "And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.
The statement of faith of the centurion must have really moved Jesus, and probably insulted a lot of religious leaders.
He had already witnessed the faith of the leper and now He saw an even greater display in the centurion who wasn’t even a Jew.
Jesus went on to explain that faith would come from people that we would least expect to have it while the ones who should have displayed it, would end up on the outside looking in.
God’s chosen people and those called to lead them, struggled to show even a miniscule amount of faith in God while people who had nothing to lose called on the Lord.
These two examples of faith, who were shunned and hated by the Jews displayed the faith of Abraham, the obedience of Isaac and the hope and expectation of Jacob.
There were two great miracles performed in this chapter and neither of them were aimed at Jews who already thought they were good enough.
These miracles were performed on the outcasts.
The freaks, the weirdoes and the oddballs of ancient Israel.
And why?
Because these two men, who didn’t measure up to the standards of the religious leaders of Israel, displayed extraordinary faith.
There are many like them in Bedford County.
I advise you to do this for them
3rd point
III. Be a picture of Christ to everyone you meet.
Do you realize that you have to opportunity, the obligation and the privilege to be the face of Christ to people you wouldn’t normally associate with?
When we love those we normally shun or dislike, we often find out a simple truth
We’re all oddballs! We all have those little quirks that make us unusual.
There isn’t anything normal about any of us.
And yet none of us had to get clean or get right or convert to Judaism before God would love us.
You may have come here today while holding some ill feelings toward a family member, a neighbor or a co-worker.
You may be shunning a person you pass by every day because they’re different.
Don’t give the church of Jesus Christ any more black eyes.
We have a responsibility to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people regardless of our personal bias or personal preferences of the people we hang out with.
God doesn’t play favorites. If He did, some of us may not have gotten saved by His grace.
With that in mind, I challenge you to love others, get past petty differences and get past your personal prejudices and reach out to others.
The Great Commission doesn’t call us to go to a people we like and are friends with.
It does however call us to go.
And as we go to our time of invitation, it may be that you can’t reach out because you haven’t received the free gift of grace of knowing Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
It may be that today, you feel a desire to come forward to receive believer’s baptism, join in formal membership with this church or re-dedicate yourself to the Lord
You may be here today with a specific burden that requires prayer.
I invite you to bring it all to the Lord and surrender to Him.
Jesus calls everyone publicly. When you step out and take that first step of faith, you’re professing a need for Jesus Christ in your life.
