Judaism in Jesus’ day functioned, in effect, as a religious caste system. In the temple non-Jews could go only into the outer Court of the Gentiles. A wall separated them from the next partition, which admitted Jewish women. Jewish men could continue one stage further, but only priests could enter the sacred areas. Finally, only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, also called the Holy of Holies — and he could do this only once a year on the day of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement.
These divided areas in the temple were described as steps toward holiness, and the Pharisees reinforced the system scrupulously every day. The rule that required the washing of hands was their way of avoiding defilement in order to make themselves acceptable to God. Had not God earlier banned from the temple the presence of sinners, menstruating women, and the physically deformed and others?
Into the midst of this religious caste system, Jesus appeared. To the Pharisees’ dismay he had no qualms about socializing with children or sinners or even Samaritans. He touched, or was touched by, the “unclean” – in other words, those with leprosy, the deformed, a hemorrhaging woman, the lunatic and those possessed by demons. Although Levitical laws prescribed a day of purification after touching a sick person, Jesus conducted mass healings in which he touched scores of sick people. He was not concerned with the almost endless legalistic rules concerning defilement after making contact with the sick or even the dead.
Just one example of the revolutionary changes Jesus set in motion was His attitude toward women. At every synagogue service Jewish men prayed, “Blessed are you, O Lord, that you did not made me a woman.” Women sat in a different section of the temple, were not counted in quorums, and were rarely taught the Torah (Law). Yet Jesus associated freely with women and taught some as His disciples. He asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water who had had five husbands, and offered her the water of life. An immoral woman washed His feet, dried them with her hair, and went away forgiven and transformed.
In reality, what Jesus did to the religious caste systems was to move the emphasis from God’s holiness (exclusive) to God’s mercy and grace (inclusive). By going out of His way to meet with Gentiles, eat with sinners, and touch the sick, He was challenging the status quo. Thus, the religious leaders saw Him as a threat. No wonder the Gospels mention more than twenty times when they conspired against Him.
The story Jesus told about a pious Pharisee and a remorseful tax collector praying captures the inclusive gospel of grace in a nutshell. The Pharisee, who fasted twice a week and tithed his income on schedule thanked God that he was better than robbers, evildoers, and adulterers – and infinitely better than the tax collector who was praying near him. The tax collector, too humiliated to even raise his eyes toward heaven, prayed the simplest prayer possible, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Jesus, by challenging the rigid system of rules and regulations being enforced, was emphasizing the importance of God’s grace. He was a friend of sinners. They both enjoyed and benefitted from being in His presence. The Pharisees, who avoided being in the presence of sinners, found this to be revolting.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CHRISTIANS SHOULD ASK: What was our Lord’s secret that we have lost in many of our churches? Is any type or group of persons excluded from worship participation in my church? Does my church, and do I, need a fresh invasion of God’s grace that is inclusive, not exclusive in spirit? Have I shared the good news of God’s grace with anyone in the last year? In the last ten years? In my entire life?
The Paper Pulpit 
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