If God has shown mercy to us, how should we we respond by throwing stones at other
sinners—as if we ourselves are not sinners
saved by Jesus’ grace through faith. As if Jesus
did not spare us from a deserved pelting of stones for our sins.

In Luke 19, Jesus eats a meal with Zacchaeus, a tax collector. In Jesus’ day, tax collectors tended to be thieves, so people hated them. Because of this encounter with Jesus, Zacchaeus was confronted by God’s love for him and his need to turn from his sins. After coming to know Jesus, Zacchaeus’ whole life changed, including his approach to how he worked (no more theft, and he repayed the people he had cheated).

This was not an unusual story either. People were changing like this all the time when they met Jesus. With such known positive results, others should’ve been happy to see Jesus reaching out to someone like Zacchaeus. Instead, people responded to Jesus’ kindness toward Zacchaeus by complaining that “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner” (Luke 19:7).

Did you catch the irony in that statement? All the people grumbling were sinners too! Isn’t it the same with us? As Christians, we often get so hung up on the sin of non-Christians that we don’t even try to love them. We forget Jesus had to save us from our own sin, and we try to get people who don’t know Jesus to act like they do. Just like a similar incident in John 8:1-11, we start to throw stones at people—we condemn them—even before Jesus condemns them.

God is merciful, and He is patient in His just judgment (2 Peter 3:8-13; Revelation 21:1-8). Let’s remember that truth in our interactions with not-yet Christians. Let’s put our stones down and instead point to the cross, where we found mercy because the punishment for our own sins was put on Jesus.



How can you show both love and truth to a friend who is not a Christian?

Why is it important to remember that all people have sinned (Romans 3:23)?