Three Points Today:

1) Creating Categories- the Pharisees were experts at creating categories so they could look down on people- in this case the sinners and tax collectors. The truth is though all human beings are experts at this.

2) Exploding Categories- Jesus doesn’t follow the categories. He scandalously associates with and welcomes the sinners and doesn’t follow the rules that said he shouldn’t associate with them.

3) Redefining Categories- Jesus changes the categories altogether- no longer is it about who is righteous and who is not- who is performing religiously and who is not. Now the categories are simply who is still pretending to be righteous and who realizes they’re sinners desperately in need of Jesus. When this happens it changes both how we relate to Jesus and how we relate to each other.