Jesus and the Prostitutes

So the Indiana legislature just passed their version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and is seeing the expected amount of vitriol and hatred thrown at them.  Virtually every reaction to it that I have seen has also been filled with misinformation or outright lies.  Some of these people have no idea what the law would involve, others know but lie about it in order to further their agenda.  This post is not about that law per se, but about a common retort by Christians sympathetic to LGBT issues.  For what is, in my opinion, the best article explaining what the law actually means, and what the federal law signed by Bill Clinton here as well as the 19 other states who have similar laws, please go here.

I first saw the argument "Jesus ate with prostitutes" on Twitter, linking to an article on how some are using that argument against Indiana's RFRA.  It brought back a flood of memories of people using that same premise to argue, in essence, the notion of sin in general or the sin being discussed at the moment is moot in light of the Gospel.  Using Bing search, I quickly found two examples here and here.  Most often, they point to Jesus' encounter with Mary Magdalene:

John 8:2-11  2 But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.  3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.  4 They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.  5 Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"  6 They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.  7 But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."  8 Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.  9 And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.  10 Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"  11 She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more."

This passage rightly is the model of how we must forgive and not offer judgement.  By Mosaic law, Jesus could have had her stoned.  His followers probably would have justified such a decision by acknowledging he had no legal choice.  Jesus shows in this act that the law which man lays down is transitory and must conform to God's will.  I know, I'm getting too much into natural law here, but bear with me.

The problem with those who reference or quote this passage is they ignore the end of his statement to the woman.  They all stop at "neither do I condemn you."  They completely ignore "go and from now on do not sin any more."

That last part is so vital.  Yes, Jesus ate with sinners and prostitutes.  Jesus also called on them to stop sinning, make restitution and follow him.  Just look at Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 21:28-32.  Also, when Jesus reprimands those criticizing him for eating with sinners in Matthew 9:10-13, Mark 2:15-17 and Luke 5:29-32 he uses the analogy of the physician and the sick.  People forget that the physicians job is to remove the sickness from the body.  Jesus is to remove sin from us, but not without our repentance.  The words repent and repentance are used 44 times in the New Testament.  The meaning of the word repent means "to feel such regret for sins or crimes as produces amendment of life."  I'm thinking we need to work on changing our sinful habits if we want Jesus to forgive us.