One Good Apple

You know what they say: "One bad apple spoils the whole barrel." You better watch out who you hang with, or who you allow to be part of your group, because if you associate with the "wrong" kind of person suddenly you may find yourself in the wrong as well.

Jesus didn't see it that way, however, he spent a lot of his time with "bad apples." They where the outcasts of society, either because they were sinners, or because they had disease that made them unclean. According to Leviticus anyone who touches an unclean person becomes unclean themselves, and in Jesus' day the religious leaders followed those purity rules with a passion. They were always concerned about saying away from an outcast. After all "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel."

When Jesus touches and eats with sinners, lepers, tax collectors and sinners, he is saying something amazing about the power of God and God's Kingdom. Instead of bad apples spoiling others, Jesus, the good apple, cleanses those who are unclean. The power of God's grace and forgiveness always wins over sin and darkness. Through Jesus' love we are made clean as well.