It is not entirely certain which is the oldest profession in the world - certainly priests appear very early on in the Bible, and the Old Testament has quite a few bad things to say about them. Prostitutes enjoy a slightly better reputation. Apart from the men and women who took part in the Canaanite cults, they are not condemned, and indeed one of them, Rahab, who sheltered Joshua's spies at Jericho, is singled out for praise.
This is not too surprising. Condemnation, if there is any, is better directed at those who take advantage of them - though condemnation is not always apparent in such texts as Proverbs 6:26, or Judges 16:1! In the New Testament, real condemnation is reserved for the sex trade itself.
Jesus was the friend of the blind, the deaf, the dumb and the lame. He was the friend of the outcasts of society: the women from Samaria, from Syrophoenecia. And he was the friend of sinners - of people who grew rich from squeezing people for more tax than was needed, of people who drew advantage from misusing their bodies.
Sin is itself a blindness and a lameness - and when we sin, we close our eyes to the way our behaviour is impeding us and our relationships. Sinners risk becoming outcasts, too, cutting themselves off from those around them, putting up barriers. Jesus came to open our eyes, to give us our freedom, to offer us welcome and acceptance. Just as the blind received their sight, the sinners also received their freedom.
We do not hear much about Jesus' ministry to the prosperous. Jesus tells his disciples that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:34). He tells them that the widow who has put her two small coins into the treasury has put in "more than those who have contributed out of their abundance." (Mark 12:43-4). He tells them to beware of people who "like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets." (Mark 12:38-9)
It is not being rich which is wrong, it is the self-confidence and self-centredness which come from being rich - people who "store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21). In their selfishness, the rich risk failing to see the barriers that are separating them, not from those around them, but from God.
We need to recognize and to feel our own unworthiness to help us break down the barriers which separate us from God. The outcasts of society have a head start over us in doing this, for even if sin dulls the senses, the status of an outcast is one where people know more clearly their need of God's help. Our own need is less acute, but just as great.
God works through the oddest of people. Just as God worked through Rahab, the prostitute, to take control over Jericho, so God can work through people of no reputation, or of dubious origin - and in Jesus, God too became of no reputation, "a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners" (Matthew 11:19). Let us listen to and learn from all our neighbours, and not just the well-connected. For we can hear of God's redeeming and liberating love from them all.
HD