In Ezra 9 and 10 Ezra hears that many of the people of Israel have married foreigners, against the law of God. He prays fervently, admitting their guilt and his embarrassment and shame. He acknowledges God’s faithfulness despite their unfaithfulness in making the kings of Persia act with favor on them.

Some of the people who had sinned come to Ezra and confess their guilt. They are willing to send their wives and children away. Ezra fasts and prays while all the people are told to come to Jerusalem. He tells them they all must confess their guilt. Then all the foreign women and their children must leave Israel and Judah. The people obey.

This seems harsh, but again it is clear that what the people were doing was sinning against the law of God. The people of Israel must be pure and to allow the foreign family members to stay would keep purity from them. They should have thought this through before they sinned. One would assume that they continued to support these families even though they are apart.

In Luke 5 Jesus is out with his disciples while they are fishing. They are not catching any fish. He tells them to put the nets on the other side. Even though they doubt they obey. They end up with more fish than they can carry. Jesus tells them they will now be catching people.

There are two instances of healing in Luke 5. Each of them deals with the issue of healing as cleansing from sin. Illness like leprosy or paralysis was considered to be brought on sin. While they were ill the sick were not allowed to worship in the temple. They had to present themselves to the priest to be declared clean or sin free. When Jesus said that he forgave the paralytic’s sins the Pharisees considered this blasphemy because only God can forgive sins. Jesus basically points out that when he heals the man he is essentially doing the same thing. Sin keeps people from worshiping God, so does illness, if they are healed, they must be forgiven. There wasn’t much they could say against him.

Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector to follow him. Levi (Matthew) responds. Levi invites Jesus to a banquet and the Pharisees get upset. Tax collectors were considered to be great sinners. Everyone knew that they robbed the people when the collected more money than the actual tax. Jesus offers grace to the sinners. He eats with them and accepts them opening the way to repentance.

Jesus offers us his grace. He accepts us, loves us and forgives us opening the way for us to truly change the way we are living.