Does Yeshua Love Sinners?

I saw a note on the web yesterday that stated "Jesus Loves Sinners." I agree with the statement, but I fear that most who use such a statement also abuse the words. Many people read that line and feel that it excuses them when they sin or else it allows them to continuously continue in sin so that the Messiah can love them more and more. This is not what is taught in the ministry of Yeshua. I would like to just look at one example.

In Luke 19:2 we read that there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector. Tax collectors then (as is often the case today) were looked down upon because of the way they abused people in stealing money from hard working citizens. They are listed in with prostitutes in the gospels as being people with whom many Judahites would not associate with. Yeshua however, comes to save sinners, whether they be thiefs by tax collection, prostitutes, adulterers, idolaters, etc.

When we continue reading through Luke 19:3-7 we find that Yeshua told this man that He was coming over to his house that day, but all the people murmured and said amongst themselves, "This Yeshua is going to go and be a guest in a man's house who is a sinner!"

What happens next is astonishing. We see that there must have been some type of conversation between Yeshua and Zacchaeus because in Luke 19:8 we read the following:

"And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, that half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." {ESV}

Something had pricked Zacchaeus' heart so that he felt the need to correct the wrongs / sins he had committed or was committing at the present. What was the response given to his statement by the Master?

"And Yeshua said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.'" {Luke 19:9, ESV}

After Yeshua saw the heart of Zacchaeus was truly repentant, i.e. he desired to turn away from the sins he had been committing and change towards acting justly and piously, He told him that salvation had come to his house.

The point is that yes, Yeshua does love sinners, but He loves them in this way. He desires to heal them of their sickness and disease of sin. He doesn't love them in a way that wants to keep them bound in slavery to sin. He comes to them to deliver them of sin; He comes to them preaching repentance from sin. Let us never confuse the statement, "Jesus loves sinners" thinking it somehow means we can just go on and on and on sinning without batting an eye.

Matthew Janzen