Rahabs are untouchables who have been pushed out to the margins of society and been refused citizenship in the center with the rest and the “best” of us. Remember, it’s a “friendship” quest into which God has invited us. Neil Cole said, “The Gospel flies best on the wings of relationships.”
Friendship is by definition a mutual arrangement, a two-way street. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of us all being bound up in an “inescapable web of mutuality.” They called Jesus a “friend of sinners,” which, for my money, implies more than that he was nice to bad people. He valued their friendship as much as they did his. Even those individuals that some people considered the dregs of his day must have, in some way, brought something of value to the relationship.
– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends