Who
Needs A Doctor
“And
Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a
physician, but those who are sick. I
have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance,’” Luke 5:31-32
A
few weeks ago, I received a piece of mail from my health insurance provider
about when to go to the emergency room.
For many people they go there, when they aren’t that sick, to see a
doctor. We know that when we are sick,
we need to see them to get better. Most
doctors, we see, are there for us when we are sick. I know I don’t think about going when I am
well. It was Christ’s mission to go to
those in need of spiritual healing, people who need Him.
In
the above scripture, Jesus is answering a complaint that religious leaders were
giving about Him. Jesus had just called
a tax collector, named Matthew, to follow Him.
Matthew then invited him over to eat along with fellow tax
collectors. Today we might not think
this was a big deal, but back then, it was.
Jewish people, at that time, had a deep hate for Romans and
gentiles. Rome was the ruler of the
nation and tax collectors were hired from the people to collect the taxes. The
Jews however, labeled them sinners by the religious people and would not
associate with them.
We
know that the religious leaders didn’t come directly to Christ with their
complaining, but to Jesus’s disciples. I
think that is often what we do as people.
We have a compliant about something, so we talk to others about it
instead of going to the source. Often,
we do this when we know that we might be wrong in our complaints. Jesus, being
God, knows their thoughts and he answers them. The answer may not be what they
wanted to hear though, but it shows He truly is from God. Remember, God knows what we are thinking and
saying to others.
If
you look at the Old Testament, which is all they had then, nowhere does it say
the Jewish people were the only people.
It says they are to be a blessing to the world and show God to the
nations. By this point they were a
closed off nation and not willing to let anyone in. Evangelism was not part of what they did and
even worse, they felt that they were saved by just being a Jew. They had gotten
very religious, but for the most part it was meaningless practice and was doing
no one any good. This is a danger that
happens all the time in churches. Some
churches are dying because they refuse to change from practices and traditions
not found in the Bible. They push others
away who find no meaning behind what they do and even call them unbelievers and
sinners for not wanting their traditions.
Jesus,
was very gracious in His response to them.
He points out that His mission is to call sinners to repentance. Righteous people have already repented of
their sins and don’t need the message He has.
This was not a time for Him to address the kind of people the Scribes
and Pharisees were. He was pointing out
indirectly that they should be caring for the souls that aren’t righteous in
His response. It’s easy to judge others instead of loving them. We all can become so caught up in ourselves,
that we forget the message of the cross.
Who is it that we should be having a dinner with, but don’t because we
don’t like them or what they are doing?
They need Jesus too and we are called to spread the message of Jesus to
the world.
We
know that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
Remember, that we too were once lost, and Jesus saved us. Sometimes we can let our “righteousness” keep
us from reaching out to those who need Jesus.
Remember, those without Jesus are facing death! Will we let our traditions, though we might
love them, become a stumbling block and keep others from Jesus? How about our personal feelings for certain
people keeping us from wanting them in church to hear the gospel? Who does Jesus save, needs to be the question
we ask. Finally, we need to ask, is
Jesus welcome in our church? Most would
say yes, but really think about what you know about Jesus from the Bible, when
answering that question. God Bless!
All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA.
Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash
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