Jesus is the Great Physician
Jesus is the Great Physician
Accepting this fact requires humility on our part.
Most of us don’t like to admit we are sick.
We certainly don’t like needing a doctor. Needing a doctor means we are weak somehow, and we don’t like to admit weakness.
Jesus interacted with some people who had this same struggle.
As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (Mark 2:14-17)
The scribes and Pharisees didn’t think a teacher of the law like Jesus should have been associating with the “low-end” of society - like tax collectors and sinners. They thought proper teachers kept their associations among respectable folks.
Jesus showed them that they had lost sight of something significant - Jesus had come to help those who were “sick.” He had come to call sinners to repentance.
The scribes and the Pharisees didn’t see their own need for Jesus - because they were unwilling to see themselves as sinners needing to repent (Matthew 3:7-8). The sinners and tax collectors realized their need for Jesus and their need to turn from their sinful life.
What about us?
Do we realize our need for the “Great Physician” like the tax collectors and sinners? Or are we blind to our own need for Jesus - like the scribes and Pharisees?