[Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash]
I need to be persuaded to phone the doctor's surgery. Maybe it's a 'man thing' but I would bury my head in the sand rather than admit I need to see a doctor or a nurse. But I have been married to a nurse for nearly half a century and when I have something needing investigation she insists that I see a doctor. She is very persuasive and I know that she is right. There are some people, however, who are regular visitors to the GP's surgery and sometimes it is only due to loneliness or a need to have someone to talk to. But Jesus is not discussing whether or not to phone and request an appointment to see a GP. He is making a comparison. Doctors are for sick people. If you are healthy, you do not need a doctor.
What was all this about? Jesus is responding to criticism by the Pharisees (a sect who kept themselves totally separate from bad people)! They were regarded as religious zealots who were eager to demonstrate to everyone that they were exceptionally good-living. They tended to despise other people who were not in the same righteous league as them. Levi, the tax collector was not in any league - he was a social outcast and the worst sinner imaginable - in their opinion. And yet Jesus had called Levi to be a disciple and he did not insist on a long period of rehabilitation and penance before he would qualify. But that was only the start of it. For Levi was being very hospitable and sociable. He invited Jesus to have dinner at his house and he invited some friends along to meet his new master. But Levi did not have respectable or good-living friends. He had two groups of people who were his friends - tax collectors and "sinners," though there may have been some overlap between these two groups. Interestingly, Paul the apostle tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of God's standard (Romans 3:23). So I guess that includes these Pharisees - and by the way, Paul was a Pharisee too at one time. The Pharisees were shocked and horrified. What kind of guy is this? He is mixing with the scum of society. He cannot be a rabbi or a religious teacher. He is a charlatan and an imposter. And the Pharisees ask Jesus disciples, "Why does he (that is, Jesus) eat with tax collectors and "sinners?" I am not sure if Jesus was meant to hear what the Pharisees were asking or whether they were having a go at the disciples on their own. But Jesus heard their remark and this is what he said, " It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
This is a typical way that Jesus will make his point. He uses analogy and makes comparisons. A doctor is wasting his time if s/he only meets people who are perfectly healthy - although there is a role for GPs in health promotion, but we are missing the point. People who are ill want desperately to get better. People who are well are perfectly satisfied with their health and have no need to bring in a doctor. So Jesus is making it clear that he has every right to meet with tax collectors and 'sinners' because they really need him. They cannot change their lifestyle without him.
By the way, the Pharisees needed Jesus too. They were 'sinners' and the sad truth was that they were oblivious to that fact. These people in Levi's house did not need to be told that they had messed up their lives. People reminded them every day. People judged them for their way of life and made them feel inferior and ridden with guilt. Sadly, the Pharisees, for the most part, did not see that Jesus could help them in any way. They were perfect and better than everyone else. What did he have to offer them? There is a bit of a Pharisee in all of us - a tendency to think that we are good-living and better than others. It is easy to fool ourselves. It is easy to find someone worse than us - even convicted criminals in prison find someone who is 'worse' than they are and often make life miserable for that individual. Robert Burns, the Ayrshire poet talked about "seeing ourselves as others see us" but it is even more revealing and uncomfortable to see ourselves as God sees us.
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” [Mark 2:15-17 ESV]
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
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