Do You Need A Doctor?
Mark 2:15-17 (NKJV)
15 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.
16 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?”
17 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.”
The Pharisees had excommunicated the tax collectors and regarded them as heathens. So when they saw Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners, they thought they had finally caught Him. There is nothing the scribes and Pharisees wanted to do more at this time than to catch Jesus in a sinful act. Their problem was that they regarded the teachings and traditions of their fathers more highly than the Law of Moses.
We know the Pharisees wouldn't have stepped foot into a tax collector’s home, so as the disciples were going in and out or leaving for the evening, the Pharisees questioned them about Jesus’s actions. “How is it that He eats with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus overheard this exchange and jumped in with the answer. He told them that those who are sick need a physician, not those who are well. This is a great analogy! One that anybody could easily understand. Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Jesus is not saying that any were righteous, He was making a comment about the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. We know that none are righteous, no, not one! (Romans 3:10). Jesus came to call every person who lives and breathes, anyone who has ears to hear, anyone who has a mouth to confess, a heart to believe, to repentance!
Jesus is the Great Physician who holds the cure for the disease of sin. If a doctor gives us a prescription, we follow it. Most people do this knowing that their bodily health is at stake. How much more should we follow the prescribed treatment for sin from the Great Physician? The health and destiny of our soul is at stake. Do you want to please the Lord? The only way you can do that is to do what His word prescribes, OBEY!
- Eric Bullock, Evangelist
