Many of us go through life merely trying to survive from paycheck to paycheck.  We get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed so we can do it all again the next day.  When we marry, have a few kids, it becomes even more important to provide for family so this going-to-work thing becomes a great part of our lives.  We do it for them as well as us.  But when sickness suddenly overtakes health, we cry out, “Is there a doctor in the house!?”

What happens when this Doctor comes into our daily lives, interrupts our daily agendas, and presents a different way of thinking that includes a different way to do what we have always done?  He suddenly gets our attention, we can’t help it, He is different.  We are drawn to this person who strolls along peacefully and teaches in ways we have never heard before.  This isn’t normal.  But this Doctor seems to know exactly what each person needs most.

This Doctor can heal the sick, raise the expectations of mundane living, while giving hope to the hopeless.  How is He doing that?

Mark 2, The Message

The Tax Collector

^13-14 Then Jesus went again to walk alongside the lake. Again a crowd came to him, and he taught them. Strolling along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” He came.

^15-16 Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: “What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the misfits?”

¹⁷ Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus said more than once, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:10, John 10:11 for example)  But who are the lost?, we might wonder.  The lost were real people, created by God, but never really knew God.  The lost went about their lives of survival and didn’t give God a second thought.  They only trusted in the what they themselves could do physically to get by in a Roman occupied and oppressed world. If that meant earning a living by charging more taxes, cheating people in trading goods with unfair scales, and then drinking to excess to forget all about it, then that’s the way it was.  They worshipped self and sometimes superstitiously worshiped (or made bets on) the gods of sun, moon, and stars, along with all the other manmade gods for good fortune.  Adultery was just one of many pleasures of life to soothe a sick soul.  Sin was a sickness among the lost.

Is there a Doctor in the house?  Why, yes there is!

Jesus walks among all the people and seeks out the sick who need healing from being lost without God. The Great Physician presents diagnosis with a cure!  The Doctor comes to where the sick live and shows them the Way to better health through forgiveness of sins.  He shows them compassionate mercy and offers His grace.  Yes, He is different than those deemed “religious” as this Doctor comes with a love for people and grows a relationship with people.  He values all who come to be healed.  He turns no one away who seek Him with honest hearts with a desire to receive what He has to give.

“The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the misfits?”  (Notice they didn’t come straight to Jesus with their complaints.)  

Aren’t the religious leaders the most sick of all?  (Admit it, we’re all thinking it.)  Jesus came to people who have never heard about God because they are more likely to listen with open minds.  What they have been doing and feeling is not working, so Kingdom of God thinking seems like a better way and certainly worth considering. 

The religious leaders are so steeped in self-importance, arrogance, and pride of position that they feel they “know it all” will not consider anything else.  They seem untouchable and beyond reaching and understanding. We get this from what we understand in our reading, not our judgement, but Jesus’ observation who sees the inside of their hearts.  They know God’s rules and regulations well and execute them religiously—but don’t know God.  They seem “terminal” with no hope of recovery.

I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”

So, the question that deserves our thoughtful, reflective response is this;

Are we sin-sick? 

Do we need a checkup from the Doctor? 

Are we spiritually fit?  But without a growing, healthy relationship with God?

God’s Prescription that is readily available is this:

Believe and be saved for eternity. 

Repent and be healed. 

Be still and know God through Jesus, His Son and His Word. 

Commune with God daily.  Put Him first in our lives.

Be led by His Holy Spirit who lives in the hearts of all who really believe that Jesus is not only Savior but Lord of every part of our lives.

Jesus gives life and more life—eternal life!  Jesus removes sins through forgiveness and replaces sin’s effects with restorative health.

“Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep rustlers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”  John 10:10, MSG 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3;16 

Jesus is the Way to Truth that leads to Life. 

Lord,

You are Life to me!  You came to save us from ourselves and heal us of all sin.  You offer abundant, expectant, living like no other.  You are God.  We are not.  Who else would we turn to for healing and restoration but you?  There is no one like you!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  You are Savior and Lord!  To you be the glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen

And we’re singing in worship, ‘Great are You, Lord!”!

(Songwriters: Jason Ingram / David Leonard / Leslie Jordan)

You give life, You are love
You bring light to the darkness
You give hope, You restore every heart that is broken
And great are You, Lord

It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise
It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only

You give life, You are love
You bring light to the darkness
You give hope, You restore (You restore)
Every heart that is broken
And great are You, Lord…

All the earth will shout Your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing
Great are You, Lord
All the earth will shout Your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing
Great are You, Lord

All the earth will shout Your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will say
Great are You, Lord…