12/13/2007

Luke 5:27 - 32 (HCSB)

²⁷After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!”  ²⁸So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him. 

²⁹Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them.  ³⁰But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 

³¹Jesus replied to them, “The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do.  ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 

If you go to a doctors’ office, who do you see sitting in the waiting room?  Those who are seeking medical help for some ailment.  You don’t see a room full of healthy people waiting to see a doctor.

This is the analogy that Jesus gives in this conversation. 

But why were the Pharisees asking this question?

Just prior to this and in preceding days, Jesus had been teaching and heeling among the people.  No doubt the Pharisees had seen and heard all this and had been following Jesus along with the “common” people.  Let’s just imagine that perhaps the Pharisees were impressed with Jesus and interested in His teachings.  They would have been insulted when such an esteemed person chose to dine with the common people rather than with the elite (themselves). 

Their problem was, they were so tied up in who they were, that they couldn’t step down from their pedestals long enough to fully grasp who Jesus was.  And don’t forget that the common belief among the Jews about the Messiah was that he would be a military and religious leader.  Therefore, the Pharisees believed that Jesus, if He were the Messiah, would (or rather should) be dining with them.

But how does Jesus answer?  “³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The Pharisees already saw themselves as righteous.  They practiced all the law religiously (pun intended) and prided themselves in being holier than the common people.  They failed to realize that there was really nothing they could do to completely atone for their sin.  Meanwhile, the common people were quite well aware that they were in need of a savior.

I am afraid that the reason our church populations are declining is that so many people believe they do not need a savior.  It is like the hunchback of Notre-Dame asking “what hump?”  Their condition is so obvious to everyone yet they turn a blind eye to their own sinful condition.  False religions and New Age religions have convincingly led many to believe that they can save themselves either through some action or some attitude.  This is the same mistake made by the Pharisees.  The Law was only a temporary atonement and was intended to be a demonstration of their need for salvation, not salvation itself.

Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com 
©2007 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.

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