The sick in need of a doctor
[Matthew 9:9-13]
Are you healthy? As the saying goes that the older we get, the more we get sick here and there and suffer. And when we get sick, we go to the hospital. The reason is to see a doctor and cure our sickness. Perhaps none of you are in good health but deliberately go to the hospital to see a doctor. The phrase ‘Birth, old age, sickness, and death’, the four phrases of life, comes to mind. As we get older in our lives, it is unavoidable that our body becomes weaker, sick, and ill. So it seems that we all just want to live healthy and then leave this world. Naturally, if we are sick or have suffered from disease, we have no choice but to pay more attention to our health. And we often say, 'Health is the best' with our lips. However, I believe that physical health is important, but mental health is also important. The reason is because there are mentally unhealthy people around us. It seems that more and more people around us are suffering from mental illness. We feel sorry for people who suffer from mental illness that prevents them from adapting to social life due to abnormalities in their mental function and interferes with their daily life. Some people suffer from schizophrenia, with delusions and hallucinations, some with depressive disorder, some with manic depression, and so on. Therefore, we cannot help thinking that we must be mentally healthy. Furthermore, I believe that in addition to physical and mental health, what is truly important is the health of our souls that is spiritual health. The reason is that no matter how physically or mentally healthy a person may be, his soul may be ill. Here, to say that our soul is sick means that we are violating God's commandments and sinning against God in our spiritual life. And when we do not repent of our sins and our souls do not prosper in all things because of our sins, no matter how healthy our bodies and minds are, it is of no use. So today I want to bless you with the words of 3 John 1:2 – “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” I hope and pray that all of us are in good health, spiritually, physically and mentally.
In today's text, Matthew 9:12-13, Jesus says this: “On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The background of these verses is as follows: Jesus forgave the sins of a paralytic in Capernaum and healed him. As he passed by, Jesus saw Levi the son of Alphaeus (Mk. 2:14), or a man named Matthew, sitting at the tax collector’s booth (Mt. 9:9; Mk. 2:14; Lk. 5:27). When Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth and said to him, “Follow me” (Mt. 9:9; Mk. 2:14; Lk. 5:27), Matthew heard Jesus’ call and got up from the tax collector’s booth where he was sitting and followed Jesus (Mt. 9:9; Mk. 2:14). He left everything behind, and got up and followed Jesus (Lk. 5:28). Then Matthew (Levi) had a great banquet in his house for Jesus, who went to his house and sat down with many tax collectors and other followers of Jesus (“sinners”) (Mk. 2:15) and his disciples (Lk. 5:29; Mt. 9:10) and ate food with them (Mt. 9:10). When the Pharisees saw this, they went to Jesus' disciples and asked them: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’” (v. 11). Even the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus' disciples (Lk. 5:30). Then Jesus listened to the Pharisees and said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt. 9:12-13; Mk. 2:17). If we look at Mark 2:17 and Luke 5:31-32, there are two differences from today's text Matthew 9:12-13: (1) One is that there is nothing in the Gospels of Mark and of Luke that says, “But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Mt. 9:13). (2) Another difference is that only Luke says in Luke 5:32, “… but sinners to repentance”, which basically means that Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Matthew and Marks just say “For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” There is no such word “repentance”). What we need to think about here is who Jesus is referring to as “the healthy” and who is “the sick”.
‘The healthy’ is “the righteous” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 9:13. And Jesus said he did not come to call the righteous. Here “the righteous” Jesus refers to are the Pharisees. Who were the Pharisees at the time of Jesus? They were people who pursued ‘self-righteousness’ by keeping the law of Moses. In other words, they were legalists who wanted to be justified by their works. So what kind of religious rites were they fervently engaged in? It was the sacrifice. They devoted their energy to offering sacrifices to God. In so doing, the Pharisees believed that they would take away their sins, and as a result they actually justified themselves. So, when we look at the parable of Jesus in which a Pharisee and a tax collector went up to the temple to pray in Luke 18, the Pharisee prayed to God while standing and praying about himself like this: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get” (Lk. 18:11-12). From the content of this prayer, we can see that this Pharisee considered himself righteous. That is why Jesus said in Luke 18:9, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable.” The Pharisee considered the tax collector who prayed in the same temple as a sinner and despised him, so he said a prayer of thanks to God that he was not like the tax collector. But the tax collector prayed to God like this: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner'” (v. 13). Unlike the Pharisees, the tax collector knew that he was a sinner. So he pleaded with God, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (v.13). After telling the parable of the prayers of these two men, Jesus concluded: “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14).
Could the countless sacrifices of the Pharisees be able to take away their sins? The Bible says in Hebrews 10:11 that every priest stood every day and offered the same sacrifice often, but this sacrifice could never take away sins. Clearly, the Bible says that offering the same sacrifice again and again does not take away sins. But the Pharisees offered countless sacrifices to God, believing that the sacrifices would take away their sins, and as a result they considered themselves righteous. In today's text, Matthew 9:13, Jesus said to the Pharisees who considered themselves righteous, “I have not come to call the righteous.” And Jesus said to them, “go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (v.13). Why did Jesus say this to the Pharisees? To answer this question, we must turn to Hosea 6:6 – “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” In other words, the reason why Jesus said to the Pharisees, “go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice” can be summed up in one word, that is Jesus wanted the Pharisees to lay down their will and obey the will of the Lord. Then what was the will of the Pharisees and what was the will of the Lord? The will of the Pharisees was to be justified by keeping the law. That is why they offered sacrifices so that their sins could be forgiven and they wanted to be justified. And they tried not to defile themselves by living separately from those they considered sinners. So when they saw Jesus eating at Matthew's house with tax collectors and sinners, they asked Jesus' disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Mt. 9:11) But the will of the Lord was to understand that God did not want sacrifices or burnt offerings, but to acknowledge God and have mercy. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to obey the word of the Lord and show mercy to those whom they regarded as sinners, like Matthew. And Jesus said that in order for the Pharisees to learn the will of the Lord, they would forsake their own will and self-righteousness, and were justified by faith alone, and then were saved, so that they too could have mercy on tax collectors and sinners, just as the Lord had mercy on sinners like themselves. But the Pharisees not only did not want to learn Jesus after hearing the word, but they could not. This is because they considered themselves to be healthy and righteous. Jesus said that those who consider themselves to be healthy do not need a doctor, and He did not come to call those who consider themselves righteous (Mt. 9:12, 13).
Do you think that the Pharisees who wanted to be saved by works are healthy people who do not need a doctor? Are the Pharisees who pursued their own righteousness by keeping the law and doing it, in your view, are they truly righteous? In today's terms, are those who think that they will go to heaven because they do good (good deeds?) in your eyes are healthy and righteous people? They don't need a doctor, they don't need Jesus. The reason is not because they believe in Jesus, but because they believe that they are saved by good works. Such people depend not on the righteousness of Jesus (God), but on their own righteousness, not on the merits of Jesus’ cross, but on their own merits. And such people consider themselves to be healthy and righteous. But in the eyes of the Lord, these are the true sick people and the true sinners.
So, who are “the sick” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 9:12? They are the “sinners” Jesus spoke of in verse 13. And Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” That is, Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Lk. 5:32). The “sinners” Jesus spoke of here were Matthew, whom the Pharisees (and the scribes) spoke of, as well as many tax collectors and many followers of Jesus who sat and ate with Jesus in Matthew's house (v.29). The Pharisees considered them sinners. At that time, tax collectors like Matthew were the most despised in society. The money they collected from the people was often partly for personal gain (cf. Lk. 19:8) and partly were offered to Rome. Therefore, they were regarded not only as thieves by the people of Israel, but also as traitors to the nation of Israel (MacArthur). Therefore, it is said that at that time, in Judea, the social status of tax collectors was very low, so they did not even want to marry the tax collector's house. And the Gentile had that stereotype to the extent that when someone said “What is the worst beast?” a man named Theocritus answered, ‘In the mountains bears and lions, in the streets (markets) they are tax collectors (Park). But when Jesus saw Matthew the tax collector sitting at the tax collector’s booth, he told him, “Follow me” (Mt. 9:9). At that time, Matthew immediately obeyed the Lord's call and left everything and got up and followed Jesus (Lk. 6:28). This shows Matthew's faith. How pleased Matthew must have been when Jesus called “Follow Me” since he was considered lowly by the world. So Matthew had a great feast in his house for Jesus (v. 29). Above all else, unlike the Pharisees, who considered themselves righteous, Matthew must have considered himself a sinner. This is because, as a tax collector who was the most despised socially, even the Pharisees treated the tax collectors as sinner. In Luke 18:13, which we have already meditated on, looking back at the tax collector’s prayer when he went up to the temple to pray, he prayed like this: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'” Unlike the Pharisees, the tax collector knew that he was a sinner. So he pleaded with God, ‘God, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner.’ This is how Jesus called Matthew, who knew that he was a sinner (Mt.9:9). Why? According to Luke 5:32, it was to call sinners to repentance. Why did Jesus call Matthew, a sinner, to repent? The reason is that the Lord would forgive all of Matthew's sins, justify him, and make him righteous. In a word, the Lord called Matthew to save him.
The Pharisees and the scribes considered tax collectors sitting and eating with Jesus as sinners. Therefore, they never ate with sinners, nor did they sit with them. They did this because the Pharisees and the scribes believed themselves righteous. That is why they despised tax collectors and sinners (Lk. 18:9). The reason is because the Pharisees and scribes, who believed themselves to be righteous, had no compassion. That's why Jesus said to them, “… go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice …” (Mt. 9:13). The Pharisees and the scribes not only believed themselves righteous, but they also exalted themselves (v. 14). Those who exalt themselves in this way are arrogant and never prayed to God ‘God, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner’ (v. 13) nor can they do so. But Matthew, a tax collector, humbled himself (Lk. 18:14). He himself knew that he was a sinner before the Lord (v. 13). Jesus came to this earth to call the people like Matthew. And these sick people need Jesus, the true Doctor.
Who do you think are the sick people who really need a doctor? Those who are truly sick and sinners in the Lord's eyes are those who seek to justify themselves and gain salvation through their own efforts and works. But although Matthew and the tax collectors are “sick” and “sinners” in the eyes of the Pharisees and the scribes, in the eyes of the Lord they are healthy and righteous. The reason is because the Lord came to this earth for such people and shed His blood on the cross. The Lord came to this earth to heal, justify, and save people by calling a tax collector-like person (Lk. 18:13) who pleaded with God, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Therefore, the Lord grants salvation to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:13). I hope and pray that you may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ so that you and your family receive the great blessing of salvation.