Mission Venture Ministries

“Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:10-12) 

The Bible tells us that everyone is born into this world with a dreadful disease called sin, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death (James 1:15). 

In this biblical account, Jesus has called Matthew, a tax collector to follow Him as one of His twelve apostles (Matthew 9:9). Tax collectors were one of the most despised people in Israel. They were Jewish men who collected money from their countrymen for the Romans; and even though a portion of the taxes where kept for themselves as payment for their services, most of them where greedy and over charged. It was therefore unimaginable for a righteous man like Jesus to invite a tax collector to become His disciple. 

Matthew had hosted a dinner party at his home with his friends (Matthew 9:10). These, of course, were other tax collectors and “sinners.” Sinners were considered those people unwelcome in the Jewish religious society because they did not follow the rules of the Pharisees or the Law. 

Here we see that the Pharisees were bewildered by Jesus’ actions and asked His disciples “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” something they would never do (Matthew 9:11); and Jesus answers them in a way that both explains His actions and exposes the Pharisees. 

Healthy people don’t need a doctor, Jesus says, but sick people do. Jesus was there to help people who understood they needed help and were open to the truth in contrast to the Pharisees who considered themselves the most religious and followers of the Law. 

We can learn very important lessons here from what Jesus did. 

First: The purpose of evangelism is to reach the lost (Matthew 5:11-16) and not to shun sinners. 

Second: Showing love and kindness does not require and does not imply approving of what the other person does or believes. Christ was introducing them to Himself as the only way to be forgiven and redeemed. He was showing love and compassion for them. 

Jesus was speaking of sickness in a spiritual context in Matthew 9:9–13 and Matthew was a patient in need of healing. The sickness was sin, and Jesus was the Healer; that is, Jesus can forgive sin and restore the spiritually sick. On the other hand, those who see themselves as “righteous,” however; those who, like the Pharisees, refuse to acknowledge their spiritual sickness deny their need of the spiritual Doctor and thus remain in their sin. 

The sin disease is most tragic when we do not feel it and do not know we have it. Just like Jesus told the Laodicean Church: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (Revelation 3:15-18). 

Jesus Christ is the only One who can heal us: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” – in other words, healed from our sins (Acts 4:12). He never refused anyone who came to Him on earth for physical healing (Matthew 12:15), and gave us the assurance that, “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37). 

As we see, one of the most important steps in being healed of our sin sickness is recognizing our desperate need for healing and just like the psalmist cried out “Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You” (Psalm 41:4), He will respond with forgiveness, grace, and healing.

 *******