Jesus, Your Great Physician - Matthew 9:9-13

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[Matthew 9:9-13] As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed Him. ¹⁰ And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”¹² But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus, our Great Physician

Some people are not normal. I usually avoid sneezers, coughers, and nose drippers. I avoid those with high fevers and contagious diseases. But there are some very unique people who not only spend much time with them but even invite them in. Physicians and nurses.

Doctors have a unique purpose in life. They take in the sick. They diagnose. They prescribe the healing medicine. Administer the saving treatment. They heal. They restore strength. They ease pain. They teach how to avoid future bad health.

Those working in medicine do not do the normal thing of avoiding the sick. Their unique purpose requires that they fill their waiting room with the sick. How strange it would be if we criticized them for that.

I.

Jesus is the Great Physician. He has a unique purpose. In today’s Gospel, He is criticized for it. It begins with His call of Matthew, a tax collector.

The “tax-collectors” were fellow children of the house of Israel who were collecting taxes from their own fellow Israelites on behalf of the occupying nation, the Roman Empire, which had taken their land without asking. Israelite tax collectors were therefore seen as disloyal to their own people and nation.

Tax collectors were also known for fraudulently collecting more than they should to make themselves wealthier [Luke 19:1-10]. Nothing is said of Matthew’s own business practices, but he is part of a despised group – despised, not without reason.

Jesus calls this despised person to follow Him and be His disciple. Matthew, while doing work that falls short of loyalty, is treated with loyalty from his God and Lord. Matthew experiences the Lord’s loyalty to His promise to come and redeem His people.

He becomes the recipient of the Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness. Matthew stands immediately, leaves everything behind, and follows – because he had received such love, undeservedly.

Matthew – also called Levi – therefore throws a great feast for Jesus. Invited are Matthew’s many friends – “tax collectors and sinners.” Also called “tax collectors and prostitutes” [Matthew 21:31-32] – The standard titles for those who were known to be living unworthy lives.

What is Jesus’ unique purpose in this situation? What is His unique purpose in our world? What is His unique purpose in your life? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus has come to do the difficult work of healing. Healing people who are sick with sin.

II.

When the Pharisees saw a sinner, they saw an enemy. Just like, when I see someone sneezing or coughing without covering their mouth, I see an enemy. “Keep them away from me!” 

What the Pharisees failed to recognize is that they themselves were also diseased with sin, inwardly – that they were in the same sick ward as the tax collectors, prostitutes, and Matthew. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” [Mark 7:21-23]

No matter how much I might think I can see a person’s unrighteousness outwardly, God can see me perfectly clearly inwardly. To God, sins of heart and mind are just as outward as our own skin. The mirror of His Law diagnoses us all with sickness.

A physician could take two easy but foolish routes with his sick patients. First, he could just give them all a referral to the mortician. Be done with them. “Keep them away from me!” Sickness would be gone. But a doctor is called to heal.

Second, a foolish doctor could simply affirm sickness as being just as valid as health. He could call having a fever or having cancer just as good as not having them. He could avoid offending me for my results on the weight scale. But a doctor is called to heal.

Consider this: Jesus and the Pharisees both call the tax collectors and sinners, “sinners.” But with a very different heart about it and a very different purpose. Jesus speaks with the heart and the unique purpose of the Great Physician. He diagnoses in order to heal.

III.

Jesus’ unique purpose, in your life, is to heal your spirit by forgiving your sins and to improve your health in righteousness by the renewing power of His Holy Spirit. To forgive you and then to be renewing you. To save your life and then strengthen you in His rehab.

Jesus has become your effective Great Physician by taking a road of great difficulty, at His cost, for your sake. Jesus made Himself the cure for sin by dying for your sins on the cross. He made the sins of the world His.

He made the sin of each individual person – and all the wounds of sin, including sickness and death – His own upon the cross.

All sin was written upon Him on that cross. He suffered the due penalty for your sin for you. He suffered the unjust injuries of sin from others with you. The Physician carried your disease and overcame it. He is risen from the dead.

His death for your sin absolved you, forgave you in full. And in your life today, your Risen Savior who overcame sin has the power to heal sin and its effects within you. He forgave, and He is healing. He does have the power to free you and help you do better.

It’s a life-long regiment of His help. The end is rest in heaven and perfect health of soul and body in the resurrection. He makes soul and body good again.

IV.

This is the unique purpose of Jesus as our Great Physician. And it is His unique purpose for your neighbor. You are therefore called to prioritize this unique purpose of the kingdom of heaven in how you think about – in how you feel about – your neighbor. Your neighbor you know and your neighbor you don’t know. They are all people. Those close and those distant.

The unique purpose of your God and Lord for each of them is that they would receive the spiritual health and healing of soul and body won for them only in Jesus Christ.

“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice’ – Jesus desires that you would go and extend to them the mercy and steadfast love that He has extended to you – “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

Finally, do not be overwhelmed by the strength of your sins and shortcomings. The medicine of the Great Physician – the feast of His Word – is stronger.

And do not be discouraged by the sin-sickness of the world around you on all sides. The healing medicine and unique purpose of the Great Physician is stronger than all that is in the world. The extending of the mercy and steadfast love of God found in Christ Jesus alone is the one medicine that really does help.

Like Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, you are the nurses, doctor’s aides, and EMT drivers of the Great Physician as you extend to others – by word, action, and prayer, from a sincere heart – the forgiveness and healing He has extended to you. Amen.