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.

Shepherds and Sheepdogs

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Shepherds and Sheepdogs

Sheep are not an animal that can survive on their own in the wild. They are meant to be cared for. They are meant to be led to green pasture and still water. Led, fed, and watered. Sheep need sheering. Sheep need to be called in from the open fields by their shepherd and directed through the fence’s gate for safe keeping at night.

Sheep need their shepherd. Sheep also need their shepherd’s sheepdogs. Sheep will stray. They need the dog’s bark in their ears and its teeth nipping at their ankles to keep them within the boundaries – and to drive back the wolves.

And I would safely assume that the sheep, though they love their shepherd, probably don’t always like the shepherd’s sheepdogs. Their bite hurts and their bark is loud in their ears. Though that dog is there for their wellbeing, the sheep probably sometimes kick back against it – or sometimes are frightened by it.

In an ideal world, the sheepdog would not be necessary. But sheep live in two realities: In the safety and care of their Shepherd’s keeping; but also in the reality of the wilderness where there are wolves and easy places to get lost.

I.

So, what in the world am I talking about? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And I am talking about the Good Shepherd’s two-fold voice – His Word of Law and Gospel. His Word of Gospel and Law together fulfill this needed role of shepherd and sheepdog in your life, and in the life of the strayed and the lost who need to be led home.

Jesus’ Word of Gospel – His Word of care and comfort, of His forgiveness and His promises – is pleasant to the ears. His Word of Law is also needed, but like the sheepdog’s bark, is not always pleasant to us.

The Word of our God and Savior does always come to us in those two voices, His Law and Gospel. The Law is God’s commandments and judgments, true threats of consequences for not keeping them. Those consequences are just. The Law says what we must do and what we must not do. And, we never get it all done.

God’s Law is written on the page and is written on the human heart. On the conscience. Leaving us with no excuse.

Our Shepherd’s Word of the Gospel is His Word of the forgiveness of your sins. It’s the voice of the Shepherd which tells you, not what you must do, but what He has done for you – that the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep [John 10:11].

Jesus’ voice of the Gospel is His assurance that, by His cross and resurrection, your sins are forgiven, you have eternal life, and He will never let you go – “My sheep hear My voice… and no one will snatch them out of My hand [John 10:27-28].

The Gospel is God’s greater power, not the Law. The Gospel has the power of salvation. However, like sheep, you also live in two realities. And in this wilderness-reality of our own sinful nature, the devil, and a fallen world, the sheepdog of the Law is still necessary for us. Our Good Shepherd speaks His Word of Law to us for three purposes: As a curb, as a mirror, and as a guide.

The curb on the road keeps your car within certain boundaries (off the sidewalk!) to minimize the damage you might do and help keep you going the way you need to go.

Our Shepherd’s voice of Law bites at our heals to keep our temptations, sinful tendencies, wrong words and actions – and our inaction – within certain boundaries. We would do much worse without that bad feeling in our conscience from His accusing Law – and sometimes other consequences as well – to curb our behavior.

Second, our Shepherd’s voice of the Law serves as a mirror. We may have a certain opinion of ourselves, but a mirror is always honest. God’s Law is a mirror that shows us the truth of the wrong we’ve done, the wrong we’ve been, and the good we’ve failed to be —

— It shows our sin, “So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” [Romans 3:19-20].

God’s Law has a true and loud bark – and a true and serious bite. Yet, in the mouth of your Shepherd, it serves only one purpose: The purpose of turning you to your Shepherd’s voice of His saving Gospel.

Those who are self-satisfied or blind to their need for a Savior need the bite and bark of God’s Law. Those lost in confusion or pained in conscience need to hear the Law gently, to realize why, what’s at the the root of their trouble. And all baptized believers in Christ still need the Word of Law – because we still live with two realities.

We live in the renewal and new life of salvation. And we live with our sinful nature still clinging so closely. We do need that curb and mirror, while always remembering that the strongest and most enduring voice of your Shepherd is His voice of the Gospel. It’s His voice of Gospel that gets the final say about you and has the power of renewal.

The third and final use, or purpose, of our Shepherd’s voice of Law doesn’t bite or bark at all. It’s His Word of commandments as our guide and encouragement in life. This is His Law’s most prominent role in our life now —

— His commandments as a standard which is no longer a burden [1 John 5:3] – because He carried the burden – but is now a hope we aspire to, and a promise of what we will one day be. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him” [1 John 3:2].

This Word of His Law as my guide is the answer to the question, “How do I thank Him for the Gospel’s free gift of salvation?” “What life of love and appreciation can I live?” I can take up His commandments as my guide because they are pleasing to Him.

The voice of our Good Shepherd is Law and Gospel; Curb and Mirror; Promise and Guide. This fullness of His voice, altogether, going out into the world is how He returns the lost sheep and the lost coins.

II.

So let’s look quickly at today’s readings: In our Old Testament [Ezekiel 34:11-24], and in the verses before it in Ezekiel, the voice of the Law speaks against the negligent shepherds – those who aren’t moved to action when sheep have strayed – and against the fat sheep who are happy to receive what the Lord gives but who do not share it.

Then the voice of the Gospel speaks loudly as well: “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…”

In our Epistle reading [1 Timothy 1:5-17], we hear the proper use of the Law, to speak against our sin-fallen nature: “Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”

And then we see the man, Paul, the author of these words, formerly called Saul, who once thought that he could live by the Law and didn’t need the Gospel. Until his eyes were opened and he saw that he was the chief of sinners – and that Jesus had come to save him: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Finally, we hear in our Gospel reading [Luke 15:1-10] that Jesus is the Lord in Ezekiel who says, “I, I Myself will be their Shepherd. I will seek them out.”

In Jesus’ day, God’s people were hearing God’s Law in the wrong way. In their ears, God’s Law chiefly accused others, and their hearts followed suit. So they grumbled: “That Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus responds, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”

“I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” than over ninety-nine who believe they need no repentance [Luke 18:9]. From beginning to end, He seeks the lost and turns them – repentance – back to home.

III.

That that woman swept the whole house, and that that shepherd searched the whole wilderness, shows what value Jesus places on the lost. Value each other likewise, He says. Value the lost in your world likewise, and do not grumble.

We live in a world in which we are all too content to only bark at each other, and to leave it at that. That is not God’s true Law or Gospel, and it’s not His purpose. It only leads to men and women devaluing the lives of those they oppose.

Your Shepherd’s voice speaks with an entirely different purpose than anything on any “side” in this world: To seek the lost and to bring darkened souls into the light of His Gospel salvation. Thanks be to God that we are called to speak with the voice of our Good Shepherd for this same purpose. Amen.

Love Him First to Love Them Best

[Luke 14:25-35] Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Love Him First to Love Them Best

A man bought a car without counting the cost. He knew what the payments would be but didn’t realize how much the insurance would be. And he was totally caught off guard by the price of repairs.

He was not prepared for the cost. Every new clunk and screech left him sweating. Then his inability to face a major repair led to an even hastier trade – a trade that left him worse off than how he started.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus addresses the “great crowds” who “accompanied Him.” He warns them of the cost they will face in this world as His followers so that no surprise of trial, rejection, or responsibility causes them to make a hasty trade – trading in their faith for a benefit in this world.

I.

Strangely to us, Jesus begins with these words: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” Father and mother, wife and children, siblings, and even your own life. Hate?

This is not hate in the sense we think of it, as if Jesus is telling you to be mean, nasty, and unloving toward your parents and children. We know from the rest of Scripture and common sense that that’s not it. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Husbands, love your wives as your own bodies.” But there is, Biblically, another sense of this word that means to choose or prioritize the one over the other.

So, God said about two brothers, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” [Romans 9:13]. This didn’t mean that God was mean to Esau or didn’t love him. It meant that, in regard to passing down the blessing of Abraham – the blessing of carrying on the lineage of the coming Savior – God chose Jacob over Esau. “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.” 

On the buffet line at a wedding, you hate the chicken. You might love chicken. But you make room for the prime rib first. Prime rib you loved, chicken you hated.

And whoever would be a disciple of Jesus recognizes the First Commandment – “You shall have no other gods.” Not mom, not dad; not son or daughter, not wife or husband. No one gets to be Savior, Redeemer, Truest Friend, God and Lord – no one gets to be your All-in-all, except Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Spirit, one God.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” [Matthew 22:37-39]. There is a first and a second, and God is first. Not mom or dad, or wife or husband, or child, or sibling – nor your own self – but Jesus alone —

— And certainly not the ideas, ideals, or treasures of this world or the opinions of your neighbor or those who seem to hold sway in this world or over your life. Jesus you love first. But truly, this is easier to say than to do. And we often misstep.

II.

In regard to all of those, we love them best when we love our Lord and God, Jesus, first. When you hold to the Word of God first, you are the best you you can be to them. The Word of Jesus says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved His church” [Ephesians 5:25]. “Wives, respect your husbands, and receive their leadership” [Ephesians 5:22,23]. Children, “obey your parents in the Lord… that it may go well with you.” [Ephesians 6:1-3]

And, Fathers, His Word says to you, “bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (His Word)” and “not to provoke your children to anger” by being too hard on them [Ephesians 6:4]. “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” [Deuteronomy 6:6-9]

When you love Christ first, you love your family best. They want many things from you – but loving Christ first means you will choose and prioritize the “one thing needed” [Luke 10:42] over the many things wanted. Don’t give them a bad trade but know what you most truly owe them. And other good things will be possible, at God’s direction.

III.

At the time Jesus said these words in our Gospel, He was speaking them to disciples who were soon to face a great price for being disciples of Jesus. They would face rejection from family and synagogue, hardships, beatings, and imprisonments – and the loss of their own lives – for publicly confessing Jesus as Messiah.

All of which they could trade in for an easier path by not confessing His name publicly. That bad trade would be tempting, so Jesus wants them to know ahead of time the costs they will face.

Today, among your neighbors, there are those who come to faith in Jesus Christ – and the price they will pay is scorn and rejection from their families and friends. They may be mocked. And if they’ve been raised in some other religious tradition, they will disappoint dad and mom by becoming a Christian. It’s a hard price to face. This is what it means that we must love Jesus more than father or mother, husband or wife.

For some, in some places, leaving their family’s religion for faith in Jesus can mean violence from those very same people. Jesus, in the Gospel, lets them know the cost ahead of time so they can turn to the Holy Spirit for strength and endure.

But how about those raised in the Church? In a free nation. Is there a cost? In my experience, the cost often goes like this:

A pastor teaches about issues that are touchy in people’s lives – or controversial in our culture – about marriage, man and woman, how God has ordered our lives together; about not living together; about divorce; about abortion; about homosexuality as against God’s will and nature – and who gets angry?

Often, moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas who have never supported any of that stuff, but whose children or grandchildren are living it.

The parents or grandparents have followed the children. Unwilling to upset them. Or unable to come to grips with what it might mean for their children or grandchildren if those things really are against God’s will.

But because the parents follow toward the ways of their children, now those children have lost their only rope and anchor in truth. Their only rope and anchor in the Savior.

But when mom and dad, and grandparents, keep their love of Jesus their Savior first, their younger loved ones still have a lifeline to the forgiveness of sins in Jesus. A rope and anchor to their Savior in their family remains. You love them best when you love Jesus first.

IV.

When you love Him first, you are loving them best. And we love Him first because He first loved us [1 John 4:19]. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” [1 John 4:10]. “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” [Romans 5:6-8].

Jesus has loved you to death. And, in Him, “you have redemption, the forgiveness of your sins” [Colossians 1:14]. We each fall short of what Jesus has commanded us today. And He has forgiven you all of your sins by the price He paid, when He kept as first the Father’s will to save you [Luke 22:42; Philippians 2:8].

You are all sons and daughters, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, friends, and neighbors – you are all some of those things. And someone in each of your lives has benefited you by loving Jesus first. Do the same. And never, for anyone, trade in your Savior who has first loved you. Amen.