Mark 2:1-17

“When Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’” (Mark 2:17, NKJV)

We have all experienced an illness or infirmity where we have had to visit the doctor. It is comforting to know that you are under the care of someone who can accurately diagnose the problem and who knows how to treat it. But I know people who will not go to a physician. They get sicker, thinking that they will get better, but they only get worse. What are they afraid of? Sometimes they wait so long that they must be taken to the hospital. But how much better would it be to see a physician at the first signs of illness?

I love the fact that Jesus is our Great Physician. He is a doctor of souls. He knows what ails us. We have all been infected with the disease of sin. But Jesus also knows the cure. Repentance is a gift. It is the grace to turn away from what harms us and separates us from God and others. It is the opportunity for a new beginning.

The religious elite found fault with Jesus for associating and eating with sinners. They never would have done that! But they did not share the Lord’s burden for lost souls. They did not see them as sick people who needed to be loved and nursed to health, but as criminals and troublemakers to condemn and shun.

What about us? Do we share the Lord’s burden for sinners? Do we see them through His eyes? Do we pray about ways we can reach them and then do something? Or are we content to leave them where they are—without hope and without God in the world? Only the love of our Physician can change our hearts so that we can help others.