Thursday, January 12
Soul docs
Scripture: Matthew 9
Matthew 9:11–13 When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”12 When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Observation
Jesus called Matthew to follow. Matthew was a tax collector, considered a notorious sinner and traitor. Matthew hosted a dinner party for Jesus attended by many other tax collectors. Typically, rabbis and other pious types didn’t hang out with sinners like Matthew. Jesus was never typical. When the Pharisees asked about this, Jesus replied that doctors visit the sick, not the healthy. Jesus acknowledged that Matthew was “sick”, i.e. sinful. But since Jesus was a healer of both body and soul, Matthew’s sinfulness wasn’t reason to avoid him but the reason to hang out with him.
Application
As followers of Jesus, we are called to be “doctors”—soul docs who help others find and follow Jesus. Like Jesus, we should be drawn to the “sick”, to those who need soul healing. Rather than avoiding them, we should actively move toward them to bring healing.
Sometimes—especially when someone has done something egregious—we may be tempted to withdraw from them. Shun them. Abandon them. But that’s not what doctors do. The worse the sickness, the more aggressive the care. The worse the sin, the more we move toward them with healing.
I’m called to be a soul doc and move toward those who need healing.
Prayer: Lord, I love you and I thank you for moving toward me when I was in rebellion. Help me to be like you and move toward sinners who need a soul doc.