THE GREAT PHYSICIAN
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-13)
This brief parable should turn the church upside down! It did originally. But then the church became either, a part of the establishment (eg. Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican), or indirectly associated with the establishment (eg. most Protestant churches today - from 'protesting' to 'conformity').
Most of the people Jesus mixed with, those whom He came to bring into His kingdom, had been rejected by the religious establishment of the time as being beyond salvation. But Jesus came to save the hurting and the lost. Not the righteous, but the sinners, as the parable states. This was anathema to the religious people of the day.
2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2)
We all know this and accept it in theory. We may run programmes to help the poor, or go out on mission trips, but I would suggest that most of our time and money (the best barometer) is spent on ourselves, maintaining ministers, buildings and programmes that predominantly fit in with the middle class establishment of our society. The emphasis is on meeting our own needs, to become comfortable within the environment in which we live.
The early New Testament church was definitely not part of the establishment. It was persecuted. It went underground in many cases, simply to ensure its survival.
The Church Persecuted and Scattered
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. (Acts 8:1-3)
Persecution is promised still, to those who wish to enter the kingdom. For our lifestyle is to be radically different to that of the world.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)
The disciples of Jesus were a classic example of completely unsuitable people chosen to be 'ministers'. Uneducated, rejected by the religious establishment, who only chose the best and brightest to become disciples of the Rabbis. Yet, in spite of their ups and downs when Jesus was teaching them, after His death, resurrection and ascension, they changed the course of history right through to the present day. A rabble of uneducated men became world changers! For Jesus knew their hearts!
What do we look for today in our ministers? The best and brightest, with quality theological degrees .......... Is this the example Jesus provided to us?
You will, of course, quote Paul, as a rabbinical style example. Yes he was trained. But the first thing that happened to him was to be broken of his training. Let us read what Easton's Bible Dictionary had to say about it.
As he and his companions rode on, suddenly at mid-day a brilliant light shone round them, and Saul was laid prostrate in terror on the ground, a voice sounding in his ears, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” The risen Saviour was there, clothed in the vesture of his glorified humanity. In answer to the anxious inquiry of the stricken persecutor, “Who art thou, Lord?” he said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5; 22:8; 26:15).
This was the moment of his conversion, the most solemn in all his life. Blinded by the dazzling light (Acts 9:8), his companions led him into the city, where, absorbed in deep thought for three days, he neither ate nor drank (9:11). Ananias, a disciple living in Damascus, was informed by a vision of the change that had happened to Saul, and was sent to him to open his eyes and admit him by baptism into the Christian church (9:11–16). The whole purpose of his life was now permanently changed.
Immediately after his conversion he retired into the solitudes of Arabia (Gal. 1:17), perhaps of “Sinai in Arabia,” for the purpose, probably, of devout study and meditation on the marvellous revelation that had been made to him. “A veil of thick darkness hangs over this visit to Arabia. Of the scenes among which he moved, of the thoughts and occupations which engaged him while there, of all the circumstances of a crisis which must have shaped the whole tenor of his after-life, absolutely nothing is known. ‘Immediately,’ says St. Paul, ‘I went away into Arabia.’ The historian passes over the incident [comp. Acts 9:23 and 1 Kings 11:38, 39]. It is a mysterious pause, a moment of suspense, in the apostle’s history, a breathless calm, which ushers in the tumultuous storm of his active missionary life.” Coming back, after three years, to Damascus, he began to preach the gospel “boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27), but was soon obliged to flee (9:25; 2 Cor. 11:33) from the Jews and betake himself to Jerusalem. Here he tarried for three weeks, but was again forced to flee (Acts 9:28, 29) from persecution. He now returned to his native Tarsus (Gal. 1:21), where, for probably about three years, we lose sight of him. The time had not yet come for his entering on his great life-work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
To become effective once more, the church needs to follow the example of Scripture and Jesus and become a grassroots organism. Ministering to the 'sinners', showing 'mercy' to those in need. Becoming outward rather than inwards focused.
Talk is easy. But are we ready to change? Are we prepared to meet the challenge?
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