Mark 2:17, commentary and pictures

Jesus spoke these words to answer the Pharisees and scribes who accused Him of receiving and eating with publicans and sinners at Matthew's feast in order to discredit Him and His work. As the sick need a physician, His work is among those diseased with sin, while the righteous He speaks of are not truly righteous but the self-righteous who feel whole in themselves and feel no need of help. He came to the world not to call such self-sufficient ones but to seek and save the lost, welcoming sinners that they might repent and be forgiven, restored and uplifted to God. None feel need of His atoning blood until convicted of sin by the law and by the Holy Spirit, and all whom He pardons He first makes penitent to admit sin, confess, make restitution, and receive Him with living faith that obeys. He is the great Physician and Restorer who alone can cleanse the leprosy of sin and heal body, mind and soul, so those who have received Him must not condemn and shun the erring but pity, seek and restore them with His pardoning love.

Setting and Occasion

When Jesus heard it, He answered the scribes and Pharisees who accused Him of receiving and eating with publicans and sinners and tried to bring Him into disrepute and condemn His cause. His answer declared His motive in coming to the world, that He came to call sinners to repentance and not those who counted themselves righteous, and it defended His fellowship with such people as the work of a merciful, compassionate shepherd who seeks what was lost instead of turning away and leaving sinners hopeless. He spoke the words with divine authority, turning toward the accused sinners, encircling the erring and lost with His humanity while holding the throne of God with His divinity, so that the glory of mercy remains approachable and shining as long as any soul will look and live. His course in eating with them explained why He accepted invitations to feasts and gatherings, for reaching them with heaven's message required meeting them where they were.

The occasion was the feast that Matthew-Levi made at his own house after leaving his toll-booth to follow Jesus. Matthew wanted his friends and relatives, among them many publicans, to have opportunity to meet Jesus, being certain they would be charmed by His pure and simple doctrine taught without ostentation or display. Jesus was invited as the honored guest for whom the feast was prepared, and He with His disciples accepted and graced the banquet with His presence. There, by sympathy and social kindliness He recognized the dignity of their humanity, which made them long to become worthy of His confidence, and His words fell on their thirsty souls with blessed, life-giving power, awakening new impulses and opening to these outcasts of society the possibility of a new life. Every word He spoke on such occasions was a lesson for teaching them.

Matthew belonged to the publicans, who were hated as instruments of Roman oppression and as extortioners enriching themselves at the people's expense. A Jew who took the office was despised as an apostate betraying his nation and was classed with the vilest of society, and the Pharisees judged Matthew by his employment. Yet Jesus saw in him a heart open for the reception of truth, one who had listened to His teaching and, as the convicting Spirit of God revealed his sinfulness, longed for help from Christ. Accustomed to the exclusiveness of the rabbis, Matthew had no thought that this great Teacher would notice him, and sitting at his toll-booth he was astonished to be addressed with Follow Me. He left all, rose up, and followed without hesitation or thought of the lucrative business exchanged for poverty and hardship, content to be with Jesus, to listen to His words, and to unite with Him in His work after giving up his wealthy business.

The envious scribes and Pharisees, ever watching and following the movements of Jesus, seized this mingling with publicans as an opportunity to condemn His cause. They were marked by pride, covetousness, exclusiveness, jealousy and prejudice, which retarded the progress and extension of the kingdom of God, claiming to be spiritually whole while treating publicans and Gentiles as sick. Their pride and self-sufficiency left them in worse condition and less open to truth than those they despised, so that Christ found among the most needy more hopeful subjects and greater respect than among jealous, prejudiced scribes and Pharisees who thought their position exalted them to heaven. The stained publicans and sinners who felt their need of repentance and pardon were better fitted to become sincere Christians than the scornful priests and Pharisees.

Jesus ate with sinners and accepted their invitations not to approve sin but to meet humanity where it was and to carry the gospel to those to be saved who would be at their tables. He did this to speak with wisdom words of encouragement that priests and rulers were unwilling to speak, to satisfy the inmost longings of the soul, and to help sore-troubled ones who needed guidance and encouragement. His words always exalted the truth, presented principles that searched the recesses of the heart, reached the diseased imagination, and drew the mind out after eternal realities. He went to these feasts to show those who were excluding themselves from the society of their fellow men how wrong their exclusive course was, and to teach that truth was given to be imparted to those who have it not and must not be kept selfishly. In all His words there He scattered seeds of truth among the most needy, speaking words of life that later sprang up through the apostles' teaching with many converted, setting the pattern for God's ambassadors to study how to reach souls and to be found in every place where souls need a Saviour.

Physician and Righteous

The physician comparison defines the field of His work: not among the spiritually well but among the diseased, for as the sick need a physician so sinners sick with sin need Christ, and He came to call sinners to repentance. Those who recognize their spiritual need can receive His help and find life, spiritual health and soundness of principle, and at Levi's feast He could offer hope to sinners willing to receive His words, while the Pharisees' confidence that they were already spiritually well kept them from receiving the enlightenment they needed though His teaching was for them too. Publicans and other sinners accepted that call while those who claimed to be righteous objected to His welcome of them, and to claim righteousness while opposing the call to sinners exposes unbelief rather than true repentance. His mission is to seek and save those who are perishing, heaven rejoicing when a sinner repents while those who consider themselves righteous feel no need of repentance, and the sin-sick soul comes to Jesus for pardon. The gospel invitation is for all who feel their need, without regard to person, class or condition, and no one can remain neutral toward it, for each hearer either receives and obeys the truth or rejects it.

The righteous He speaks of are not truly righteous but the self-righteous, self-conceited and self-sufficient who feel whole in themselves, count themselves righteous and feel no need of help. When accused of eating and drinking with publicans and sinners He answered with divine authority, turning toward the accused sinners to defend receiving them, to summon sinners to turn from sin and to reveal His love for sinners. His work was directed toward those who could receive His message and be helped and saved through His death, and He clothed divinity with humanity to meet humanity where it was, sitting at table with publicans and sinners and going among the most needy to speak words of life and sow seeds of truth where He found more hopeful subjects than among jealous, prejudiced scribes and Pharisees who thought position exalted them. Like sick people who need a physician, sinners must feel their need of a Saviour and of the cleansing power of His blood, which is received through repentance and faith, for His mission is to bring sinners to turn from sin and receive mercy.

Those who trust in their own righteousness and think themselves whole do not recognize their need of Christ and will not come to Him, just as a self-sufficient person cannot see faults that need cleansing, so searching warnings and truth are lost on them. Christ came to save sinners and call them to repentance; they must recognize sin and need of Him, admit sin, repent, confess it and seek to make restitution to receive forgiveness, while pride and refusal to acknowledge sin keep people from coming for salvation, and He as sin-pardoning Saviour receives them as they are when they depend on His righteousness rather than their own merits. The stained publicans and sinners who felt their need of repentance and pardon were better fitted to become sincere Christians than the scornful priests and Pharisees, whose pride, self-sufficiency and claim to be spiritually whole while treating publicans and Gentiles as sick left them in worse condition and less open to truth than those they despised.

Mission to Sinners

The saying declares the motive and work of coming into the world, to call not those who count themselves righteous but sinners to repentance. It was the answer to the charge of receiving and eating with publicans and sinners, made by men marked by pride, covetousness and exclusiveness that retarded the progress and extension of the kingdom. The mission is directed to those needing repentance, to seek and save the lost and that which was ready to perish, because they need saving help. He is willing to receive each person as they are and make sinners righteous like Himself. Those who work with Him are therefore to help build His kingdom by presenting and lifting up Jesus to people who need a Saviour, directing labor toward those who do not know the truth and are lost rather than repeatedly addressing those who already understand it. He does not leave them in sin, but as the great Physician seeks to save those harmed by sin, so that even people sunk in degradation can be helped and saved, including those enslaved by self-indulgence and liquor, served with practical care while His love is presented.

He welcomed sinners so they could be forgiven, restored and uplifted to God, not to approve their sin or leave them hopeless. His work is that of a merciful, compassionate shepherd who seeks what was lost instead of turning away, encircling the erring and lost with His humanity while holding the throne of God with His divinity, so that the glory of mercy remains approachable and shining as long as any soul will look and live. By taking human nature He lays hold upon man with His long human arm and upon the throne of God with His divine arm, making a great sacrifice to meet man where he is in order to help the seed of Abraham. His followers are therefore to draw sinners toward Him with pardoning love rather than reject, crush, denounce or abandon them in need.

He fully knows how great a sinner a person is, knows exactly what is wrong with each one and how to deal with each with sympathy and pity, with healing for every wound sin has made, and still calls them to turn from sin. He looks into the inmost soul and knows everything, every thought and feeling, with no secret place closed to Him and nothing hidden, so no one ever has reason to turn away thinking He does not understand, and no one needs to hide from the only One able to deliver and restore. He paid the ransom for the soul with His own flesh and blood, and His death was the price of redemption for every son and daughter of Adam, so every human soul is valuable to Him. His mission is to the sick in sin and not only to the faultless, to Jew and Gentile alike, so that sinfulness itself brings a person within reach of His mission and is reason to hope in His mercy and come closer to Him as the only Hope and Helper, not reason to despair or stay away. Guiltlessness is not the ground of hope; simple belief takes Him at His word and hangs the helpless soul on Him for forgiveness, reception and eternal life.

The gracious invitation, Come, for all things are now ready, must therefore go forth into the highways and hedges to gather the halt, the poor and the maimed to the gospel feast, a work done by all who first receive from Him for themselves and then give to others what they received. All who come in humility are thrice welcome, feasted without money and without price, and receive the white garment, being clothed and adorned with His righteousness from God's wardrobe. His mission in going among those who most need forgiving mercy and pitying love fulfills God's demand for mercy and not sacrifice, and reveals God as merciful and just who pardons all transgressions and sins. Sinners are tenderly and compassionately loved, more than any human can love or forgive, invited to come just as they are believing He loves them and gave His life on the cross of shame to save all who will receive Him and to feast in His love, and even speaking unfavorable words or words against another person can be forgiven and is not the unpardonable sin.

Conviction and Repentance

No one truly feels need for atoning blood until convicted of sin, for unless people are first convinced they are sick they will not value the offer, and to offer Christ to one whose heart is whole and never broken is absurd. Conviction comes by the law, which convinces of sin and awakens sinners to their condition, and preaching the gospel alone does not do this first work. The office of the Holy Spirit is first to convince of sin, so that hearts moved by Him sense there is nothing good in themselves and know they cannot save themselves or of themselves do any righteous thing unless worked by Him. All whom Christ pardons He first makes penitent, and only sin-sick souls who feel their need of help or else they will perish will appreciate the help Christ alone can bestow.

Those who admit sin, repent, confess it and seek to make restitution can receive forgiveness, while pride, self-exaltation and refusal to acknowledge sin close the heart, leave no room for Jesus and His infinite blessings, and keep people from coming to Him for salvation. A person must recognize the sickness of the soul before feeling need for the physician, and awareness of this need leads the sinner to turn to God and receive healing grace. Confessing weakness and inefficiency and feeling degradation and need turn people to Christ's strength and sufficiency, while failing to recognize that need leaves them without the humility and faith needed to do right at any cost. Those who come with humble, contrite hearts receive pardon and blessing, for repentance and confession are necessary, while refusing them leaves a person in danger and grieves by a character weakened through failing to make earnest efforts to do right.

The honest and good heart is not a sinless heart but one that yields to conviction, confesses guilt, recognizes need of mercy and love, and sincerely seeks truth in order to obey it. Pride, self-conceit and outward religious acts cannot bring true change of heart, but measuring life by God's law reveals deficiency and need of Christ. Seeing the infinite sacrifice of Jesus reveals how deeply sin has degraded humanity and that Christ lifts sinners from that condition. Saving faith is more than intellectual agreement that He came to save sinners, for it includes feeling personal need of Him and giving the heart's full consent to receive Him by faith. Guiltlessness is not the ground of hope but sinfulness itself brings a person within reach of His mission, so the call is to simple belief that Jesus means what He says, taking Him at His word and hanging the helpless soul on Him for forgiveness, reception and eternal life, coming now and trusting He will receive, with cooperation with God in action and obedience, for works do not save but are the fruit of living faith.

Through Christ repentant sinners may come to God in prayer without ceasing to pray because of sinfulness, for sinners are precisely those called to repentance. Christ's righteousness accompanies their prayers and His spotless character is imputed to those who confess their sins, and He will hear a sinner's prayers and receive all who come to Him. One who feels too sinful for God to hear must not stay away or wait but must come now and believe He will receive them. Being deeply sinful, guilty, defective, poor or erring is no reason to stay away, despair, hide or consider oneself beyond His call, but reason to hope and come closer to Him as the only Hope and Helper. He fully knows how great a sinner a person is, knows exactly what is wrong with each one and how to deal with each with sympathy and pity, with healing for every wound sin has made, having paid the ransom with His own flesh and blood, and He is willing to receive each person as they are and make sinners righteous like Himself. Sinners are to come just as they are with nothing hidden and bring trials and perplexities to Him rather than distrust Him, because He looks into the inmost soul and knows everything with no secret closed to Him, so no one needs to hide from the only One able to deliver and restore.

When Satan tells a person you are a sinner the charge is true, but this word answers it with hope in Christ the Saviour. It is one of God's sweet utterances to be searched out and hung in memory's hall when discouraged and despairing, so that darkness and discouragement give way to light and rejoicing in Christ. A sinner may receive Him as the one who forgives sin and need not doubt acceptance because of changing feelings. Those satisfied with their own religion and clothed in self-righteousness ward off appeals meant to awaken them, so searching warnings and truth are lost on them. People of talent, position and learning who are lifted above simplicity, well satisfied with themselves and priding themselves on learning or position feel no need of truth and are self-righteous and self-sufficient, and those fixed against truth cannot be convinced even by great works or a heavenly messenger, as with those who rejected the Sabbath commandment. Success in reaching souls lies rather in working for common minds and those who will admit need, following the example of associating with publicans, sinners and common people not to adopt low habits but to teach right principles and lift them up, while one like Mary is described as whole because the heart is untouched and has no sense of need for a Saviour.

Great Physician Healing

Jesus is the great Physician, Restorer, Medical Missionary and Healer of souls sick with sin, whose healing power reaches maladies of both body and soul. He knows exactly what is wrong with each person and how to deal with each one, with sympathy and pity and healing for every wound sin has made, looking into the inmost soul with nothing hidden, no secret thought or feeling closed to Him. Sinners are therefore to come to Him just as they are, with nothing hidden, in the confidence that He understands and is able to deliver and restore, so that no one ever has reason to turn away. His wisdom and power are the source of all true medical ability, enabling work beyond what scientific knowledge alone can provide.

As Sin-bearer He made propitiation for sin, so that no one is required to be sinless before coming and salvation is not earned by being sinless. He alone can successfully combat disease, including disease brought on by imprudent and sinful choices, and support those who come to Him, removing sin and disease from body, mind and soul. Through His grace and love He cleanses the leprosy of sin and brings spiritual health to the soul, giving His life to save every sinner rather than leaving sinners to be dealt with only as wrongdoers to be restrained by courts and punishment. By His pardoning, sanctifying power He heals the soul from sin and thus removes the first great cause of all suffering, preparing suffering people in seasons of sickness and trial to receive both relief from physical pain and spiritual light.

The sick are to commit their cases to Him in humble trust with hope and courage, for He does not make a mistake and He cooperates with earnest efforts to regain health to bring healing of soul as well as healing of body. Prayer to Him gives abiding confidence that many times does more for the sick than all drugs that can be given. When human physicians cannot help, even when raging disease cuts down every class including the most skillful physicians, taking the sick one to Jesus in faith, praying to the Lord to heal, and rebuking the disease in His name brings immediate relief and stops its progress, and the helpless are to entrust themselves to Him and look to Him for healing.

He stands by the side of the sick and suffering to heal and restore as Redeemer and Restorer set against Satan the destroyer. When the case is most discouraging He lifts His own standard against the enemy, covering the sufferer with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness as a shield of holy light that Satan cannot pass. He pities the afflicted and brings healing to the wounded spirit, and delivers by faith, as when James was rescued from Satan's attack and the Great Physician applied healing balm and set him free. His saving grace, exalted and spotless character, and blameless life show His power to save afflicted, suffering people.

Ministry and medical work were bound together in His work and are to be solidly united by God's plan, with health reform as the helping hand of the ministry as verily as the arm is connected with the body, each giving completeness to the other. He led the way in instructing the people on health, and those who stand aloof from instructing the people on health reform are not working in the lines where He led the way. Sanitariums and health institutions are to be homes where His healing for sin-sick souls is offered, revealing His gracious purpose and honoring Him as Chief Physician, offering bodily treatment together with opportunity to find healing for the soul. They carry glad tidings of healing through Christ to suffering humanity, teaching that sin is transgression of the law and that this transgression brings disease and suffering, using skilled medical care together with divine power to teach healthful living, oppose harmful habits, and lead to truth, conversion and spiritual renewal beyond bodily illness alone.

Christian physicians and workers learn from Him and maintain a living connection with Him, for only if Christ is his teacher and he knows the truth by experience can a physician point sick and dying people to the Saviour. They are to present Him to the sin-sick soul and direct suffering patients to Jesus as the one who can heal the soul, with care and relief opening opportunity to speak of Jesus and offer religious comfort and counsel, and with sanitarium work opening ways to reach all classes. They pray beside the patient and bow in prayer with the suffering ones, leading patients to Him for pardon and spiritual light, and fearing God and knowing how to pray gives greater security to the patient whether Christian or not, even to the point of willingly increasing suffering for a time in order to save life. The head physician is to seek God humbly for wisdom to deal with each case, keeping free from minor responsibilities and having sufficient reliable help because the work is trying and he needs time for rest, and seeking God in this way greatly increases strength and influence.

The physician image also applies to diseased spiritual conditions, for those wounded and pressed by hardship need help just as the sick need a physician, and trials reveal need of God to draw to Him, meant not to destroy but to refine and sanctify. Sick churches have a work to do before they can have a healthy Christianity. Workers who are sick and do not know it, sick with unbelief and unchristlike attributes and shallowness that leaves preaching without power, without demonstration of the Spirit, without assurance of faith and without souls won, must see their need of a physician, with the cure in the working of the Spirit to chase away unbelief, thorough conversion of the heart, looking away from self to an abiding Christ, and revival of the Holy Spirit, so that a converted ministry will bring results. Medical missionary work become diseased through self-involvement needs the care of the great Physician and must be brought into line with heaven's design, through self-denial and genuine humility in following where Christ leads. Christ is the greatest physician of body as well as soul, come to give health to diseased Christians with precious and full healing, with heaven's remedies sufficient and prescribed in the Word of God, received by opening the windows of the soul heavenward rather than earthward, so that when evil speaking is purified away there is growth in grace with truth intelligently believed and personally appropriated and its effect revealed in life before family, church and world.

Call to Seek Lost

Seeing another’s wrongs is no reason to hold back at a distance, leave the erring alone, reject, crush, condemn, or join in destroying them, but calls for pity, help and strengthening with pardoning love that bears with faults without excusing sin, since the call is to sinners for repentance as the sick need a physician. Those forgiven much are to show tenderness, sympathy and care to the straying and wounded rather than condemning them, and faith working through love cooperates with God in saving souls instead of spending effort only on those who need no help. The work is directed to those who can receive the message and be helped and saved, approaching them with kindness for restoration rather than condemnation.

Special care belongs to those most in need and not to those needing less: backsliders who have gone onto Satan’s ground and are ready to die are to be watched over and strengthened, and those fallen under temptation, neglected and wounded, gone astray under the enemy’s influence, are to be recovered with kind, patient labor back to truth. Even those sunk in degradation and harmed by sin can be helped and saved by the great Physician who seeks to save, including those enslaved by self-indulgence and liquor, who are to be sought with practical care while His love is presented. Those with defects of character and those despised by society, the poor and needy, unbelieving relatives and neighbors, youth and apprentices, and people in darkness and error are to be helped and led to Him to be purified and transformed by grace. Labor among the thankless and unappreciative is to continue patiently, for lack of response, personal slights and hardship do not excuse turning away from those needing instruction, trusting good seed may yet bear fruit.

Gospel labor is to be centered where burdened sinners are convicted and to carry light to those who do not know it, including those beyond present instruction and those still in darkness and error, rather than repeatedly instructing those with extensive light or devoting effort chiefly to those who already know the truth. Ministers are not to hover over the churches or be drawn away to labor mainly for members, but to proclaim truth to those who never heard it and go to barren places, while those who have received light share it and churches rooted in themselves bring souls to truth. The message is for the world, for perishing souls ready to die even in wicked places and the wilderness of sin.

The work is urgent with no time to lose and no one excused, done not as consumers only but as producers, not losing spirituality in doing nothing but laboring to save souls from ruin and draw them to Christ, with all heaven at work and the Holy Spirit giving efficiency. All who first receive from Christ are to work with Him and not remain idle or indifferent toward the perishing around them, presenting and lifting up Jesus to those needing a Saviour and building His kingdom. Every believer is to look for opportunities to share saving truth with unbelieving neighbors and friends, giving the warning and leading from sin to righteousness rather than hiding what is known. The method is to give the trumpet call to large assemblies and to go from house to house opening the Scriptures, visiting people, caring for needs, presenting Christ as a sin-pardoning Saviour, teaching health, and laboring publicly and privately to lead to repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, with angels giving ears to hear and hearts to understand, and believers themselves receiving a valuable education as they teach.

Workers are to reveal that love for sinners much more plainly than has been done, showing compassion and helping distressed, remorseful and discouraged people find pardon and peace rather than turning them away through self-righteousness or hardness of heart. They must not repulse or be indifferent to a single erring soul, nor imitate merciless accusation that destroys, but humble their own souls before God with subdued will, approach the erring with kindness seeking restoration, not throw aside those who made mistakes as hopeless, pull them from the fire, make sinners witnesses for Christ, and place the restored where they can work for others and show the tenderness and grace that converted them. They are to learn daily from the Word how to speak only words that recommend Christ, without impatient faultfinding.

Ministers as spiritual physicians are responsible for souls as physicians for the sick: they must learn spiritual troubles, warn, grieve over danger and plead so souls do not die in sins, relying on the great Physician for aid. Practical help for the afflicted in sudden misfortune and disease, given with sympathetic words and friendship to saint and untouched sinner alike, is the first step leading them to come to Him and prepares the way for truth to impress the heart.

Those seeking deliverance must be guided by His word and submit to His control, for without submission disobedience continues, and receiving rescue calls for remaining under the shepherd’s care like the found sheep and accepting a son’s responsibilities like the returned prodigal.