But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
Jesus answered the complaint that he ate with publicans and sinners by explaining his work among them as a physician among the sick. The well who need no physician are the self-righteous, like the Pharisees and learned rulers who felt whole in their learning and position, while the sick are the poor publicans, sinners and common people who felt their need of help. As a physician goes to the sick, he went to sinners because their need for forgiveness and spiritual healing, not social respectability, determined where he worked, coming to call sinners to repentance and to seek and save the perishing. Those who know they are spiritually sick seek him and receive cleansing and life, while those who count themselves whole feel no need, will not come to him, and by pride and self-sufficiency blind themselves to faults and shut themselves away from salvation. He is the great Physician and mighty Healer of soul as well as body, and his followers must likewise draw near to those in spiritual need in homes and social gatherings to teach, warn, strengthen and save them rather than withdraw from them.
Words and Setting
The saying was spoken when Jesus heard the Pharisees asking his disciples why he ate with publicans and sinners, and he himself answered them to explain and defend his work among sinners. He was sitting at meat in the house with many publicans and sinners and his disciples when the question was raised against him. His answer declares that those who are spiritually whole do not need a physician but those who are sick do, for he came in mercy to call sinners to repentance and not the righteous. By gracing the banquet with his presence and mingling with despised outcasts he rejected Jewish prejudice that treated any association with publicans as degrading, teaching I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Those who feel their need accept the instruction and aid he is able to give so he may draw them to himself, while those who count themselves whole feel no need, cannot appreciate his work and mission, place themselves where they cannot accept the salvation he came to bring, and will not come to him that they might have life.
The setting was the feast Matthew made in his own house for Jesus, inviting his friends, relatives, fellow publicans and other guests to meet him. There Jesus sat at meat with many publicans and sinners together with his disciples, dining with them and not excluding himself from their company. Whether fasting or eating with them, he was giving himself for the redemption of the lost. As honored guest at the table of the publicans he showed by sympathy and social kindliness that he recognized the dignity of humanity, so that his presence made men long to become worthy of his confidence and his words fell upon their thirsty souls with blessed, life-giving power, awakening new impulses and opening to these outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
His sitting and eating with sinners was deliberate ministry to those who needed mercy and repentance, not accident or sharing their ways. He met people where they were — at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in the synagogues and the temple, and on the crowded thoroughfares — because there he found multitudes willing to admit they were sinners and sick in need of healing, hearts where he could sow seeds of truth. He joined them at a meal because mingling gave him a way to reach them, using his words and influence to let truth shine, teach lessons, turn thoughts to eternal matters, encourage and guide them, meet the deep needs of their souls, and lead them to himself. He did not partake of their luxuries, amusement and feasting or become low and earthly with them, but lived a life of self-denial, patience, kindness and forbearance, diffusing precious gems of truth and scattering them at their table so his words would remain in their hearts and, though they might not yield at once, they would finally yield because he is always drawing them. His high, noble and pure example stood in marked contrast to the Pharisees, priests and rulers who disregarded the work commissioned to them, and the seeds he scattered in almost every place sprang up after his resurrection and ascension under the teaching of the apostles, when five thousand believers were converted in one day.
The Pharisees watched with bitter contempt and envy, their hearts not open to conviction but filled with intense hatred, bitter prejudice and wrath, watching his every word and action in a distorted light. They hired false witness and sought some pretext to condemn him as a criminal and deceiver, the same accusation of scandal, reproach and falsehood brought against God's commandment-keeping people. Their confidence in their own piety kept them from recognizing their need, and their readiness to condemn others exposed their pride, fault-finding, hypocrisy and formalism, while receiving his answer rightly would have helped them understand spiritually and see that his work among sinners was beneficial. John's disciples, sorrowful and fasting often because John was in prison and not fully accepting Jesus as the world's Redeemer, saw his disciples molded differently from themselves and from the scribes and Pharisees, misinterpreted his purposeful object for good in sitting and eating with publicans and sinners, united with the Pharisees in condemning his practice, and thought he needed to reform to act in every particular as John did.
The whole who need no physician are the self-righteous, like the Pharisees, scribes, rulers and learned lawyers, who felt whole, prided themselves on learning and position, and were fixed in traditions and superstitions. Because they were unwilling to be taught, Jesus passed them by and chose poor fishermen willing to be taught, with no promise of large salary or worldly honor except partaking with him in his sufferings. The sick who need a physician are the poor publicans, sinners and common people, who felt their need of help and accepted the instruction and aid they knew he was able to give. With them Jesus ate and mingled, not to become low and earthly with them, but by precept and example to present right principles and lift them up from low habits and manners, and his course is an example to be followed in his steps.
Christ's Mission to Sinners
Like a physician who goes to the sick, Jesus went among sinners who needed forgiveness and mercy. Their need for spiritual healing, not social respectability, determined where He worked, so He shared company with publicans and sinners because they most needed His healing help and were ready to seek repentance and pardon. His willingness to associate with them and offer His teaching showed He came to bring repentance and salvation to those most in need of mercy, not to avoid them to satisfy religious prejudice. He spoke to them words of life so they could accept Him as Redeemer, met people where they were to sow seeds of truth in receptive hearts, and His godly character in doing so stood in contrast to religious leaders who neglected their work. The publicans were more open to truth because they were less bigoted and self-sufficient than the Pharisees, whose pride and self-sufficiency left them in worse condition than the people they despised.
He came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous, and therefore welcomed publicans and sinners instead of avoiding them. Just as the spiritually sick need Jesus as physically sick people need a physician, He came to save sinners and bring them hope, freedom, courage, and eternal life to all who recognize their need and come through faith. He came to seek and save the perishing, to save sinners rather than destroy them. His eating with them was an explanation of His mission: He showed mercy by reaching those who needed spiritual healing.
His fellowship with publicans and sinners was an act of mercy, not approval of sin, and He did not share their ways or become low and earthly with them. He sat with them, treated them with sympathy and kindness, recognized their human dignity, and His words awakened new impulses in them and opened the possibility of a new life. He ate with them so He could encourage them, guide them, teach right principles, meet the deep needs of their souls, and lead them to Himself and to truth. He deliberately met people at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in synagogues and the temple, and on crowded thoroughfares to let truth shine forth where multitudes were willing to admit they were sinners sick in need of healing. His high and noble and pure example stood in marked contrast to Pharisees, priests, and rulers who disregarded the work commissioned to them, and the seeds He scattered in almost every place sprang up after His resurrection and ascension under the apostles' teaching, when five thousand believers were converted in one day.
The saying teaches I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus Himself answered the bitter, contemptuous charge of scribes and Pharisees against eating with publicans and sinners at the feast Matthew made in his own house for his friends, relatives, and fellow publicans to meet Him, defending gracing the banquet with His presence and mingling with despised outcasts. His deliberate ministry to those who needed mercy and repentance opposed Jewish prejudice and tradition that treated any association with publicans as degrading, as well as self-righteous reserve and narrow ideas of salvation. He was ready to relieve all who came to Him in faith but did not force His way on those who showed no need or asked for no help. Through loving-kindness He calls outcasts, publicans, and sinners to come to Him, but He does not approve of people who trust in their own goodness and look down on others. Whether fasting or eating with publicans at Matthew's feast, He was giving Himself for the redemption of the lost, showing that true devotion is not formal observance or bodily humiliation but self-surrender in willing service to God and others.
Recognizing Need for Christ
Those who know themselves to be spiritually sick feel their need of help and come to Christ to be taught, aided, cleansed and given life, while those who count themselves whole feel no need of a physician, will not come to Him for life, place themselves where they cannot accept the salvation He came to bring, and cannot appreciate His work and mission. The whole are the self-righteous who feel no need of help, and the sick are the poor publicans, sinners and common sufferers who accept the instruction and aid He is able to give. Those who recognize their sickness need Him, and those who feel whole must be broken of self-reliance, submit to Him and learn their need so He can change them into His likeness and fit them for drawing near to others who need help.
Self-sufficiency and pride blind a person to his own faults, make him think his ways are perfect, ward off conviction, and leave him without repentance, cleansing, improvement or reliance on Christ, so that awareness of need is necessary for growth. Those satisfied with a mere appearance of religion and trusting in their own righteousness miss His warnings, and the proud and self-righteous are not whole in God's sight but need their blindness removed to see their condition and receive correction. Praise and flattery can deepen this blindness in one who does not recognize spiritual need and believes there is no need of Christ.
The ruin of the leaders of Israel came because they did not think they needed a Saviour, did not come to Christ, refused to admit cherished sins needing repentance and forsaking, and would not humble their hearts to accept Him, exposing hypocrisy, pride and formalism. Their pride and self-sufficiency left them in worse condition than the people they despised, while the publicans were more open to truth because they were less bigoted and self-sufficient. Their self-righteousness kept them from recognizing their own need and led them to condemn Him for associating with the very sinners who accepted Him as Redeemer when He spoke words of life to bring them to truth and repentance.
Measuring life by God's law convicts of sin and awakens need for Christ's atoning blood and sacrifice, and without that conviction people will not see why they need Him nor value His offer. Pride, self-righteousness and other sins are thus shown to leave a person deficient and in need of healing, while His sacrifice shows the depth of that condition and provides the means to lift the sinner from it.
Sinners must come meek and lowly, without self-righteousness or self-sufficiency, confessing weakness and inefficiency, repenting, believing His blood can cleanse and make whole, and depending on His righteousness rather than their own merits or good works. They must be humbled and broken in surrender, yielding will and actions to His care instead of prescribing their own case, trusting Him to impart power, and looking to His strength and all-sufficiency with determined efforts to do right in humility and faith. Such repentance brings joy to angels, and trust that sinfulness will cause Him to refuse pity or refuse to hear prayer misjudges Him who came to call sinners to repentance and give healing and strength.
The sick are sinful, finite souls inclined to err and easily tempted, and they are the special objects of His work as Physician, Solicitor, Defender, Restorer and compassionate Intercessor, mediating to bring them to repentance against Satan's resistance, accusation and destructive work. The religious world is sick through coldness of love yet does not recognize its need, though its members can be made pure and unselfish and bear the marks of God's work. Those made sick by artificial civilization likewise need Christ, whose love alone enables each person to appreciate and use entrusted talents aright instead of abusing them, so that the atonement and redemption must stand central in teaching.
He greets with hopeful assurance the very men and women who cause discouragement, seeing in them qualifications to learn and to take a place in His vineyard. His heart is cheered by those who are poor in every sense, by the ill-used who are meek, by the unsatisfied hungering after righteousness, and even by the inability of many to begin. If they will constantly be learners, He will by providence fit them to do a work not beyond their capabilities, and by impartation of His Holy Spirit give them power, so that privileges appear in hardships, order in confusion, and the success and wisdom of God in what seemed failure.
Christ the Great Physician
Jesus is the great Physician, Chief Physician, mighty Healer and great Medical Missionary for soul as well as body. The sick in the saying are the sin-sick in soul who need Christ as the true healing fountain, and the helpless who cast themselves on Him are restored by the chief of all physicians. Those who recognize their need may look to Him for healing of both body and soul, and physicians are to lean their whole weight upon Him for experience and direction rather than binding themselves to a human leader and leaning upon man.
The picture holds for bodily healing sought by prayer, faith and trust in Him apart from harmful stimulus, bringing health, strength and grace for labor and preserving from prostration. Sister Harris prayed, stopped using snuff, and her symptoms were greatly relieved and her health improved. Mrs. S. M. I. Henry was healed by the Great Physician and given access to people so she could share her experience of His loving-kindness. The sick may have their case presented to Him in prayer, and He answers with His Spirit, blessing, light and love while angels are present, awakening gratitude and devotion in the heart. Ministers and other workers who have neglected their bodies or whose health has been strained by arduous labor need His power and skill for restoration, and should stay near to Him as the mighty Healer to be brought into their lives especially under affliction.
Caring for the sick in fellowship with Him is sacred work, with capabilities developed under God as physician of soul as well as body. Those preparing as physicians must labor earnestly to fit themselves for it, making it their first business to become personally acquainted with Christ so that in the sickroom they recognize His presence and receive His counsel, and only one who knows the Saviour by personal experience can present Him to the sick and dying. That work is to help sufferers recognize causes of illness, teach obedience to health laws, relieve physical illness, pray with patients, direct them to Christ without presenting subjects that disturb the mind, and open the way by care for physical suffering to offer comfort, Christian counsel, cleansing from sin, and the promises of God. Mingling too much commercial enterprise with medical missionary work, launching out into various enterprises and carrying many responsibilities never appointed, and putting too great effort and too much money into feeding a large class in slum work as in Chicago, turns away from that calling.
Sanitariums and hospitals embody the principle by receiving people of every class and providing care for the poor and suffering in body and soul. Tender, sympathetic care for physical suffering while ministering to spiritual need can open hearts to the truth. Wherever there is a sanitarium there should be a church where patients and helpers worship and hear the word of life, and churches themselves need healing through health reform and medical missionary work joined to the ministry, with health reform helping and completing its work before they can have healthy Christianity. The church is a hospital for the spiritually sick, whose members need the remedy for selfishness and the refining work that removes its corrupting influence. Even the religious-liberty cause when sick needs healing through Christ's grace and gentleness, and those advocating it need the Spirit of Jesus.
Ministers and people strained by their work may look to Him as their great Physician, who gave His life to take them into His care and impart His Holy Spirit. They should also care for one another, while recognizing that human help does not replace the One who gives health.
Following Christ's Example
Those who are spiritually needy are like sick people who need a physician, and they must not be abandoned to ignorance, suffering and temptation but be given help and the message of salvation through practical acts of mercy. Following Christ means identifying sympathy with suffering humanity, reaching the sinful, helpless and needy where they are and making their necessities one's own, drawing near to people who need help rather than withdrawing from them. It means drawing near with tender compassion and unselfish interest, teaching from Scripture, reminding the hesitant of God's promises, arousing the careless and strengthening the weak. It means meeting people of every class in homes and in innocent social gatherings so they can be reached with the gospel, and not placing oneself so far from the world in sympathy and views that souls cannot be reached, nor closing the door of access by judging consciences and binding exacting burdens God does not bind.
Their ignorance, suffering and need call for active Christian care, not neglect, as seen in the call to care for the colored people of the South. The whole are those who already know the truth, and the sick are the ignorant in regions beyond who are ready to die for lack of the gospel, so the spiritual physician must devote energy and skill to the sick rather than to the whole. Spending time, energy and means on those who know the truth instead of using them to convert souls and enlighten the ignorant loses golden opportunities, dishonors the Lord of the vineyard, displeases God, hinders the rapid advancement of His cause, and cannot receive His Well done.
The whole who need no physician were the learned lawyers, rulers, scribes and Pharisees, who felt whole, prided themselves on learning and position, and were fixed in traditions and superstitions and unwilling to be taught. Because of that unwillingness Jesus passed them by and chose poor fishermen who were willing to be taught, with no promise of large salary or worldly honor except partaking with Him in His sufferings. The sick who need a physician were publicans, sinners and the common people, with whom Jesus ate and mingled, not to become low and earthly with them but by precept and example to present right principles and lift them up from low habits and manners. His course in seeking the sick in this way sets an example all must follow in His steps, and the same feeling of wholeness still keeps many in this age from Him.
Gospel ministers are spiritual physicians who must care for sinners and backsliders by warning them, pleading with them and seeking their salvation, since neglecting this work can leave people to die in their sins and brings grave accountability. Those who are spiritually sick and inclined to err and easily tempted are the special objects of Christ's work as Physician, Solicitor, Defender, Restorer and compassionate Intercessor, who is mediating to bring them to repentance against Satan's resistance and accusation. Therefore teachers dealing with human minds must care especially for the erring and tempted and cooperate with Christ's pleading, and must not repulse or reject or drive away a single such soul. They must not imitate the Pharisees' mercilessness or Satan's accusing and destructive work, but show tender, forgiving care that encourages, guides and meets the deep needs of souls.
God leaves the bruised and wounded, the lame of the flock, the afflicted who need sympathy and kindly acts, and the erring among His professed people to test character. It is forbidden to pass them by to give special favors and attentions to those who are more pleasing and have no need, and exact and impartial justice with compassion, pity and love for the suffering and erring is required. To withhold help from them is to withhold it from Christ. People pressed nearly beyond endurance need God's help, and their trials reveal their need of Him.
Christ ate with publicans and sinners in a life of self-denial, patience, kindness and forbearance, not to partake of their luxuries, amusement and feasting but with purpose to teach, so that His words were lessons. He diffused the precious gems of truth and scattered them at their table so His words would remain in their hearts and, though they might not yield at once to the Spirit of God, they would be affected and finally yield because He is always drawing them. Those who represent Him must look at that character and do as He did, and speech in company with unconverted people should recommend Christ by speaking words of kindness, courtesy, love, tenderness and compassion to bless all with whom they associate.
Jesus answered the complaint that he ate with publicans and sinners by explaining his work among them as a physician among the sick. The well who need no physician are the self-righteous, like the Pharisees and learned rulers who felt whole in their learning and position, while the sick are the poor publicans, sinners and common people who felt their need of help. As a physician goes to the sick, he went to sinners because their need for forgiveness and spiritual healing, not social respectability, determined where he worked, coming to call sinners to repentance and to seek and save the perishing. Those who know they are spiritually sick seek him and receive cleansing and life, while those who count themselves whole feel no need, will not come to him, and by pride and self-sufficiency blind themselves to faults and shut themselves away from salvation. He is the great Physician and mighty Healer of soul as well as body, and his followers must likewise draw near to those in spiritual need in homes and social gatherings to teach, warn, strengthen and save them rather than withdraw from them.
Words and Setting
The saying was spoken when Jesus heard the Pharisees asking his disciples why he ate with publicans and sinners, and he himself answered them to explain and defend his work among sinners. He was sitting at meat in the house with many publicans and sinners and his disciples when the question was raised against him. His answer declares that those who are spiritually whole do not need a physician but those who are sick do, for he came in mercy to call sinners to repentance and not the righteous. By gracing the banquet with his presence and mingling with despised outcasts he rejected Jewish prejudice that treated any association with publicans as degrading, teaching I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Those who feel their need accept the instruction and aid he is able to give so he may draw them to himself, while those who count themselves whole feel no need, cannot appreciate his work and mission, place themselves where they cannot accept the salvation he came to bring, and will not come to him that they might have life.
The setting was the feast Matthew made in his own house for Jesus, inviting his friends, relatives, fellow publicans and other guests to meet him. There Jesus sat at meat with many publicans and sinners together with his disciples, dining with them and not excluding himself from their company. Whether fasting or eating with them, he was giving himself for the redemption of the lost. As honored guest at the table of the publicans he showed by sympathy and social kindliness that he recognized the dignity of humanity, so that his presence made men long to become worthy of his confidence and his words fell upon their thirsty souls with blessed, life-giving power, awakening new impulses and opening to these outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
His sitting and eating with sinners was deliberate ministry to those who needed mercy and repentance, not accident or sharing their ways. He met people where they were — at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in the synagogues and the temple, and on the crowded thoroughfares — because there he found multitudes willing to admit they were sinners and sick in need of healing, hearts where he could sow seeds of truth. He joined them at a meal because mingling gave him a way to reach them, using his words and influence to let truth shine, teach lessons, turn thoughts to eternal matters, encourage and guide them, meet the deep needs of their souls, and lead them to himself. He did not partake of their luxuries, amusement and feasting or become low and earthly with them, but lived a life of self-denial, patience, kindness and forbearance, diffusing precious gems of truth and scattering them at their table so his words would remain in their hearts and, though they might not yield at once, they would finally yield because he is always drawing them. His high, noble and pure example stood in marked contrast to the Pharisees, priests and rulers who disregarded the work commissioned to them, and the seeds he scattered in almost every place sprang up after his resurrection and ascension under the teaching of the apostles, when five thousand believers were converted in one day.
The Pharisees watched with bitter contempt and envy, their hearts not open to conviction but filled with intense hatred, bitter prejudice and wrath, watching his every word and action in a distorted light. They hired false witness and sought some pretext to condemn him as a criminal and deceiver, the same accusation of scandal, reproach and falsehood brought against God's commandment-keeping people. Their confidence in their own piety kept them from recognizing their need, and their readiness to condemn others exposed their pride, fault-finding, hypocrisy and formalism, while receiving his answer rightly would have helped them understand spiritually and see that his work among sinners was beneficial. John's disciples, sorrowful and fasting often because John was in prison and not fully accepting Jesus as the world's Redeemer, saw his disciples molded differently from themselves and from the scribes and Pharisees, misinterpreted his purposeful object for good in sitting and eating with publicans and sinners, united with the Pharisees in condemning his practice, and thought he needed to reform to act in every particular as John did.
The whole who need no physician are the self-righteous, like the Pharisees, scribes, rulers and learned lawyers, who felt whole, prided themselves on learning and position, and were fixed in traditions and superstitions. Because they were unwilling to be taught, Jesus passed them by and chose poor fishermen willing to be taught, with no promise of large salary or worldly honor except partaking with him in his sufferings. The sick who need a physician are the poor publicans, sinners and common people, who felt their need of help and accepted the instruction and aid they knew he was able to give. With them Jesus ate and mingled, not to become low and earthly with them, but by precept and example to present right principles and lift them up from low habits and manners, and his course is an example to be followed in his steps.
Christ's Mission to Sinners
Like a physician who goes to the sick, Jesus went among sinners who needed forgiveness and mercy. Their need for spiritual healing, not social respectability, determined where He worked, so He shared company with publicans and sinners because they most needed His healing help and were ready to seek repentance and pardon. His willingness to associate with them and offer His teaching showed He came to bring repentance and salvation to those most in need of mercy, not to avoid them to satisfy religious prejudice. He spoke to them words of life so they could accept Him as Redeemer, met people where they were to sow seeds of truth in receptive hearts, and His godly character in doing so stood in contrast to religious leaders who neglected their work. The publicans were more open to truth because they were less bigoted and self-sufficient than the Pharisees, whose pride and self-sufficiency left them in worse condition than the people they despised.
He came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous, and therefore welcomed publicans and sinners instead of avoiding them. Just as the spiritually sick need Jesus as physically sick people need a physician, He came to save sinners and bring them hope, freedom, courage, and eternal life to all who recognize their need and come through faith. He came to seek and save the perishing, to save sinners rather than destroy them. His eating with them was an explanation of His mission: He showed mercy by reaching those who needed spiritual healing.
His fellowship with publicans and sinners was an act of mercy, not approval of sin, and He did not share their ways or become low and earthly with them. He sat with them, treated them with sympathy and kindness, recognized their human dignity, and His words awakened new impulses in them and opened the possibility of a new life. He ate with them so He could encourage them, guide them, teach right principles, meet the deep needs of their souls, and lead them to Himself and to truth. He deliberately met people at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in synagogues and the temple, and on crowded thoroughfares to let truth shine forth where multitudes were willing to admit they were sinners sick in need of healing. His high and noble and pure example stood in marked contrast to Pharisees, priests, and rulers who disregarded the work commissioned to them, and the seeds He scattered in almost every place sprang up after His resurrection and ascension under the apostles' teaching, when five thousand believers were converted in one day.
The saying teaches I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus Himself answered the bitter, contemptuous charge of scribes and Pharisees against eating with publicans and sinners at the feast Matthew made in his own house for his friends, relatives, and fellow publicans to meet Him, defending gracing the banquet with His presence and mingling with despised outcasts. His deliberate ministry to those who needed mercy and repentance opposed Jewish prejudice and tradition that treated any association with publicans as degrading, as well as self-righteous reserve and narrow ideas of salvation. He was ready to relieve all who came to Him in faith but did not force His way on those who showed no need or asked for no help. Through loving-kindness He calls outcasts, publicans, and sinners to come to Him, but He does not approve of people who trust in their own goodness and look down on others. Whether fasting or eating with publicans at Matthew's feast, He was giving Himself for the redemption of the lost, showing that true devotion is not formal observance or bodily humiliation but self-surrender in willing service to God and others.
Recognizing Need for Christ
Those who know themselves to be spiritually sick feel their need of help and come to Christ to be taught, aided, cleansed and given life, while those who count themselves whole feel no need of a physician, will not come to Him for life, place themselves where they cannot accept the salvation He came to bring, and cannot appreciate His work and mission. The whole are the self-righteous who feel no need of help, and the sick are the poor publicans, sinners and common sufferers who accept the instruction and aid He is able to give. Those who recognize their sickness need Him, and those who feel whole must be broken of self-reliance, submit to Him and learn their need so He can change them into His likeness and fit them for drawing near to others who need help.
Self-sufficiency and pride blind a person to his own faults, make him think his ways are perfect, ward off conviction, and leave him without repentance, cleansing, improvement or reliance on Christ, so that awareness of need is necessary for growth. Those satisfied with a mere appearance of religion and trusting in their own righteousness miss His warnings, and the proud and self-righteous are not whole in God's sight but need their blindness removed to see their condition and receive correction. Praise and flattery can deepen this blindness in one who does not recognize spiritual need and believes there is no need of Christ.
The ruin of the leaders of Israel came because they did not think they needed a Saviour, did not come to Christ, refused to admit cherished sins needing repentance and forsaking, and would not humble their hearts to accept Him, exposing hypocrisy, pride and formalism. Their pride and self-sufficiency left them in worse condition than the people they despised, while the publicans were more open to truth because they were less bigoted and self-sufficient. Their self-righteousness kept them from recognizing their own need and led them to condemn Him for associating with the very sinners who accepted Him as Redeemer when He spoke words of life to bring them to truth and repentance.
Measuring life by God's law convicts of sin and awakens need for Christ's atoning blood and sacrifice, and without that conviction people will not see why they need Him nor value His offer. Pride, self-righteousness and other sins are thus shown to leave a person deficient and in need of healing, while His sacrifice shows the depth of that condition and provides the means to lift the sinner from it.
Sinners must come meek and lowly, without self-righteousness or self-sufficiency, confessing weakness and inefficiency, repenting, believing His blood can cleanse and make whole, and depending on His righteousness rather than their own merits or good works. They must be humbled and broken in surrender, yielding will and actions to His care instead of prescribing their own case, trusting Him to impart power, and looking to His strength and all-sufficiency with determined efforts to do right in humility and faith. Such repentance brings joy to angels, and trust that sinfulness will cause Him to refuse pity or refuse to hear prayer misjudges Him who came to call sinners to repentance and give healing and strength.
The sick are sinful, finite souls inclined to err and easily tempted, and they are the special objects of His work as Physician, Solicitor, Defender, Restorer and compassionate Intercessor, mediating to bring them to repentance against Satan's resistance, accusation and destructive work. The religious world is sick through coldness of love yet does not recognize its need, though its members can be made pure and unselfish and bear the marks of God's work. Those made sick by artificial civilization likewise need Christ, whose love alone enables each person to appreciate and use entrusted talents aright instead of abusing them, so that the atonement and redemption must stand central in teaching.
He greets with hopeful assurance the very men and women who cause discouragement, seeing in them qualifications to learn and to take a place in His vineyard. His heart is cheered by those who are poor in every sense, by the ill-used who are meek, by the unsatisfied hungering after righteousness, and even by the inability of many to begin. If they will constantly be learners, He will by providence fit them to do a work not beyond their capabilities, and by impartation of His Holy Spirit give them power, so that privileges appear in hardships, order in confusion, and the success and wisdom of God in what seemed failure.
Christ the Great Physician
Jesus is the great Physician, Chief Physician, mighty Healer and great Medical Missionary for soul as well as body. The sick in the saying are the sin-sick in soul who need Christ as the true healing fountain, and the helpless who cast themselves on Him are restored by the chief of all physicians. Those who recognize their need may look to Him for healing of both body and soul, and physicians are to lean their whole weight upon Him for experience and direction rather than binding themselves to a human leader and leaning upon man.
The picture holds for bodily healing sought by prayer, faith and trust in Him apart from harmful stimulus, bringing health, strength and grace for labor and preserving from prostration. Sister Harris prayed, stopped using snuff, and her symptoms were greatly relieved and her health improved. Mrs. S. M. I. Henry was healed by the Great Physician and given access to people so she could share her experience of His loving-kindness. The sick may have their case presented to Him in prayer, and He answers with His Spirit, blessing, light and love while angels are present, awakening gratitude and devotion in the heart. Ministers and other workers who have neglected their bodies or whose health has been strained by arduous labor need His power and skill for restoration, and should stay near to Him as the mighty Healer to be brought into their lives especially under affliction.
Caring for the sick in fellowship with Him is sacred work, with capabilities developed under God as physician of soul as well as body. Those preparing as physicians must labor earnestly to fit themselves for it, making it their first business to become personally acquainted with Christ so that in the sickroom they recognize His presence and receive His counsel, and only one who knows the Saviour by personal experience can present Him to the sick and dying. That work is to help sufferers recognize causes of illness, teach obedience to health laws, relieve physical illness, pray with patients, direct them to Christ without presenting subjects that disturb the mind, and open the way by care for physical suffering to offer comfort, Christian counsel, cleansing from sin, and the promises of God. Mingling too much commercial enterprise with medical missionary work, launching out into various enterprises and carrying many responsibilities never appointed, and putting too great effort and too much money into feeding a large class in slum work as in Chicago, turns away from that calling.
Sanitariums and hospitals embody the principle by receiving people of every class and providing care for the poor and suffering in body and soul. Tender, sympathetic care for physical suffering while ministering to spiritual need can open hearts to the truth. Wherever there is a sanitarium there should be a church where patients and helpers worship and hear the word of life, and churches themselves need healing through health reform and medical missionary work joined to the ministry, with health reform helping and completing its work before they can have healthy Christianity. The church is a hospital for the spiritually sick, whose members need the remedy for selfishness and the refining work that removes its corrupting influence. Even the religious-liberty cause when sick needs healing through Christ's grace and gentleness, and those advocating it need the Spirit of Jesus.
Ministers and people strained by their work may look to Him as their great Physician, who gave His life to take them into His care and impart His Holy Spirit. They should also care for one another, while recognizing that human help does not replace the One who gives health.
Following Christ's Example
Those who are spiritually needy are like sick people who need a physician, and they must not be abandoned to ignorance, suffering and temptation but be given help and the message of salvation through practical acts of mercy. Following Christ means identifying sympathy with suffering humanity, reaching the sinful, helpless and needy where they are and making their necessities one's own, drawing near to people who need help rather than withdrawing from them. It means drawing near with tender compassion and unselfish interest, teaching from Scripture, reminding the hesitant of God's promises, arousing the careless and strengthening the weak. It means meeting people of every class in homes and in innocent social gatherings so they can be reached with the gospel, and not placing oneself so far from the world in sympathy and views that souls cannot be reached, nor closing the door of access by judging consciences and binding exacting burdens God does not bind.
Their ignorance, suffering and need call for active Christian care, not neglect, as seen in the call to care for the colored people of the South. The whole are those who already know the truth, and the sick are the ignorant in regions beyond who are ready to die for lack of the gospel, so the spiritual physician must devote energy and skill to the sick rather than to the whole. Spending time, energy and means on those who know the truth instead of using them to convert souls and enlighten the ignorant loses golden opportunities, dishonors the Lord of the vineyard, displeases God, hinders the rapid advancement of His cause, and cannot receive His Well done.
The whole who need no physician were the learned lawyers, rulers, scribes and Pharisees, who felt whole, prided themselves on learning and position, and were fixed in traditions and superstitions and unwilling to be taught. Because of that unwillingness Jesus passed them by and chose poor fishermen who were willing to be taught, with no promise of large salary or worldly honor except partaking with Him in His sufferings. The sick who need a physician were publicans, sinners and the common people, with whom Jesus ate and mingled, not to become low and earthly with them but by precept and example to present right principles and lift them up from low habits and manners. His course in seeking the sick in this way sets an example all must follow in His steps, and the same feeling of wholeness still keeps many in this age from Him.
Gospel ministers are spiritual physicians who must care for sinners and backsliders by warning them, pleading with them and seeking their salvation, since neglecting this work can leave people to die in their sins and brings grave accountability. Those who are spiritually sick and inclined to err and easily tempted are the special objects of Christ's work as Physician, Solicitor, Defender, Restorer and compassionate Intercessor, who is mediating to bring them to repentance against Satan's resistance and accusation. Therefore teachers dealing with human minds must care especially for the erring and tempted and cooperate with Christ's pleading, and must not repulse or reject or drive away a single such soul. They must not imitate the Pharisees' mercilessness or Satan's accusing and destructive work, but show tender, forgiving care that encourages, guides and meets the deep needs of souls.
God leaves the bruised and wounded, the lame of the flock, the afflicted who need sympathy and kindly acts, and the erring among His professed people to test character. It is forbidden to pass them by to give special favors and attentions to those who are more pleasing and have no need, and exact and impartial justice with compassion, pity and love for the suffering and erring is required. To withhold help from them is to withhold it from Christ. People pressed nearly beyond endurance need God's help, and their trials reveal their need of Him.
Christ ate with publicans and sinners in a life of self-denial, patience, kindness and forbearance, not to partake of their luxuries, amusement and feasting but with purpose to teach, so that His words were lessons. He diffused the precious gems of truth and scattered them at their table so His words would remain in their hearts and, though they might not yield at once to the Spirit of God, they would be affected and finally yield because He is always drawing them. Those who represent Him must look at that character and do as He did, and speech in company with unconverted people should recommend Christ by speaking words of kindness, courtesy, love, tenderness and compassion to bless all with whom they associate.