I decided to do something this morning that I don’t normally do. I flipped open my Bible to a random spot and began reading. My eyes fell on Mark 2:13–17. It says,
13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
I’ve read the passage many times before, but paused after reading it today, asking God to make it fresh.
I found myself asking the question, How do I act when I think I’m healthy? My answer came quick. I think I act just like the Pharisees did.
- I pat myself on the back for all the spiritual things I’m doing.
- I quietly point the finger at those who are less spiritual (no, I would never do this publicly, but I find myself thinking such things).
- I begin to rely on my strengths instead of depending on God with my weakness.
- I stop making the effort to connect with “disreputable sinners.”
Then I asked, How do I act when I think I’m sick? Again, the answer came quick.
- I see others as equal to me. In other words, I stop judging others.
- I find myself amazed at God’s grace more.
- I get desperate for God to work through me.
- I pray more, read the Bible more, and seek God’s presence more. And yet, I don’t pat myself on the back for doing those things. Rather, I wonder how I’d manage without those disciplines.
The interesting thing is, when I’m sick, it’s not like I want to stay sick. I want to get healthy. And I don’t think Jesus is suggesting in this passage that we are to remain sick. He’s just pointing out that even as he heals our sickness, we should never lose sight of what we were: sick people. In a strange twist, the healthiest people (spiritually speaking) are those who never forget that without Jesus, they are sick.
Just a Monday morning thought.
What about you? How do you act when you’re healthy and when you’re sick?
