Have you ever been stuck in a house with family members who were ill?
Once upon a time, all five of my siblings, my dad, and I contracted the flu. To this day, I still remember us all lying around on couches, snoring, watching movies, and trying to recover as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, my mom (who amazingly never gets sick with common illnesses) managed the medicine dosages, ensured we were fed, and accomplished the thousand other things I knew she was also doing.
Yet, what stands out most about this particular instance of illness was that it was all my fault.
Days before my family fell ill, I found myself sinking into my school desk with a terrible headache. I knew almost instantly that I had the flu based on previous sicknesses. By that evening, my fever had shot up to 104, and my mom immediately took me to see a doctor. However, my flu and strep rapid tests surprisingly returned negative.
“You’ve probably just got a bad sinus infection,” the doctor explained. “Go home and take some over-the-counter meds; you’ll be fine.”
We couldn’t believe it! We knew that it was more than just a cold. But considering he was the doctor, my mom and I took his advice and came home to spend time with the rest of the family.
“Just a sinus infection” turned into seven of a family of eight extremely sick with the flu.
That doctor had relied so much on those tests that I was misdiagnosed and ended up causing nearly an entire family to come down with influenza. During that situation, we learned that what we needed was a doctor willing to listen to our concerns and symptoms, make sure that we all received the medication we needed, and work to help us defeat the sickness that was knocking us down quickly.
Instead, our needs seemed to be cast aside.
In Luke 5, we read a story where Jesus explains how important doctors can be for the sick and hurting. In this passage, we also are introduced to a tax collector named Levi.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him (27-28).”
Tax collectors weren’t the most honest (or popular) individuals in the Bible.
“As a class, the tax collectors were hated by their fellow Jews,” Bible Gateway explains. “This was almost inevitable. They represented the foreign domination of Rome. Their methods were necessarily inquisitorial. That they often overcharged people and pocketed the surplus is almost certain. In the rabbinical writings they are classified with robbers.”
So, when Levi began following Jesus, it was a big deal.
After following Jesus, Levi hosted a party in Jesus’s honor, which some Pharisees attended. When these holy men realized who Jesus was socializing with, they asked His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30). But before the disciples could answer, Jesus responded in verses 31-32,
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Emphasis added.)
As believers, the sick and the sinners are exactly whom we’re called to serve. In my family’s situation mentioned above, we went to the doctor searching for physical healing. During our flu-cation, my family desperately needed a doctor - so do those who are lost without our Lord’s saving grace.
No, we shouldn’t condone sin or allow others’ bad choices to impact our own.
But we also can’t and shouldn’t expect lost individuals living without Jesus to act like they have it.
That person who keeps bullying you? The criminal who is behind bars? The person who is continually spreading lies? What about the one who deeply hurt someone you care about?
Jesus came to save them just as much as He did you and me.
If they don’t have the power of Jesus living inside them, they need spiritual healing. We cannot give them this, but we can be ready and willing to point them to the Great Physician.
Without Him, how will all of our sin-sick souls ever find the healing that they truly need?
