Is There A Doctor In Here?

Matthew 9:9–13 NIV

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:18–26 NIV

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Do you have an appointment today? What is your last name? Date of birth? Reason for your visit? Has anything about your insurance changed? Can you confirm your address for me? Ok, thank you, the doctor will be with you shortly.

You’ve heard those words before, or some variation of them. You have visited a doctor’s office or an urgent care or an emergency room where they have asked you these questions in preparation to see the doctor. You’ve never heard those questions asked of you here, however. That would be silly and unnecessary.

You know you’ve come to meet with the doctor, today, right? You’ve come to meet with THE doctor in this space. The Great Physician is ready to see you, and He is ready to bring about healing and wholeness in your life. This doctor treats all kinds of illnesses and ailments. He brings healing to the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. His end is to see each of us living into the wholeness that we started with in the Garden. And his work is to bring that about within us as individuals and as a community of faith and through His Church bring about wholeness in our communities and all across the world. He longs that none would perish, but that all would have everlasting life in Him. And He’s the only doctor I know that can actually make that happen. He’s the only doctor that has overcome the grave. He’s the only doctor that can bring others through death into life. He’s the only doctor that addresses the most pervasive of infections - the sin that has entrenched itself within us. He brings about cleansing and healing and beauty in spite of our propensity to sin.

Have you come to see THE Doctor this morning? Let’s talk about this doctor for a bit.

There is one piece that we have to grapple with before we really dig in this morning. And here it is. It matters how you go to the doctor. And it matters how you come to Jesus. Going to the doctor can be kind of a vulnerable feeling ordeal. It depends on the reason for your visit, but going to the doctor kind of forces us to realize some things. If I am going to the doctor because I am ill, I have to confess that I am in need of some help and that I don’t know or have the access to or the power to get what I need to be made well. Even if it is something treated by a simple antibiotic, as a person without a medical degree, I cannot get that antibiotic without at least a conversation with a doctor who can then prescribe the medication for me to use. So, if I am going to go to the doctor, I have to at least be ok with saying that I am in need of some kind of help that I cannot provide for myself. And sometimes, realizing that we can’t do something on our own is a vulnerable spot for us. We like to have control and we like to be self-sustaining.

We don’t always go to the doctor just when we are ill, though. We also go to the doctor for preventative visits. When we go to the doctor for a preventative visit, we also have to come to the realization that we don’t know everything about how our body functions and that we don’t have the same knowledge or access to knowledge about our health as they do. It is unlikely that anyone is running their own blood work at home and that they have their own laboratory to come up with all of the cholesterol numbers and proteins and all that is revealed in that. And so even a preventative visit has some level of vulnerability to it as we realize that we don’t know everything even about ourselves and our own bodies. We are in need of someone else in that realm.

Any trip to the doctor then requires a confession of our need and our dependence on someone other than ourselves.

Our appointments with THE doctor are no different. They require a confession of our need and our dependence. Any kind of healing and wholeness that Jesus can bring to your life is welcomed with a willingness to say that we are indeed of something that is outside of ourselves. Transformation in Christ is welcomed with a willingness to say that we don’t know everything about ourselves and that we need someone with wisdom greater than ours to get us to wholeness and life abundant.

The one who thinks they have nothing wrong with them and needs no help in any way doesn’t find their way to the doctor’s office until tragedy strikes.

You know what is interesting to me about this passage - there isn’t anyone involved in the story that doesn’t need THE Doctor. There are just some who don’t think they need THE Doctor. The religious leaders of the day, the ones who are asking why Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners, have become their own experts. They have become reliant on themselves. They have crafted and continue to execute a religious system where they get to call all the shots and they get to determine the outcomes and they get to be the judges and they get to secure their own salvation. Their ritual and their religion is what is saving them. Their religion is their savior. They can’t even perceive why they would need anything other than themselves or their system of sacrifices and worship. Their perception of themselves is that they are righteous and that anyone who is not like them couldn’t possibly be.

Just because their perception of their need is off, however, doesn’t mean that they don’t need a doctor. While their sickness doesn’t look like the woman with the bleeding problem that is spoken about later in the passage, it is still sickness nonetheless. The infection of sin has clouded their judgment and their understanding. The infection of sin has created a self-righteous posture. The infection of sin has engrained itself so deeply in their hearts and in their minds that they are unable to welcome THE Doctor into their lives for transformation to take place.

So, instead of the transformation that is completely possible in an individual’s life taking place, Jesus instead gives these religious leaders who don’t perceive their need for him something to think about. He quotes some words that they have probably heard before in their lives. Quoting from Hosea, the words you heard toward the beginning of the service, Jesus tells these religious leaders to go and learn what the phrase, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” means. See, Jesus, being THE Doctor is able to identify the root cause of the illness that the religious leaders have. Their hearts are set on their religious system that centers itself on sacrifices made to appease God. It was a system that in many ways allowed someone to be religious without ever being too relational. It didn’t matter how well you loved God as long as you made the appropriate sacrifices. It didn’t matter how well you loved your neighbor as long as you made the appropriate sacrifices. It had turned into something incredibly transactional - a move that God never intended. The religious leaders, in this posture couldn't see the people around them with compassion or mercy. When the system of religion overtakes the steadfast love of God, compassion and mercy are some of the first things to go. It becomes so easy for our focus to turn inward and our posture to become so selfish that we neglect to see anything happening around us unless it is perceived to be a threat toward what we see as normal.

Jesus knows with these religious leaders that He is going to have to engage their minds before their hearts will open up, so he challenges their understanding and knowledge of the Scriptures with his reference to Hosea. Which as it is, points to more language in the medical realm.

Hosea 6:1–6 NIV

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth— then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

The people of God during Hosea’s time have wandered away from relationship as well. And their life was not so pleasant. In fact it was really, really hard. They had missed the boat with their desire for religious systems and sacrifice over and above mercy, compassion and the steadfast love of God. Jesus, in bringing this passage to the attention of these religious leaders is warning them of a path their people have walked down before.

Obviously, this should serve as a cautionary story for us. If we get to the point where we don’t think we need THE Doctor, if our relationship is traded for transaction, if we are unable to perceive our need for THE Doctor, then we too are missing the boat. Our need for healing and salvation is still there, but we have convinced ourselves that something else can be our savior, and oftentimes it is actually ourselves that we put into that position.

In another element of the story, you get to see Matthew in this passage respond to Jesus’ call on his life with welcome and willingness. As the words read, it didn’t take much for Matthew to get up out of his tax collector’s booth and to follow Jesus. He was at least open to the possibility of following Jesus. He was open to doing life in a new way. He was open to the possibility that Jesus knew something valuable that Matthew didn’t know about himself. He was open to this crossroads with Jesus in his life even though he didn’t really know where it might take him or what it might cost him. There was a willingness and a welcome in Matthew’s heart and mind to whatever might come in following Jesus. And with that comes that vulnerability of the unknown.

There is a stark contrast between the interaction between Jesus and Matthew and Jesus and the religious leaders. Matthew responds to Jesus with welcome and willingness. The religious leaders respond to Jesus with judgment and self-righteousness.

We get another few characters in the story to help fill out the picture a little more. And we continue down this idea of healing and wholeness. All of these characters in verses 18-26 come to Jesus with earnestness. A synagogue leader pleads for his daughter who has just died. The woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and touched the edge of Jesus’ cloak believing that even just a touch would bring about healing in her life.

The synagogue leaders’ story contrasts the other religious leaders in that it isn’t about the position that invalidates the relationship one has with God. It is quite possible to love the Lord and earnestly seek him over and above religion. He responded to Jesus with welcome and willingness and hope.

The woman with the bleeding problem found her only hope to be in Jesus as after 12 years she had found no other solutions to the problem that she had. With earnestness she welcomed Jesus’ presence and as a result found healing in THE Doctor.

Again, her story contrasts with the story of the religious leaders and the result reflects the contrast.

The question that I think we should grapple with in our own lives and in our congregation is the question of how we are going to the doctor. Just like in the narrative from Matthew, it is true that all of us need THE Doctor. Spiritually, we have been infected with sin. Our lives have been bent toward selfishness. Physically, we have ailments and illnesses. Emotionally, we can be unstable at times. Only THE Doctor is able to remedy all of these issues. So, our need for THE Doctor shouldn’t be in question. The Doctor’s abilities are not in question. We know Jesus is capable of bringing about all forms of healing in our lives. The variable that we have control over, then, is how we come to and how we respond to the Doctor.

The words that we read from the Gospel of Matthew this morning were two separate chunks of Scripture. We read Matthew 9:9-13 where we heard about Matthew’s calling and the critique that Jesus received for eating with tax collectors and sinners. We heard that verse about Jesus coming not for the righteous but for sinners - it is the sick who need a doctor.

Then we skipped over verses 14-17 and started reading again at 18-26 where we heard about Jesus being asked to heal a girl who had died and on his way has this encounter with the woman with the bleeding problem who because of her faith is healed.

In between those two sections of narrative, though is an important few verses about fasting and this analogy of wine and wineskins and patches for torn garments. Jesus is once again getting questions about why he and his disciples are living differently than the religious leaders of the day and John’s disciples think they should be living.

Jesus responds with this analogy.

Matthew 9:16–17 NIV

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

It is an important realization that the religious leaders have a hard time understanding. Their old sacrificial way of doing things is no longer necessary with Jesus in their midst, yet they are constantly trying to blend the two together and force their way into the mix. The new patch of Christ cannot be used to patch the old garment of the sacrificial system. And the new wine of Christ cannot be put into the old wineskins of ritual. The way of Christ is a way of transformation and a new thing. And it is unnecessary and not feasible to blend the two together.

While we don’t and haven’t adhered to a sacrificial system in our lives, the principle is still true for us. Some of us had the tendency to make this religion less about relationship with Christ and with each other and more about ritual - transactional at best. If I do all the things I am supposed to do and if I don’t do the things that I am not supposed to do, I will get a ticket to heaven. And this kind of transactional attempt at salvation is very similar to the preference that the religious leaders of the day were giving to sacrifice over mercy.

This Doctor has no real interest in trying to blend the incredible transformation that is possible by his grace with your transactional way of doing things. This Doctor is calling all of us to incredible healing and wholeness that is a new thing. He wants to make us new. He wants to change and transform our hearts. He wants to actually transform us rather than create a hybrid option within us where we get to have our way and do our things and He is kept in the periphery. And this new life that He calls us into is so much greater and more abundant than that old way of life we so easily become accustomed to. When Jesus is healing and restoring and making all things in you new, it is the best journey you can ever travel.

How will you go to THE Doctor? Will you come to Jesus regularly, ensuring that the relationship is current, knowing the most that you can know about yourself and about the path to life abundant? Will you come to Jesus for healing and prevention? Will your trips to the Doctor be more on an as needed basis? In the moments of crisis, urgent care or the emergency room is visited out of desperation when the circumstance is more than you can handle on your own? Will you go to THE Doctor at all? Will you rely only on yourself to take care of all that you need and to treat the infection of sin within you? Will you find yourself to be self-righteous and capable of saving yourself through good work or wealth or religious practice?

How and when you go to Jesus matters. He longs that you would regularly attend to the relationship that You have with him. He longs that daily you would be in conversation with him. He longs that the relationship would flourish in such a way that preventative measures can be taken to prepare you for the unknown circumstances ahead. He has the path to life everlasting in store for each one of us and He is willing and able to walk us down that path.

THE Doctor is ready to see you now. Are you ready for THE Doctor to transform your life?