Are You Sick?

Some have wondered that mirrors - reflections - contribute to the cause of schizophrenia. Mark Pendergrast wrote a book called Mirror, Mirror: A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection and in it he says: “Many schizophrenics react oddly to mirrors, sometimes staring at them for hours. Curiously there are no blind schizophrenics, and in the single known case where a long-term schizophrenic went blind, she went into remission within a few days…” The question has been asked: Does seeing oneself contribute to the anxiety of schizophrenia?

What is so unsettling about self-reflection?

Psychologists and philosophers like Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Jung, Adler all agree that people resist looking in the mirror of their lives honestly. It’s an observable human trait - we are loath to truly see ourselves - I’m talking about a resistance to face the facts about who we actually are.

These philosophies can’t agree on what it is we’re trying to avoid. What is it that we’re all terrified of seeing in the mirror of self-reflection? Why is it we’re relentlessly defensive? Why do we tend to always believe the best about ourselves?

Christianity gives us our answer: we are desperately resistant to seeing ourselves as God sees us. God sees the people he made as deeply valuable image bearers, and simultaneously as fatally corrupt sinners. We resist with every fiber of our being seeing our corruptions.

Are you unsettled by quiet self-evaluation?

This is actually a terrifying reality that ought to scare you a little bit. Are you aware of the human tendency toward “self-blinding”? Proverbs 21:2 is a warning: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” We always think we’re more right that we actually are, more wise than we actually are, more clever than we actually are, more important than we actually are, more holy than we actually are.

But I want to tell you this morning that in our text, we’re going to learn that seeing ourselves accurately is a matter of life and death.

Verses 13-17 culminate in a statement from Jesus. I’m going to explain it, and then we’re going to head back to the beginning and see how Jesus gets here: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus is saying that those who look in the mirror of their lives and see themselves as spiritually healthy, spiritually good, spiritually content, fundamentally okay - they are not able to come to Jesus, get right with God, and are going to be excluded from God’s kingdom. And on the flipside, he’s saying the spiritually sick, the spiritual bankrupt, the ones who are needy, the ones who are desperate, the ones who sense themselves to be poor - they get Jesus.

So back to our point this morning: how you see yourself accurately is a matter of life and death.

Let’s move through the text in three parts 1) The call of Levi, 2) The question of the Pharisees, 3) The response of Jesus.

The call of Levi

13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

He’s back beside the Sea of Galilee. This is where he called Simon and Andrew in 1:16. By this point his popularity has increased to the point where he can hardly go anywhere without a massive crowd following him.

1:28 “his fame spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region of Galilee” 1:33 “and the whole city was gathered together at the door” 1:45 after the leper was healed: “Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter” 2:2 The four men with the paralytic can’t enter the house because of the crowd. So there’s a throng hanging on his every word, following his every move.

Verse 13 says he was teaching them. This was more common then than it is today, for a teacher to be walking and teaching at the same time. Jesus is walking along the Galilean shore and a massive crowd is around him, and Jesus is teaching them.

Verse 14: “As he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth.” Don’t envision this as Jesus walking along the sea, alone, seeing a guy at a little lemonade stand-type booth. This is a thronging crowd, and in your mind think of the tax booth more as a tax office. This would have been a prominent office, situated on a major caravan route, where goods in transport were taxed.

Jesus sees the small building there off the route, and somehow sees Levi sitting at his place. Jesus is surrounded by the crowd, he’s in the middle of teaching them. And catching his eye is this tax collector, doing his work at the tax booth.

Jesus with enough volume to be heard above the din of the crowd, cries to Levi “Follow me!”

I think that would have sent shock waves through the crowd. If there was anything that upset them, this is it. To be a tax collector was to essentially be a turncoat. Remember, during this time period, the Romans had control over Israel, and the Jewish people were forced to pay taxes to Rome. These tax collectors not only sided with Rome and worked against their own people, but they always were known for their greed and dishonesty, because they after taxed more than what was actually due and kept the money for themselves.

Levi was a bad guy. Levi did bad things. Levi lied and cheated and stole. Levi worked against his people. While many in the crowd were probably poor, Levi certainly wasn’t. His position in a tax booth in Capernaum was lucrative. He was able to bilk his own people with no threat of punishment. And in the midst of his own filthy business, Jesus stops his teaching and calls upon him: “Follow me.”

What does Levi do? “And he rose and followed him.” The parallel passage in Luke 5:28 says “And leaving everything” he followed him.

For Levi to leave the tax booth behind and follow Jesus is a permanent decision. Contrast this call with the fishermen from chapter 1. If following Jesus doesn’t work out, the fishermen can get back to fishing. For Levi, there’s no turning back. It would be impossible for him to regain his position if he quits his job to follow. But he embraces Christ by faith and obeys.

Levi is one who looks in the mirror of his life and says, “I’m sick. I can’t help myself. I can’t fix myself. My sin has offended God, and sin is ruining me, and I can’t do anything about it.” And Jesus says, “Follow me.”

And so you might be right in the middle of your sin. You might be neck deep in an immoral relationship. You might be smack in the middle of a failing marriage - and you’re the guilty party. You may be stealing at work or whatever. And right in the midst of your sin, Jesus calls you: “Follow me.” You might be thinking, “I’m sick, Jesus. I’m not sure you understand - I’m a bad person.” But of course he understands. Come to him, he calls you to follow him. Bring him your sins, bring him your struggles, bring him your addictions, bring him your perversions, bring him your corruptions. Let him redeem.

Levi is now following Jesus: v. 15“And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.”

Luke 5 makes it clear that the house is Levi’s house, and that Levi is so overjoyed about his newfound relationship with Jesus that he made a great feast and invited a large company of other tax collectors. But not just tax collectors, verse 15 includes now “and sinners” - these are violators of God’s law, outcasts of Jewish society. Now if the crowd would have been repulsed by one tax collector, they would have been sickened by this party.

Jesus is in this tax collectors house, reclining with them. This, of course, received the attention of the scribes and the pharisees. It was a big deal. He was eating with them.

Sharing a meal is a form of hospitality and relationship. This was even more so true in the first century. To share a meal was an intimate act of relationship. This is fascinating - what is Jesus doing by eating with these outcasts?

We know for one, he’s not endorsing any kind of sinful activity. He’s not approving their sinful lifestyle. To eat with someone is not to agree with someone. Rather, Jesus, by going into the house of Levi, by reclining and eating with sinners, he’s saying “I care about you; I’m interested in you; I want to know you.”

What an amazing man Jesus is. Most people only feel comfortable around people who are just like them. Pigeons hang with pigeons, and scatter like pigeons when an eagle swoops in. But that didn’t happen with Jesus. He drew outcasts to himself.

How big is the heart of Jesus? It could embrace lowlifes, it could love the unlovable, it could welcome outcasts. He was a great harbor of rest, welcoming storm tossed ships from an angry sea. He wasn’t repulsed by them. How he must have looked them in the eyes, treated them with dignity and respect. Jesus was so humane.

Can you imagine tax collectors coming to Jesus, heads bowed low in shame, and Jesus lifting their heads, inviting them to take a seat, serving them food, listening to them?

Jesus truly is a friend of sinners. He is drawn to them by his heart of compassion. He is eager to meet their needs, he is ready to listen to their complaints, he is prepared to bear their burdens.

Friends, how great is Jesus’ love for sinners - in Matthew 11:19 Jesus says that he is mocked as a “friend of tax collector and sinners!” What is meant to mock is our greatest hope. These insults are gloriously true. He does love sinners - and this feast is simply a shadow of a greater love he will demonstrate out of love for sinners.

Spurgeon: As for the river of the Savior's love to sinners, I have only brought you to its banks. You have but stood on the bank and dipped your feet in the flood; but now prepare to swim. So fond was he of sinners that he made his grave with the wicked. He was numbered with the transgressors. God's fiery sword was drawn to smite a world of sinners down to hell. It must fall on those sinners. But Christ loves them. His prayers stay the arm of God a little while, but still the sword must fall in due time. What is to be done? By what means can they be rescued? Swifter than the lightning's flash I see that sword descending. But what is that in vision I behold? It falls—but where? Not on the neck of sinners; it is not their neck which is broken by its cruel edge; it is not their heart which bleeds beneath its awful force. No; the "friend of sinners" has put himself into the sinner's place! and then, as if he had been the sinner, though in him was no sin, he suffers, bleeds, and dies—no common suffering—no ordinary bleeding—no death such as mortals know. It was a death in which the second death was comprehended; a bleeding in which the very veins of God were emptied. The God-man divinely suffered.

The fact that he eats with sinners is astounding, but greater still is the fact that he died for sinners. He suffered for sinners. He pays their debts, he suffers their penalty, he dies their death. Why? He is by nature compassionate. Here is love incarnate.

The question of the Pharisees

Verse 16: “And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”

The scribes and Pharisees are scandalized. This question reveals that they have two categories of people in their minds: righteous people who don’t associate with sin, and unrighteous people, who they call sinners. The question makes it clear that they believe they’re righteous and that the others are not. Their beliefs are showing. They believe God’s favor should be given to those who have earned it, and should be withheld from those who have failed to earn it.

We have to see what’s happening here. The Pharisees, when they look in their mirror, see righteousness. They see goodness, honor, nobility. They are proud of who they are, content.

Remember, in 1:14-15, Jesus is calling all people to complete repentance. That includes admission of guilt, need of inward cleansing, confession of sin, and reorientation of life. But these Pharisees have so convinced themselves of their own goodness, they don’t see any reason to repent. They are self-righteous.

Friends, let’s not sick and mock the Pharisees just yet. The seed of their sin exists in each one of us. It will grow and blossom into the weed of prickly self-righteousness if we aren’t aware.

Here’s how it happens in four subtle, invisible degrees:

I am unwilling to face my sinful heart.

I want to feel good about who I am.

I embrace external forms of godliness.

I convince myself I’m doing okay..

I am unwilling to face my sinful heart. How do we do this? Blameshifting - It’s Satan, it’s my spouse, it’s my children, it’s an enemy, it’s my circumstances. “If they would just stop irritating me!” “If he would just grow up!” “If my job would just be a little more secure.” All of these are subtle ways we refuse to address our hearts. The Pharisees believe the source of sin was outside of themselves - that’s why they wouldn’t come close to sinners.

I want to feel good about who I am. We see this in the way we talk about our problems. We use euphemisms. They’re not sins, they’re mistakes, they’re blunders. We can even see sin as something external to ourselves that attacks us, like we’re victims of it: “I’m just really struggling with anger.” The honest way to say it is, “I am an angry man.” Our sin isn’t some enemy that attacks us from the outside; our sins are our own, it’s us. We sugar-coat our sins with euphemisms because we want to feel better about who we are.

I embrace external forms of godliness. I am okay because I know a lot of doctrine; I will be okay because I’ll start better habits; I’m okay because I have really good intentions. I’m spiritually mature because I have strong feelings, even tears sometimes. I’m memorizing Scripture; I’m mature! We start grasping false measures of goodness as evidences that we’re okay. This is where the danger increases - because people will applaud you for doing these things and reinforce your own deception - “Wow you’re memorizing? Wow, you get up that early?”

I convince myself I’m doing okay. But what I’ve actually done is made a trade. Since I refused to honestly deal with myself to begin with, I adopted external measures, and those external measures have eased my guilty conscience, and now, ahh, I’m okay.

Friends - this will be the death of our church. Open rebellion kills its thousands, and self-righteous formalism its ten thousands. Do you know the first step toward the death of a church? Listen: here’s what the people in dying churches say. “I’m fine.”

Take your soul to task! Face off with your sin. Call it what it is. Name it. Oh wow desperately resistant we are to face ourselves! Tear off your masks, stare into the mirror and evaluate yourself according to God’s perfect standards. “You and sin must quarrel, if you and God are to be friends” - says JC Ryle.

So these Pharisees didn’t take their souls to task. Unwilling to face their sin before a holy God, but wanting to feel good about who they are, they embraced external forms of righteousness, and convinced themselves that they were good. And once you’re convinced of your own goodness, you are unable to demonstrate grace toward those who aren’t good.

The Response of Jesus

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So the people who have successfully lied themselves into thinking they’re righteous will never come to Jesus. But the people, like Levi, like the tax collectors, who know deeply their own spiritually sickness - these are the people who are saved.

Three implications for you:

The illusion that you’re good is far more dangerous than your failure. You know what’s worse than stealing money? Being proud that you don’t steal money. You know what’s worse than committing adultery? Being proud that you’d never do such a thing. You know what’s worse than saying bad words? Not saying them, and feeling superior for it.

The reasons these are worse is because the pride underneath is not only offensive to God, it removes any sense of need for God. And the most dangerous place you can be in the entire universe, is in a place where you feel no need of God’s grace.

The sensations of spiritual sickness are helping you feel reality. This is the corollary to the previous idea. Nobody likes pain, but pain serves a good purpose. Pain alerts us to problems in our body. When I touch a hot stove, pain tells me to protect my hand. Pain in our souls - feelings of guilt and shame - aren’t bad when they are the result of true self-assessment and lead us to come to Christ. We sometimes call this conviction -it is the work of the Holy Spirit and our consciences to alert us to our failures before God.

It is highly uncomfortable to experience these things - but so is surgery.

If a man has an infection spreading throughout his body, but he feels nothing and you say that’s good, you’re short-sighted. If you’re wise, you say, “That’s bad - because it will kill him if he doesn’t get it treated.”

The Bible says that the infection of sin is killing humanity, and that the only solution is Jesus Christ. If you feel spiritually sick, you have hope, because the pain of sickness will drive you to Christ. But if you don’t feel sick, you rather feel quite good, you will have no true motivation to repent and lay your life down at Jesus’ feet.

How you see yourself is eternally important. Do you agree with 52% of evangelicals, who say that they are basically, fundamentally good? Do you see yourself as one who makes mistakes, but is actually okay? Do you feel God is obligated to save you? Are you willing to see yourself accurately, as God sees you, or are you fiercely resisting the truth?

“Those who are well have no need of a physician. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous, but for sinners.” Have you been self-swindled? Have you been duped? Are you restlessness trying to convince yourself that you’re a good person, despite daily evidence of the contrary?

Instead, embrace the truth: You’re spiritually sick with sin. You cannot save yourself. And Jesus invites you to experience the grace of salvation. Follow him, because if you’re sick, he came for you. Trust him today.

Let’s say with John Newton: “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”