Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

A Physician for the Sin-Sick Souls

Immediately before the account of Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector, Matthew’s own gospel records Jesus healing a paralytic man and forgiving his sins (Matthew 9:1-8). I cannot say that the juxtaposition of these two accounts was conscience on the part of Matthew, but through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he wrote it that way and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit we might note a few connections.

The paralytic was unable to bring himself to Jesus. He was stuck in his life of disability. And when his friends brought him to Jesus the great worker of miracles, they were hoping Jesus would give him a way out of that life of disability. But instead of immediately healing the man of his paralysis, Jesus told the man, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” It might have been disappointing to those who were expecting a healing, but it was shocking for the experts in God’s law that a man would dare to declare forgiveness that can only come from God Himself.

As a proof that Jesus is Himself God, Jesus then told the paralyzed man to stand up, take his cot and go home, to resume his life with family and friends and hobbies and struggles, but free from his disability, able to stand on his own two feet. And all were amazed at what that healing proved: that God had given such authority to forgive sins to men; and God Himself had become man in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Following upon this miracle and great grace of forgiveness, Matthew then records Jesus calling to him: “Follow Me” (Matthew 9:9). Again there were people who were shocked, this time that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners, such as Matthew. And the response of Jesus alludes to physicians and healers as He had shown Himself to be with the paralytic. So also there is a connection between healing and forgiveness in Jesus’ final words. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (v. 13).

Sin is a sickness. It is fatal. It’s end is death, not only the end of this life, but an eternity of suffering in hell with the devil and all who follow his temptations to sin without repentance. Sin is also a sickness that manifests a paralysis in this life. Sin makes it impossible to get yourself to God. With sin you are stuck in a life of disability and paralysis.

You are stuck such that you cannot stop your sinning without help. You think that you might, when you are ready and willing to try it, but when you do you find out that you cannot. And one sin leads to others. It not only repeats and replicates itself but it also stems lies and deceit in order to cover itself. And once you have fallen into a particular sin, it comes again and again with less resistance.

It is because sin is such a sickness that the Pharisees were surprised that Jesus ate with sinners. Why would He expose Himself to them? They knew that the sickness of sin was also contagious—that when you have prolonged contact with sinners, you are likely to be infected with their sins, even in addition to your own. Their sinful thoughts, words, and deeds become the things that you think and say and do.

But who spends time with sick people? Doctors and nurses, physicians and healers. Sick people need them, and their very calling in life is to care and provide healing to the sick. That is how Jesus described Himself. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.... For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” And He said this after calling Matthew the tax collector to follow Him.

Tax collectors, like Matthew, were commonly associated with sinners because they were more obviously infected with sin than people of other vocations. They were contracted by the governing authorities to collect taxes and were allowed to collect enough to cover their own wages. Of course, there was the great temptation to collect more and more in order to get more and more money for themselves. And once we get into any kind of deception for gain like that, we only compound it with more deceptions and frauds and lies and other forms of cheating and stealing from others.

This is why the tax collectors were despised and consequently had few friends and could be alienated from family. They found themselves hanging out with other known sinners for social contact, and of course that only compounded sin in their own lives. Like all sinners, they got stuck in a life of sin, paralyzed to do anything to get themselves out of such a lifestyle.

But Jesus said He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. In His great compassion and mercy and with the power as God to forgive sins, Jesus is the only hope for the sinner paralyzed and unable to help themselves. Like the paralyzed man whose friends had to bring him to Jesus, Matthew was paralyzed in sin, but the great Physician of body and soul has compassion for sinners. He does not avoid them but goes to them, and even calls them into the closest relationship with Himself. He called to Matthew “sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me’” (Matthew 9:9).

The appointed Psalm for today recounts how the compassion of God, seen in the Person of Jesus, is the answer to the sinner’s cry to be saved from the paralysis of a life of sin. “Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain” (Psalm 119:36). Matthew, a Jew, was likely familiar with the psalms and could have many times prayed this portion of Psalm 119 in his times of despair over his inability to walk away from a life of sin leading to death and hell.

If you find yourself caught in sin and unable to get out, and to some extent we are all in that situation as long as we live in this life with our fallen nature, then today’s portion of Psalm 119 is not at all a bad prayer to turn to in your despair. It is a plea to the LORD God to teach you His Word; to give you understanding not only of His commandments but also of His ways of mercy and grace to forgive the sins of those who are repentant and want to change.

The good news of God’s Word, revealing Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners, is the voice of Jesus Himself, calling to you—not to pick yourself up, but to be empowered by His call of grace and His declaration of forgiveness; to follow Him as did Matthew the tax collector. Your cries for God to point you in the right direction, are answered as His Word points you to Jesus Christ, the Physician for sinners.

There you see His compassion to forgive sinners like you; to recline and remain with sinners like you; and to include sinners like you among His disciples, sinners like you whom the rest of the world has abandoned; and by His presence in your life through His Word, to forgive you and take away your sin and remove all shame and disgrace from you.

The Holy Spirit through the Word of the psalms, puts into your mouth the prayer to turn you from the wrong path—that path that trusts only in riches and empty things—and to redirect your eyes to the riches of the kingdom of Christ, whose life of humility and generosity and suffering culminated with His death on the cross for the sins of the whole world, but gave way to His resurrection from the dead and His glorious exaltation, from where He continues to extend His compassion and care for sinners. He forgives and frees from the paralysis of a life of sin, and He grants eternal life to recline with Him in the fellowship of the saints.

St. Matthew was transformed by the words of Jesus: “Follow Me.” They were the answer to his prayers. And he left his tax shelter in order to live under the shelter of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. He followed Jesus, receiving His Word of life, living in forgiveness and grace, feasting at the table of the Lord.

Matthew the Evangelist is the author of the gospel that bears his name. He shared the healing words and the compassionate works of the Lord so that they inspire us today to cry out in our sins for such a Saviour to deliver us. And in Matthew’s gospel we find the Lord’s answer in the account of His suffering, death, and resurrection to deliver us from our sins and to empower us to follow our Lord.