Mark 2:15-17-- Without the Sick, We're Sick

And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a healer, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Jesus was having a party in his house, and Levi invited all of his friends over—who were all outcasts of Jewish society. Some of them were real sinners, like prostitutes or cheats, while others were considered “sinners” by society at large, such as toll-collectors, even though they did nothing wrong.

The scribes mentioned here are a certain kind of man who was educated by the Pharisees, who had a five-year program to teach people their ways. The Pharisees were a group who wanted certain laws to be passed about how to honor God’s special day and about certain eating habits, so that all Jews would follow their ideas of obeying Moses’ law. In that society, if you invited someone into your house, and then ate with them, you were treating them as an equal and accepting them in your society. Since Jesus was speaking for God, that meant that anyone he was eating with he was accepting them as God’s people as well. The Pharisees were complaining that Jesus was accepting those that Jewish society at large was rejecting.

Jesus’ response shows that he sees himself as a healer—not so much of people’s bodies, but of their relationship with God. So the ones who need to hear Jesus’ teaching about repentance is not those who consider their relationship with God to be fine, but those who know that the relationship is severed. Thus, Jesus’ ministry focused on those who knew that they needed to get right with God and be accepted again—those who needed forgiveness.

Jesus didn't come for the healthy, but the sick. Why, then, do we pride ourselves at having "healthy" churches? Better that our churches be sick and filled with the sick.