Meditations /

Jesus calls “them,” but not me. Think again.

Jesus has a disturbing way of broadening our understanding of life.

For instance, murder is more than killing someone, it’s being angry with someone without a cause.

Adultery isn’t just having an affair, it’s a man watching a woman lustfully.

Swearing isn’t about bad language, it’s binding God to whatever you say you’re going to do. (Think of what this does to God, to say nothing of our reputation when we don’t keep our word.)

Jesus teaches this and more in the Sermon on the Mount and, when you’re through, you know why a reader once remarked, “No one can live the Christian life except Christ.”

As expansive as this is, we wriggle out, just like many who heard Jesus firsthand. A conversation Jesus had with critics shows what I mean.

Jesus had just called Levi (Matthew) to stop collecting taxes and become a disciple (Luke 5:27-32). In response, Matthew ordered a feast and invited co-workers and acquaintances of all kinds.

Israel’s religious elite, Pharisees and scribes, saw this and complained. “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus answered with a parable, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” And then He said plainly, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Hearing His answer, I imagine the Pharisees felt smug. “Well and good, Jesus isn’t after me because He doesn’t bother with the healthy or call the righteous. He called this tax collector and He’s attending to Levi’s guests, which shows what He thinks of them. He calls them out for the sinners they are. But me? I’m not in that group. He hasn’t called me. All is well.”

I imagine this because another Pharisee, the Apostle Paul, tells us he had thought this way. He recited his pedigree in a letter and boasted, “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6).

But Jesus has a disturbing way of broadening our understanding.

Jesus disturbed Paul, who went on to write, “What things were gain to me I have counted loss for Christ that I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:7-9).

And Jesus disturbs me when I listen to another conversation, this one with His disciples (Luke 6:27-36). After speaking blessings that we know as The Beatitudes, Jesus describes the conduct He expects from His followers and, along the way, the camp of sinners grows.

  • Sinners love those who love them.
  • Sinners do good to those who do good to them.
  • Sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.

Suddenly, Jesus has wrung any smugness from the previous conversation. Sinners aren’t just “them“—tax collectors, thieves, adulterers, murderers, and the like.

Sinners love.
	Sinners do good.

		Sinners lend.

Sinners are people like me.

Now I understand why Scripture says,

“No one is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:9).

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

Jesus said He did not come to call the righteous. Can I honestly say I am? He said He did come to call sinners. Can I say I’m not?

In light of these conversations in Luke, I learn that Jesus is not exclusive when He says He came to call sinners and not the righteous, to be a physician for the sick and not the healthy. He came to call all of us.

Jesus has this disturbing way of broadening our understanding about ourselves for the purpose of drawing us to Him, the only one who can do something about the way we are.

Jesus, The Great Physician, has come. Will you be healed?

Jesus calls. Will you answer?

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