Bible Verse of the Day Sunday May 1st , 2022

 Mark 2:16-17 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”’

This verse of Scripture was about a dinner at the house of Matthew when he was leaving his political position as a Roman tax collector. Some view this dinner as a "going away" celebration thrown by Matthew when he turned his back on the world and decided to follow Jesus. This section of Scripture says that Jesus "ate with tax collectors and sinners." At the time of this writing, dining at someone's house in the Middle East was a sign of a close relationship and friendship between the two parties.

The Pharisees were a group of ultra-conservative Jewish leaders who were often at odds with Jesus and his actions and teachings. The term "Pharisee" means the separated ones. They kept themselves separated from anyone they viewed as unholy, and they saw themselves as the only ones included in the tent of the love of God. The Pharisees questioned the followers of Jesus that day as to why their Master would do such an unholy thing. Jesus overheard the Pharisees asking His disciples and quickly responded to the inquiry. Jesus told them that healthy people had no need for a Physician's care, but the sick did. Jesus used this parable to explain to the Pharisees that He had come to the earth to minister to the spiritually sick. Jesus then explained that it was sinners that He had come to minister to. The Pharisees saw themselves as righteous and everyone else as sinners. Through the writing of Paul, Jesus later made us aware of just who were sinners (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10). Since we are all sinners and not one of us can come close to claiming any righteousness on our own, we are all in need of the "Great Physician."

Jesus is the only physician who can heal us of our sin; His diagnosis is always perfect. The most significant part about His role as our Great Physician is that we don't have to make an appointment; he is always on duty. Furthermore, Jesus always provides a complete cure that will assure us that we are healed for eternity. If all of that were not good enough, our Great Physician, Christ Jesus, even waves the doctor's fees; it is a free gift. (Romans 6:23; Romans 5:15-18).

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