Micah 6:6-8
6 With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Matthew 9:1-17
Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 And the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
The Message, Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible, heads this section of Matthew’s Gospel with the words, “Who needs a doctor?”
But before we get to the part where Jesus actually asks that question and gives us the obvious answer that it is the sick who need the doctor, Matthew tells us about Jesus healing a paralyzed man and of how He calls a tax collector into His service.
In both instances the so-called religious authorities are scandalized by these actions of Jesus. In the first instance He tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven and the authorities are disgusted at this blasphemy. When He later tells the man to take up his bed and walk, the crowd is filled with awe and offer praises to God.
In the second case, Jesus calls Matthew, who is a tax collector, to be His disciple and then goes for dinner at Matthew’s house. The religious authorities are scandalized once more – “why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And then, finally, we get to Jesus’ question, “Who needs a doctor?” And He answers His own question, “Surely not the healthy, it is the sick who need the doctor!”
But who is sick?
Is it the paralyzed man?
Is it the tax collectors and sinners gathered at Matthew’s house?
OR, is it those self-righteous people who question the right of Jesus to act as He pleases in the announcing of His Kingdom?
…….And that is exactly what He is doing …
Jesus is announcing the Kingdom of God.
In declaring forgiveness of sins for those paralyzed – not just in their bodies but in their lives.
When the circumstances of life have totally hemmed them in so that they can no longer move.
Paralyzed by a string of bad decisions, unintended words, careless sin ….
When life has become such a compromise of choices that it seems that God no longer cares ….
Then Jesus comes and declares a new start – His Kingdom come …
……….YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN!!!!
In calling those rejected by society – the tax collectors and sinners.
By joining with them in their celebrations, Jesus is announcing the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is invading the other kingdoms… wherever Jesus is, the Kingdom is –
- When He calls a “tax collector” from his booth…
- Whenever He enters the heart of a sinner…
- Every time He challenges a man’s self righteousness, the Kingdom of God is there.
These are new beginnings for the people … He is turning out new wineskins in His Kingdom factory and filling them with new wine.
This is no time for fasting … this is Kingdom time.
This is the time to rejoice and be glad …
Sinners are being made righteous.
The “frozen chosen” are being unloosed.
Tax Collectors are being called to serve God, and they are throwing Kingdom Parties for their friends.
This is Jesus saying that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
He is preparing new wineskins from old…
He is taking people paralyzed by sin and loosing them ..
He is calling sinner tax collectors to celebrate the righteousness which He can give them when they choose to follow Him – as they choose to put their faith in Him..
And He is putting the new wine of the Kingdom into these new wineskins He is forming …
This was scandalous for the religious people.
They call Him a blasphemer.
They question his motives … why does He mix with tax collectors and sinners?
They wonder why He does not fast and do the other religious things of the religious self righteous.
But Jesus didn’t come to bless our feeble attempts at righteousness, He came to turn us into new wineskins.
The new wine of the Pentecost Spirit cannot be decanted into old wineskins. Otherwise they would burst and the wine would run out and the wineskins would be ruined.
In order to enter the Kingdom of God we need to become new – we need to be changed. We cannot be this old paralyzed life, frustrated by sin and despair. We need to repent of that – to turn around and go in a new direction …
We need to be new wineskins.
The opportunity is there for us all, as it is for these three young men this morning. Opportunity to begin again – to be born again, to start afresh, to become a new wineskin for the new wine of the Spirit.
Opportunity to hear Jesus say to us, “Your sins are forgiven, take up your mat, follow me…”
Jesus does not turn us away, except when our self righteousness says, “I don’t need that.” When we think that we have already got it all together – “I’m an old hand at that … an old wineskin …”
If that is your claim then you cannot have the new wine of the Kingdom. It will burst your bubble.
But when we come to Him, seeking a new beginning; for His help to set us free from the paralysis of our old and worn ways; for Him to make a new creation of us – God is more than willing…
We need the doctor, all of us, because none of us is perfect; none of us have yet fully found the Kingdom.
As I have talked this morning you have probably forgotten the sequence of the events in our reading so let me remind you about the sentence which Jesus spoke regarding our need for a doctor… sentence, mind you, not a series of separate thoughts. It was one idea when Jesus told the self-righteous that it was the sick who needed the doctor … listen to the idea again, and remember that it is one thought, one piece of logic … ““It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Who needs a doctor? The sick, not the healthy.
What does Jesus require? Mercy not sacrifice.
Who did He come to call? The sinners not the righteous.
AND ITS ALL IN ONE SENTENCE….
Who needs a doctor?
The sick, not the healthy – because He will make them well.
What does He require of us?
Mercy not sacrifice – because we cannot earn our way into the Kingdom; we can only “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”
We have nothing else to offer, except this obedience.
Who did He come to call?
The sinners not the righteous; and by this we must understand “those who know that they are sinners” rather than those who think that they have it all together.
The Kingdom of God is at hand, it is right here.
All it needs is for us to take a step of faith, to confess our sin and to put our trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, and then to keep on keeping on – being a faithful member of the family of God, diligent in public worship, in private prayer, in the study o the Scriptures and in our witness to Jesus Christ.
When these three young men come forward to profess their faith, I will give you opportunity to join with them in renewing your own profession. Or if you have never done so, to make that profession of faith today.
