Tax Collectors and Sinners

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.–Matthew 9:11:12

The Great Physician lays to rest any questions or concerns regarding Who He is and what He does. He is the Savior given for poor sinners who are subject to every rack and ruin earned by virtue of natural birth from the flesh of the first Adam.

You’ve seen how the world points at the Church and says: “That’s where the good people go.” You’ve also been subject to programs and teachings that affirm the same notion.

But this is a perversion. The Church is where sick people go, and they remain under Her care because only in the Great Physician may true healing be found, whether it be temporal or eternal.

Matthew had the same sickness you have. His eyes and heart were constantly drawn toward stuff. With lots of stuff comes power and influence. Forgetting that all things are given from Above out of an abundance of grace, Adams’ heirs seize upon the creation and cling to it, using it as not only a way to gain the favor of men, but to flee any thoughts regarding accountability toward the Creator.

But the Creator chose to sit down with this bunch of greedy hoarders and eat with them. Setting aside His glory and majesty, refraining from judgment, being your Father in Heaven, He takes time to meet you; to speak with you; to admonish you. Not only so, but He took the judgment you deserve and absorbed it into His own body on the Cross.

Now raised from the dead to live and rule as your Savior and King, along with Matthew and all the saints, He gently leads you in the paths of righteousness so that you do not make the mistake of clinging to this world’s stuff, but gradually grow in grace. This is His greatest joy and delight.
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