Jesus Came For the Sick.

It is interesting to me that as I am sitting in a hospital room watching my grandfather grow weaker and weaker, I am supposed to be at Uprising teaching on Luke chapter five.

Weird how life works because in this passage Jesus would call a tax collector, Matthew(culturally evil thief who stole from the poorest people to pay off a foreign government scraping off the top to get rich), to leave everything and follow him. At this the religious pharisees would question Jesus calling a sinner to follow him when they were ready in their justified self righteousness to be called. Jesus' response shocks me and has transformed the way I think:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

What shocks me is the response of the people Jesus was interacting with. There are two audiences here: 1. The Pharisees - You would think that these guys would realize what Jesus is saying, admit their fault and follow Jesus–but they don't. They get angry and argue with him...

Now heres the crazy thing.

Audience 2. is Matthew (also called Levi). He is the one who should be ticked... Jesus just called him "sick" and a "sinner" (basically shanks him) and what is his response? He throws a party and invites all his friends so amazed that God would call him. And whats amazing is that Matthew would go on to write the biggest Gospel (written account of Jesus' life) and would follow Christ through the cross and go on to help build the church... while the pharisees have written nothing of worth and have if anything tried to hinder the growth of the church.

Amazing how God continues to use the least likely people to complete his work. This gives me hope as I watch my deist Grandpa battle with the will of God... Jesus came for the sick.

love you guys and missed you tonight,
Tyson