A Serious Problem

Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” [Mark 2.13-17]

This event recorded in the Gospels is spectacular. 

How many times do people say they are praying and seeking God earnestly but cannot seem to get any direction? May I just say here that this has been much of my spiritual life story!

The problem is not easily seen here, but it is here nonetheless. Reader, please pay attention!

For any of us to declare that we are seeking God but not getting direction is to declare ourselves "healthy" relative to the context of the scripture above while ignoring the very symptom we are complaining of! This is confusing, but it is for real!

Jesus declared plainly that anyone who thinks they don't need a doctor won't have fellowship with Jesus.

The point Jesus so aptly made is that, unless we understand our sinfulness (regardless how good we  think we have been), we will not have fellowship with Jesus. Jesus does not even attempt to reach out to (or, "call") those who are proud.

This is serious and needs to be addressed in the Church today. It goes hand-in-hand with what I have been seeing for months now: we need to repent - we need to live in repentance! Until we grasp the necessity of our need to live a repentant lifestyle, we will fail miserably in our relationship with the Lord. He simply will not call us.

Father, more and more I see the need for a humble and contrite spirit. Oh God, forgive me for ever thinking I am or could be good... Yes, I am Your righteousness... but only in Jesus. Only in Jesus.