Jesus Calls You Cured Through His Mercy!

When you play doctor, you get to dress up in the special doctor clothes and carry a doctor bag with all kinds of special doctor equipment. When you play doctor, you get to tell everyone that they are sick or hurt, then offer them all kinds of medicines and treatments to cure them. When you play doctor, at least one person has to be sick. If you pretend that everyone is healthy, then there are no sicknesses or injuries to find, no treatments, no fun and no need for a doctor.

Doctors work to cure sickness. A good doctor keeps up with the best cures to offer someone suffering from the ever-growing list of sicknesses and injuries. When someone who does not know the best cure offers to help someone, things go very wrong. One example of someone taking matters into their own hands with disastrous results is found in Exodus 2:

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian.

Exodus 2:11-15

Moses attempted to cure a bad situation, and only made things worse. Decades later, we pick up with Moses in our Old Testament reading from Exodus 3. Moses was a murderer and fugitive, but God called him to deliver Israel from their slavery in Egypt. We hear Moses’ response to God in Exodus 3, 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you.” God assured Moses that the cure for his sinful past and for Israel’s freedom would come from God’s powerful mercy and deliverance, not human ideas or efforts.

God also revealed his mercy with Matthew. In our Gospel reading from Matthew 9, Matthew shared the account of Jesus calling him to be one of his disciples. This account is also recorded in Mark and Luke, although Matthew’s other name Levi is used. We learn a few things about Matthew by examining the first verse of our reading from Matthew 9, 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. Matthew worked for the Roman Empire collecting taxes from his fellow citizens. He was likely fluent in multiple languages as he worked with traders traveling through his territory. His work also lent itself to greed and corruption, as his earnings were whatever extra he charged people after collecting the government’s cut. He also interacted with many Gentiles, who were regarded as unclean by the Jews, so Matthew was also considered unclean and unable to enter the temple. Plus, tax collectors could not be affiliated with the local synagogue. Matthew then was likely more educated than most with a more stable job and higher income, but socially and religiously despised and excluded as a dishonest traitor. This explains the reaction we read about in the next verses from Matthew 9, 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?” Jesus did not seem to see all the things wrong with Matthew as a reason to avoid him, but instead as a reason to get closer to him, share a meal with him in his own home and call him to be one of his own twelve disciples.

Jesus’ answer for eating with the tax collectors and sinners was simple. We read Jesus’ response in Matthew 9, 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.” Jesus was the cure for Matthew, all tax collectors, sinners and Pharisees, but the Pharisees believed they were healthy. But according to Jesus, they were not equipped to self-diagnose, so he did it for them. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament prophet Hosea about mercy being God’s desire, not sacrifice. The Pharisees worked so hard at keeping God’s laws like offering sacrifices to cure themselves of sin that it gave them a different sin, self-righteousness. They looked down on Matthew and others for not being as good as they were and dismissed Jesus’ forgiveness believing they did not need it. They did not have mercy on others and they rejected Jesus’ mercy meaning they would die in their sins to suffer eternally in hell.

You cannot play doctor with sin. You are not able to diagnose or cure your sins. You give into the same greed as the tax collectors. You over work and over schedule yourself week after week showing how much you crave material or social riches. You are a traitor to the calling God gives you to show mercy by quickly pointing out the temptations, struggles, weaknesses and sins of others, by leaving them to die comfortable with their sins not hearing about the serious the consequence of hell or by telling them what they need to change or do to be better as if that were the cure for their sin when the only real cure is Jesus. You act like patient and doctor when you fill your day with worldly affirmations and your own ideas of what is good while skipping Jesus’ daily invitation to his table to feed your soul what is good, Scripture. Playing your own spiritual soul doctor with ineffective cures spreads your sinful infection weakening, hurting and destroying you until you face death and hell.

Jesus cured you with his mercy. Jesus taught that his mercy saves. He showed the truth of his teaching as he died on the cross and in Matthew 27 cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mercy means undeserved treatment. God abandoned Jesus to death on the cross for your sins. Jesus was abandoned to death, so that you could have life. You do not deserve the cure, but God wanted you to be cured, to live and join him at his heavenly table as a friend. Jesus proved he is the soul doctor by diagnosing and curing sin. He shows mercy on those who do not deserve it and are against him, the ignorant and arrogant. These described Paul who was shown Jesus’ mercy as we heard in our New Testament reading from 1 Timothy 1:

15 “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Timothy 1:15-17

Like Paul, Jesus treated you with his mercy. Jesus cured you with the best, most comprehensive and fully restorative care, so that your sins are gone, you are righteous and you will live with God in heaven forever.

Jesus’ mercy continues calling people to be cured. When Jesus went to Matthew, he called him by name. He knew where he worked and when he would be there. He called him to faith and to be one of his disciples, and to be one of the few disciples to write an entire Gospel. Jesus went to his home, his safe place, and ate with him, not a quick meal in a sack from a drive through, but a sit-down meal. He talked and learned about him, and spoke to him the medicine of his forgiveness, of his kingdom that cannot be bought, but is offered for free because Jesus paid the price. Jesus filled Matthew’s heart with his healing mercy, and Matthew took that mercy to others. Matthew’s Gospel was written to a Jewish audience. He quoted more of the Old Testament than any of the other Gospels. He wrote to those who despised him as a greedy traitorous tax collector. Matthew’s Gospel pointed the Jews and all people to Jesus’ mercy. We are all equally sinful, and the righteousness we all need is from outside ourselves. You are called cured by Jesus’ mercy. You have Jesus’ righteousness. You like Matthew are called to offer Jesus’ mercy as the cure to sinners, to all around you. Take the time to show others their need for a soul doctor. Take the time to teach them showing them their sin and hopeless prognosis of death and hell. When they see their sin, do not cure it with a change of their behavior, but with Jesus’ mercy. Jesus endured undeserved treatment, so that he could give you undeserved treatment, heavenly, peaceful, loving treatment and a place at his table in heaven, your forever home.

When you play doctor, you get to tell everyone that they are sick or hurt, then offer them all kinds of medicines and treatments to cure them. Without any sick or hurt patients, playing doctor is no fun. It would be like playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” and never calling someone “Goose.” Jesus calls all of us sick with sin, each of us is called “Goose” and Jesus is the one to run after for the cure. Jesus cured us with his mercy. He died on the cross to take away your sins, he forgives you, he made you righteous and perfect, and he will bring you home to heaven where you will be healthy forever because Jesus calls you cured through his mercy. Amen.