March 2 Ash Wednesday

Lent Is Seeing the Specialist

When I had heart attack symptoms some time ago, I called the general practitioner and explained the symptoms to him. He told me, “Go to the hospital.”

After delaying a bit….wondering if I should waste my time in the ER, I went.

Why didn’t he just make a diagnosis over the phone?

Of course, that’s a stupid question; anyone knows that, in order to make a proper diagnosis, a doctor needs to get closer to a patient, than a phone call.

The incarnation is God getting closer to us. When Jesus began His ministry, He healed many body ailments. Matthew interpreted those healings as being a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4.  “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” (Matthew 8:17)

But in the next chapter, Matthew 9, Matthew himself is called to follow Christ. You may remember he is a tax collector – a Jewish man helping to fund the Roman government which occupied his land. Needless to say, a lot of people didn’t like Matthew and his kind. But Matthew was overjoyed to be close to Christ. And so he threw a great celebration party. Jesus and His disciples were invited.

Surprisingly, some Pharisees came to the party. [It makes us wonder whether or not they were invited. My hunch is probably they were.] But Jesus appears to be doing no healing whatsoever at the party.  He seems to simply be celebrating with Matthew and the other tax collectors and “sinners” who showed up.

You may recall that the Pharisees wondered why Jesus was getting close to these people who were known publicly to be unscrupulous sinners. The Pharisees asked, “Why is your teacher eating with tax gatherers and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11) Jesus’ answer reveals that He understands He is also needed to care for another sickness which cannot be healed by the intervention of a conventional physician.

“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.” (Matthew 9:12, 13)

Apparently, everyone at the party was sick. Jesus was there to heal them with His grace and presence. This was a sickness that was so serious that only divine mercy could heal it. It was the sickness of sin, the underlying condition of all mankind. This is a terminal illness.  It begins with a sick heart.  And it is healed when a broken heart, touched by mercy and made new.  That healing takes a Specialist.

During the season of Lent, we have an opportunity to take a look at the variants of sin. Jesus, our Physician, will get close to us. He will poke us with His probing Word. Some of those pokes will hurt. This is careful diagnostic work. But, in the end, our Specialist is by our side to bring His special healing.