Total Pageviews

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The sick: Part 2


Image courtesy of Graur Razvan Ionut

"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. Jesus, drawing a contrast in what His attitude toward sinners is versus what the Pharisees attitude toward sinners is. He reveals the Pharisees' attitude toward the sick.

The sick.  As mentioned in part 1 of this devo, this is that time of year when a lot of people start getting sick.  As a matter of fact at school, yesterday we had two people out sick.  Given that this is that time of year, people either stay home or keep their distance from people in order to avoid getting sick or getting others sick.  To a certain extent, this same principle is true of the spiritually sick. This morning we will look briefly at the fact that sometimes it is the spiritually sick that avoid the "healthy" but sometimes it is the "healthy" that avoid the spiritually sick.

The sick.  I find it amusing when I come in contact with a sick person, they say something along the lines of "You might not want to get too close to me, I am sick and I don't want to get you sick."  To be quite honest I normally still shake their hand or give them a hug anyway.  Although it's only been a handful of times, I have run into these sort of people in my ministry who think because they are spiritually sick, they don't think they deserve the love of God displayed through Jesus Christ and are therefore unwilling to receive it through obedience to the gospel.  This puts anyone in a predicament, simply because they recognize that they need help but they don't want the eternal help that is offered to them.  These are the people that require the most patience and encouragement on our part. But then we have the fact that many Christians simply avoid the sick altogether.

The sick.  Jesus was questioned as to why He was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  The Pharisees we know avoided these kind of people altogether and were petrified at the fact that Jesus would associate with all these people.  I hate to admit that there have been times where I have been guilty of this myself and it is something that all Christians need to be careful of, avoiding the sick just because they are sick.

The sick.  Given that this concludes our series on the sick, we simply need to ask ourselves what is our attitude toward the sick?  What will happen more often than not, we will see someone deep in their own sin and in our minds think the situation is hopeless.  Or how about this scenario? We see someone who is just a little different than us and avoid them or worse not take the initiative to share Christ with them simply because they are a little bit "different."  The approach with every person needs to be different but as I have mentioned in previous blogs, the gospel is for everybody.  John 3:16 tells us that God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  Given that God gave His Son for the entire world in itself shows that the gospel is for everybody.  We cannot be like the Pharisees who would avoid certain people simply because they were "different" or so deep in their own sin that it seemed impossible for God to love them.

My encouragement to you this morning is this, encourage the sick, help the sick out of their sin sickness by helping them take steps to get out of their sin.  Share the gospel with the sick and most importantly remember the words of Jesus "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician but those who are sick."  

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!

No comments:

Post a Comment