Today’s Gospel lesson teaches us a spiritual truth while using rather conventional wisdom. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

How do you know that you are sick instead of well and should go to see the physician? Usually the symptoms. You have a fever? You must be sick. You have a cough, weakness, pain, etc., you must be sick. There you go. Of course, the sick should go to the doctor, to find out how to become well once more or at least alleviate the symptoms. The “well”, that is the “healthy” should probably save their money as they have no trouble that needs treatment.

Ah, but you see the trouble is this: some illnesses have few visible symptoms until it is far advanced. This is not to terrify you, but it is the truth. Recently, for example, 41 year old NASCAR driver Kyle Busch died of sepsis, which is the catastrophic collapse and shutting down of the body in response to some other issue or illness within the body. He had some symptoms, but he and his doctors did not take them seriously until it was too late. Many other things are like that. Heart Disease, Various cancers, etc. When it comes to our physical health, there may not be signs and symptoms, but then again there may be signs and symptoms, but a person may not recognize them, or they may choose to ignore them: “I’m just getting old”, “I don’t want to bother anyone”, “I’m tough, I can handle it”, “I hate doctors”. You see, they do not want to admit that there is a problem until it is too late.

Such is also the case when it comes to the Spiritual state of mankind. The difference between the Spiritual and the physical health of people is that I would argue that the symptoms of spiritual illness are far more obvious and definitive than many of our physical ailments. I am sure all of you know what this disease is: It is sin. What is the symptom? Death… and all its accompaniments: sickness, evil, frustration, sadness, thorns, poverty, greed, pride, etc. Sin is the falling short of God’s perfect healthy Law which Adam and Eve were first created to live. Before sin, there was nothing but good health of both the body and the soul. When Adam and Eve sinned, death entered into the picture. You see, there is a direct connection between the spirit and the body and its well being. They are not separate. Once the spirit and mind became tainted with sin by rebellion against the health of God’s pure Law, the bodies of humanity began to wear and bear the symptoms of sin and death even as God had warned them. Sin is the sickness: a disease that effects the mind, and then also the body ending in a terminal prognosis: death, death of the body here in time, but also eternal death and punishment in Hell. Holy Scripture reveals the diagnosis, the prognosis, and the solution. Creation itself, beautiful as it is, tells us that something is wrong through death and violent events.

There are some people who do not know how to read the signs within themselves, society, or creation correctly nor understand what exactly is wrong or what to do about it because they have not heard the truth of Holy Scripture. But there are others who simply do not care to deal with it, even if they have been told the why in Christian witness. They choose to ignore the symptoms of spiritual illness and collapse. There are many, who when told what is the matter and what is the cure still insist that they are well and/or have no need of help. They will use similar excuses as those who can detect something is amiss with their physical bodies but mysteriously refuse treatment. Perhaps some even enjoy and take pride in the symptoms of this disease of sin. Or they say something like: “I’m not that bad a sinner”. “I don’t need God. I can handle it myself.” “How dare you call me a sinner”?

That was the case in the Gospel lesson for today. Many tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to eat with Him and speak with Him and His disciples. At least this was the perspective of the Pharisees. The dregs of society are going to Jesus and He doesn’t send them away? How could He be a teacher sent from God? Surely, He would not want to hang with such scum if He were a “Holy Man”. For it was to the attitude of the Pharisees that Jesus said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

Did Jesus mean that only some are spiritually sick with sin and need help from God? That those who are spiritually well don’t need Him? As though there is a way to become well without His help? NO. that is not what He meant. As Romans 3:23 says: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. But you see, the Pharisees saw themselves as well, as spiritually holy, healthy, hale, and hearty. They are doing just fine. “I can keep the Law, thank you very much, and to show just how holy I am, I and my brother Pharisees will add to God’s Law to show just how healthy and good we are.”

But it was all for show. As Jesus laments in Matthew 23: “The scribes and the Pharisees do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues.” (Mt. 23:5,6)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So, you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Mt. 23:27,28)
To humans, appearances are deceiving, but God knows the heart. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. In other words, outward sacrifice with a heart that is proud and unrepentant is not well though it may appear so to others. Just saying that you are holy and just, that you are a good person and spiritually healthy and does not help does not make it so. In fact, the road to “spiritual wellness” and health is going to the physician Jesus Christ in repentance, by admitting that you are not well, that you are a sinner, that you need the help that only God can give by His mercy. This is the sacrifice that pleases God as it is written in Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, you will not despise, O Lord.”

So, we also flee to the Great Physician, Jesus Christ. The Law has exposed our death sentence and the seriousness of our sin, but Jesus tells us the cure: believe in Him. Have faith in His mercy and love. He will take your sin and mine, drawing it from you, and infusing it upon Himself. That is why Jesus came to earth. To be the right and true sacrifice. The One who takes the punishment, the burden, the sickness, and wretched estate of sin from us and places it upon His pure and Holy self. He died upon the cross with those sins, and each time that we look to Him, confess and are absolved, He removes those sins from us once more and covers us with the robes of His righteousness by the forgiveness of sins.

We then gather at table fellowship with Jesus. Now the world may look and see sinners of various kinds and labels us as such, but now for the sake of Christ, we are forgiven, we are healed and healing. We are declared spiritually well, and by the Holy Spirit working in us faith, gratitude, joy, and hope, we are then also made well.

Good Works, those things which the Pharisees took so much pride in, are important. But good works are not done in pride of ourselves, nor to show how good and healthy we now think we are compared to others. Lives of believers should strive to show good works to God’s glory, to the praise of Him, to the good of our neighbors. As Jesus said in Matthew 5: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

So then “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” applies to us in relation to our neighbor. We who have received mercy from God, we who have received the medicine of immortality in the Sacrament of the Altar in the precious blood and body of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, how could we not also show the symptom of Spiritual health by being merciful to others? We seek to care for and love others as God has loved us. We seek to heal people in their physical or mental troubles by pointing to them to their greater Spiritual needs and their fulfillment in Christ and faith in Him from which all true health begins.

Though we are made spiritually well by the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ, we will always have need for our Physician. We return week after week to the place of His Divine Service. This is more than a check up with an earthly doctor. This is where we come tired, battered, and bruised by the ongoing attacks of sin in our bodies and souls, attacked by the devil, the world, and our flesh. Here the Lord once more applies the salve and healing ointment of baptismal remembrance, He comforts us with the forgiveness of sins and His love in Jesus Christ, He prescribes His Word and Supper, and because Jesus Christ has been crucified and raised triumphant, we have our prognosis: eternal life and joy forever for Jesus Christ’s sake and in His name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas