Matthew 9:12-13
Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
When we are sick, we want a physician who can diagnose that illness correctly. And sometimes we'll encounter medical problems that requires a second opinion. Getting the diagnosis right takes an experienced eye, but it might just be that an inspired inexperienced hunch will help us to experience something better. So much of the healing arts requires experimentation. It's like diagnosing anything, you follow the process of elimination to narrow down the symptoms and hopefully discover what's not happening. If you're approach is to broadly follow your gut, you'll spend a great deal of time trying new things and failing quite a bit. Likewise, if you don't think outside the box, you'll miss something new when you've only been focused upon the formulated patterns.
So often we can get stuck in a canned method for approaching matters of faithfulness. We're basically making God into a routine, almost as if his healing and mercy has more to do with our own actions than His. And sometimes we'll get so stuck up in our approach that we won't hear the truth when it comes in a different package. We don’t want to hear the physician’s diagnosis, because treatment means a change needs to happen and change is painful. We don't like change. Churches don't like change.
Churches are forever trying to pour new wine into old skins. The second opinion might force us into a new way of life, and we don’t want that. When Jesus, the Great Physician, comes to offer an abstract and unusual diagnose of our spiritual illness, sometimes we just don’t want to hear His new opinion. And the ironic thing is, his diagnosis is nothing new really, just not what we've been doing for a very long time.
In Matthew chapters 8 and 9 we are seeing Jesus the Great Physician, healing and curing all sorts of human suffering. And throughout each instance of these miraculous healings there runs a common thread, Jesus continually diagnoses the importance of sin in our lives, and he teaches that our need is truly spiritual. Jesus heals a skin disease and teaches obedience. Jesus heals demonic possessions and teaches about the sovereignty of God. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and a hemorrhaging woman and talks about forgiveness of sin. He deals with mind, body and spirit. Some will respond and be made well, while others resist even refusing to be healed.
Jesus sees the whole of all human conditions as unresolved spiritual issues. Today we call this spiritual warfare. The paralysis that afflicted the man who was brought to Jesus by his friends was obviously beyond diagnosis, or at least beyond anyone's skill and understanding. Jesus takes a look and approaches the situation from an entirely different place; "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
Did Jesus forgiving his sins cure the illness? I don't think so. I think the King of the Universe recreated in him what ever needed recreating in order for his health to be restored. And he saw a deeper need for healing. He saw sin-sickness. And maybe that sin caused or contributed to the illness, we don't know. But we do know that Jesus forgave his sins. He was a sinner and now he's forgiven.
Accountability. Jesus takes into account the wholistic prognosis. He's done something miraculous and before he moves on he makes sure that he cures the heart of all our problems...sin. If he didn't tell him his sins are forgiven he'd be leaving him in a state of sickness and suffering. He purified him, mind, body, and spirit. And the result was obedience and faith.
Jesus connected physical illnesses and spiritual diseases. And Jesus' approach is to offer forgiveness. Some believe that the body catches the disease of the mind and heart. The old skins are being filled with new wine and it's about to burst like an inflamed appendicitis. Jesus frees us to heal. He tells us we don’t have to be what somebody else wants us to be. We can be what God calls us to be. We can be forgiven by him and follow him.
“Your sins are forgiven.”
And the old skins will murmur.
Some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming”
These formulaic men are disconnected from the healer. They are angry, resentful, and hostile to these new works of the Lord. He's obviously got the right ideas and solutions, the miraculous events prove that, but his lack of conformity to the way things are done is a serious concern for them. They are sin-sick people just like all the rest, but they refuse to connect the dots. They need forgiveness of sin. And Jesus does pray for them.
The church of Jesus Christ is a hospital for sin sickness, for connection and restoration. It’s not just a social convention to obey. It’s not just a place to visit Sunday mornings, to see and be seen. It's meant to be a place that realizes that you can't put new wine into old skins. It's a place that helps the people to see God at work. It's a connected community that helps cure spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness, spiritual depression, and the poison of old habits. This church can be smelly, but it's not musty and dusty. It sounds strange and looks unusual, but it's bringing new gifts, new possibilities, new people, and that's what frightens a lot of people. These sick people keep coming and they're bringing all their stuff and news ways of doing things with them.
And Jesus comes along...opening up old wounds, healing new wounds, and making people feel welcome again in the kingdom of God. People who need help get the help they need, and for some, that's a problem. They're threatened by these new wine people. Their old wines skins can't hold them. And that's the problem, that's the disease.
Q: So, what's the cure for old wine skin diseases?
A: Acts chapter two.
The only way to reverse the old skin infection is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The "old wineskins" were changed into new. With the outpouring of The Holy Spirit, they could finally begin to comprehend the spiritual depths of Jesus' teachings and fully benefit from being in Christ. Whether it's in prayer and fasting, in holiness standards, in righteousness and piety programs, all these typical religious practices (old skins) are activated and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, the Great Physician's prescription is his presence in The Holy Spirit.
Let us pray:
Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful.
Kindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
Who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Holy Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
#HolySpirit