And Jesus answering said to them, They that are in sound health have not need of a physician, but those that are ill.
At a feast in the house of Levi, a tax collector, the religious teachers grumbled to the disciples about the company Jesus kept. His answer is one picture — a doctor and his patients — and everything turns on which group you think you belong to.
They aimed the complaint sideways — at the followers, not the Master. He stepped in before it could land.
C E StuartThe Pharisees might look on and murmur. But the Lord did not want the disciples troubled because they could not answer, or Matthew upset by such an intrusion. So He took up the question at once and closed the mouths of those murmurers. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
The attack on the meal gave Him the opening to say why He had come. Levi, also called Matthew, had thrown a great banquet; the Lord gave him something better.
C E StuartMatthew made the Lord "a great feast." The Lord made Matthew a greater one... The Master did not turn away from tax collectors and sinners. No — He came to call such people to repentance. He knew their moral state well, yet their eternal welfare was His concern. Who said that? Someone fit to be grouped with them? No. The very objection of the Pharisees was an admission that the Lord was morally above such people. His announcement showed that He would not stand at a distance from them.
Sickness is the reason a physician exists. So blaming Him for being among the sick makes no sense.
The Bible TreasuryWhy did they fail to receive their Messiah? Because in their own estimation they did not need one like Him. Why complain, then, that those who did feel their need of such a Saviour came to Him and were made welcome? What sort of physician refuses to treat anyone but the fit and healthy?
So who counts as healthy here? The Pharisees put themselves in that group.
Leslie M. GrantTheir rituals were only a cover-up for their own sins, but their proud self-righteousness did not admit this. This self-righteousness of the flesh is its worst feature. The Scribes and Pharisees were not cured because they would not admit they were diseased: they felt no need of correction. This itself is disease in its most advanced and alarming state.
Some writers put it as a matter of what a person supposes about himself.
Alfred E. BouterPeople who think they are healthy do not realise they need a physician. People who think they are righteous do not see their need of the Lord's gracious intervention.
The verse says nothing about the patients knowing they are ill. The first move is not theirs.
William KellyGranted that they were sick; they were exactly the people for the physician. It is not even said that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself as man presented in grace.
Sickness is not the whole of what is wrong with man.
W. W. FeredayMan is here shown to be both diseased and criminal. As the former, he needs healing; as the latter, he needs pardon. The Son of God is both Physician and Saviour, and beside Him there is no other.
To join the sick is to lose your reputation for being better than others. That is the real reason they objected.
The Christian's FriendGrace deals with all men on one common ground — that they are sinners. It levels their moral condition, and it comes only to those who need it. Man cannot bear this. What he always tries to do is to draw a line between righteousness and unrighteousness in man, so that he himself may have a certain standing before others. Belittling God's righteousness and magnifying our own always go together.
- Diagnosis. Everyone at the table was ill; only some knew it. Refusing to admit the disease is not health — it is "disease in its most advanced and alarming state."
- Doctor. A physician who treated only the fit and healthy would be no physician at all. His presence among sinners is the proof of His office, not a stain on it.
- Initiative. The verse never says the sick recognised their sickness. God knows the need and seeks the needy — the search starts with Him.
- Double cure. Sin leaves man both diseased and guilty. Christ comes as Physician and Saviour — healing for the one, pardon for the other.
- Level ground. Grace meets everyone on one footing: sinners. That is why people who prize being better than others still murmur at it.
I am not come to call righteous [persons], but sinful [ones] to repentance.
Levi the tax collector has just left his booth to follow Jesus. He has thrown a great feast, and his old associates fill the room. The religious leaders complain about the company Jesus keeps. His reply raises two questions: who are "the righteous," and what does it mean to be called "to repentance"?
The critics did not take their complaint to Jesus. They aimed it at His disciples, so He answered for them.
William KellyThey did not have the honesty to complain to Jesus, but took out their anger on His disciples. But the Lord answers for His people... Granted that they were sick; they were just the people for the physician. It is not even said that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself as man presented in grace.
Another writer names the error behind the complaint.
J. N. DarbyThey mistook the Lord altogether: He came to show how grace could deal with those who had no righteousness.
The Lord is not saying some people are good enough to need no Saviour. He is describing people as they appear to themselves.
C E StuartA new day had dawned. Those who thought themselves righteous (Luke 18:9) were like people in health, who did not need a physician. For such He had not come. No wonder they murmured!
But self-righteousness is not only their problem. It can live on even in sight of the cross.
Numerical Bible NotesBut sadly, we have not the least true claim to righteousness — and self-righteousness comes to us just as naturally. If we look around, we may quite easily find the Pharisee in the criminal's coat. Nearer still, in our own hearts, the spirit of Pharisaism is ready to spring out from under the shadow of the cross itself — the very cross that God appointed to condemn it.
The verse pairs a medical picture with a moral one. We need both to describe our condition.
W. W. FeredayMan is here shown to be both diseased and criminal. As the former, he needs healing; as the latter, he needs pardon. The Son of God is both Physician and Saviour, and beside Him there is no other.
The parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark stop at "sinners." Luke alone records the last two words. That is no accident.
William KellyNotice this. In the parallel passage of Matthew and of Mark, the best authorities leave out "to repentance." How far from the truth it is that repentance is a Jewish thing! Luke, according to the deep moral design of his Gospel, has these words.
So what is repentance? One writer sets the bar high.
Edward DennettScriptural repentance is nothing less than this: we side with God in His judgment of our sins. We take His part against ourselves. And so we bow in the dust before Him in true self-judgment.
Because "to repentance" is part of the verse, His welcome of sinners is no approval of their sins.
Hamilton SmithThey implied that the Lord was associating with sinners; His reply is that He was "calling" sinners out of their old life to follow Him. Grace to the sinner does not mean indifference to his sins.
Repentance is not a price we pay before grace arrives. Grace produces it.
Numerical Bible NotesHe is a physician looking for the sick. So He does not ignore men's need of repentance; He comes to bring them to it. It is knowing the goodness of God that brings men to it.
There are two doors into salvation, and most people try the wrong one.
C KnappThey want to enter by the saint's door, instead of the sinner's door... All the while they are turning their back on the door by which they are to enter... So long as you seek to do, or bring some worthy thing for salvation, you will find a closed door. Come as you are, come to Jesus with your sins, and accept the sinner's Saviour. Your need is your claim. Come to Christ as a sinner — not as a saint.
- Sick — Man is both diseased and guilty. He needs healing and pardon, and Christ is both Physician and Saviour.
- Sought — God knows the need and seeks the needy, even before the sick are aware they are sick.
- Excluded — Only one group stays outside: those who think themselves well. The Pharisee spirit can hide in any heart, even under the shadow of the cross.
- Called — Grace calls sinners out of their old life to follow Him; it never means indifference to their sins.
- Repentant — Luke alone adds "to repentance": taking God's side against yourself. His goodness is what brings you there — so come by the sinner's door, where your need is your claim.