March 17, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him. With Him were His disciples. There were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?‘ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

(Mark 2.15-17)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Of course, Jesus was speaking of spiritual health in answering the question of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Without our spiritual health everything is fleeting and time bound. Perhaps this is what Paul was thinking when he wrote to the community of faith of Corinth, “No matter what I have or an able to do, if I do not have love, then I am a noisy gong and clanging cymbal; I draw attention to myself but don’t make much sense.” Yes, mighty ones of God, there are a lot of people who have power, possessions and position but they are limited by the hungering and thirsting in their soul. Stories of the Rich Young Ruler, Lazarus and the Rich Man and those in the Trilogy of Parables of the Lost point us in this direction. Without a loving spirit we can be ultimately lost forever. God never intended for us to be just people. God created His people and invested His Spirit in them and us. It is a critical mistake to think otherwise.

Who were those who were well? It would seem that it was those who knew themselves to be sinners and sought to be redeemed to live a changed life. I would think it would be those who recognized Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It would think it was that group of people who knew they needed God to overcome the condition that led them to be separated out from the rest of the community. Consider this: did the poor, the sick, the lame, the blind, the diseased and the dispossessed ever turn away the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law? Did they turn away Jesus? Or did they welcome them and Him? We do know of those stories where the demons cried out, “What do you have to do with us Jesus of Nazareth?” We know that Peter begged Jesus to depart from him because he was a sinner. The true sinner is the one who desires to keep the people of God away from God, including themselves. Sadly, too many had been convinced by false teachings and false religion that they were unredeemable and unworthy. Have we ever felt like that in any relationship? Have we felt our hearts sink, our spirits empty and our mind grow dark when that happens? And what of those who proposed such thinking? Did they actually believe they were so much better than even our company was unwelcome unless we served their ego-driven desire? What kind of spirit is that?

Once when Jesus was teaching in a crowded house, Mary and His half-brothers and sisters came to “rescue” Him. Word passed through the crowd that Jesus’ family was trying to get close to Him. Jesus responded, “These are my family; those who do the will of My Heavenly Father are My family.” What is the will of God for the broken world but to recognize their sin, repent, be made well spiritually (if not physically) and be reconciled. The sinners would be those who would refuse to do so and in their alienation alienate themselves from God and God’s people.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.