Devotion - Wednesday, Oct 28

This morning I read Matthew 9:9-17. It is yet another dispute with the religious types of Jesus’ day. This time it is the Pharisees. They are critical of Jesus eating with “tax collectors and sinners.”

In response, Jesus utters words which should be familiar to us all: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

At some point in my life I heard it said that Jesus is making a jab at these folks who think of themselves as righteous. The implication being that are “sick” and in “need of a physician,” but that they are blind to this.

Following along on this line of reasoning, it isn’t folks who are “truly righteous” whom Jesus criticizes. It is those who pronounce themselves righteous. “How else,” one might ask, “can the righteous enter the kingdom of God?” “It is those who are converted, from sinners to righteous who enter God’s eternal rest,” one might add.

While in no way advocating a constant and continual state of sinfulness, I do affirm a saying by Martin Luther that the members of the true Church are simultaneously saints and sinners. We are saints in that Christ’s death and resurrection has saved us; we are sinners in that we are (on this side of our own death and resurrection) separated from God. It isn’t the thoughts, words, and actions (sin with a small “s”) which is noted here. It is Sin (capital “S”) as a condition of existence. This existence is ours until that time when we are resurrected to be with Christ forever.

There was a t-shirt sold at this summer’s youth gathering. It is script letters which spell out “sinner” when looked at from one angle and “saint” when the t-shirt is rotated 180 degrees. What an appropriate reminder that we do remain forever in need of a physician. We are constantly needful of Christ’s forgiveness. But, we can be confident that the work of Christ has indeed done what needs to be done. We can be confident in our status as “saints” in the one true holy, catholic Church.