Yesterday, we looked at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible where different people responded to a seemingly unexpected invitation by Jesus to someone who was far from God to follow Him. As this story continues, however, we see Jesus overhear the rebellious response of religious people to His unexpected invitation. Jesus then enters into the conversation between religious people and His disciples and reveals for us a timeless reality when it comes to the Christmas story:
But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. "But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew 9:12-13 NASB
Jesus responds to the religious people of His day and their criticism with a metaphor to explain his actions. You see, a physician, whose whole purpose is to cure physical ailments, does not spend a lot of time while he is at work seeing healthy people. And we intuitively know this, don’t we? I mean, you usually do not go to the doctor because you want to, do you? You usually don’t say “I know what I’ll do today; I like going to the doctor so much that I’ll make an appointment to go today, even though I am healthy”. No, almost always, we go to the doctor because we have to. We have to go because we are ill, or have been ill, or need a check up to prove we are not ill.
Jesus then takes this metaphor and applies it to his actions and to the Pharisees religious lack of action when it came to those who were far from God. Jesus enters into this conversation and commands these religious people to read their Bibles again. Jesus quotes a section of a letter in the Bible written by the prophet Hosea where God had condemned the Jewish people for focusing on religious rituals instead of focusing on displaying a faithful devotion to God and to those around them who were far from God and were lost, hurting and broken.
Jesus then explains that just like a physician, His focus was for those who were far from God and were separated from Him. When Jesus states that He did not come to call the righteous, He is explaining that He did not come to invite those who are right before God. Instead Jesus states that He came to earth to call sinners. Jesus entered into humanity to call those who were far from God and were outsiders back to God. You see, Jesus did not enter into humanity to see those who were close to Him; Jesus entered into humanity to rescue what was furthest from Him, the outsiders.
And as Matthew looked back on his encounter with Jesus; as Matthew sat down to write, by God’s inspiration the letter that is now a part of our Bibles, Matthew recognized that he was not simply a part of the Christmas story, he was the point of the Christmas story. As Matthew sat down to write the divinely inspired account of Jesus life that we have in our Bibles today, Matthew wanted to communicate to us today that the reality is that the Christmas story is not something that we are simply a part of; the reality is that the Christmas story is all about us; we are not a part of the Christmas story; we are the point of the Christmas story. Jesus came to earth to pursue and rescue those who were far from God. And as Matthew wanted readers of his letter to understand, the Christmas story is the story of God giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away.
And to prove to the Jewish people that they were the point of the Christmas story, Matthew reveals for us that Jesus came from people who were flawed, broken, and far from God. And this morning, we are the same way aren’t we? This morning, that is who I was apart from Christ. And this morning, that is who you are apart from Christ. Jesus came so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God.
And as we will see in these weeks leading up to Christmas, Jesus family tree was filled with those who needed to be brought back to God; who needed to be rescued and restored back to the relationship with God that they were created for. And as we go through this series, Jesus family tree represents our family tree. We can identify with our selfishness, our sin, our flawed and broken nature, because we will see those same characteristics from those in Jesus family tree.
And we will see that Jesus came to earth not because He was the point of the story; Jesus came because we are the point of the story; The Christmas story is about bringing rescue and repair. Because this morning, some 2000 years later, we are not a part of the Christmas story; we are the point of the Christmas story.
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