Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Luke 5:31-32

In yesterday’s passage we saw the Pharisees’ choice to exclude themselves from the party that Levi the former tax-collector threw for Jesus. They were hurt and insulted by the choice of company that Jesus chose to keep. Today we see Jesus’ response to them … and us.

In one small parable, Jesus puts his finger on the problem: the Pharisees don’t see themselves as having a need for Jesus.

Look at what Jesus is saying: he’s calling sinners to repentance. But he’s not doing it in the way that everyone expected a preacher or a prophet to do it. He didn’t thunder speeches down on the sinful crowd or work miracles spreading disease or pestilence across the land until the people broke with repentance. Instead, he healed the sick and fed the hungry. He accepted sinners rather than rejecting them. And, in so doing, he turned them toward repentance.

There’s no place for the Pharisees in the ministry of Jesus. They aren’t sick. They aren’t hungry. They aren’t what they would consider “sinners” – “I’m a good person!” they’d say. Jesus didn’t create any space in his life for people who considered themselves righteous. Actually, that’s not entirely true.

The only role available for those who refuse to consider themselves among the “sinners” is the role of opponent, the role of persecutor, the role of murderer. The Pharisees carried a conviction of their own innocence all the way to Jesus’ cross … and beyond.

Let’s not slip into that place where we feel like our good behavior earns us a place in Jesus’ party. The main thing that keeps us from embracing the new life God has for us is our refusal to see our need for it.

Jesus offers you new life today. Will you acknowledge that you need it? Will you tell him that you need it again? Will you receive new life from Jesus today even if it means that you’re counted among the “sinners” that Jesus came to heal?