To grumble not at Jesus but at His disciples--what a passive-aggressive way for the Pharisees and scribes to behave. They had the legal authority (and personalities) to chastise Jesus; instead, they directed their challenge to the ones they were insulting.

And I imagine this ragtag dinner party had no idea how to respond. All of it was so new: They just met Jesus, so while they were thinking He was maybe the long-waited Messiah, they couldn't have been 100 percent sure. Not to mention they were, in fact, hanging out with society's most despised--a category that included a few of them. Certainly the Pharisee' question had crossed the minds of everyone sitting at the table.

I'll bet they leaned in to hear Jesus' response.

He had recently gained a lot of notoriety. People were traveling from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem to hear Him preach and see Him heal. No doubt the assumption of the religious leaders was that He'd be impressive--that He'd look and behave like them; like someone worthy of the reports they were getting.

On the contrary.

Instead, they found a normal-looking guy, hanging out with normal people, doing normal people things like eating--that is, when He wasn't casting out demons and making blind men see. Luke 5:29 says that Jesus was "reclining at [the] table with them." He was relaxed and shooting the breeze. He was getting to know them (and they Him) when the Pharisees showed up at Matthew's house uninvited.

I wonder if they rang the doorbell before barging in. I wonder if they stood in the corner whispering like middle school girls. I wonder if they grumbled loudly but pretended Jesus couldn't hear them from three feet away. I wonder if they came prepared with specific questions but changed course when they saw Jesus with the riffraff. I wonder if anyone at the table was offended by their question, or if they were too used to being hated and judged to care. I wonder if the Pharisees' question endeared the insulted gusts to Jesus all the more.

Surely His answer did.

I'll see your passive-aggressive, indirect question and raise you with an indirect statement of my own--I'm calling sinners to repentance, not the righteous.

Hmm. While His answer shut them up (which was no doubt fun for the spectators), I have a feeling the Pharisees sensed the meaning of Romans 3:10-12 "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, no, not one."

Perhaps a more direct response would've been, "I'm hanging out with the people who know they need me. I don't hang out with people who are too self-righteous to know they need me. But do you need me. All y'all desperately do." 

PRAYER FOCUS

Thank God for offering health for your sin sickness and ask Him to give you the same soft heart toward the "sick" that Christ had.

MOVING FORWARD

• What are the areas of your life where you need a "physician"?
• When have you been guilty of the Pharisees' judgment here?
• Who do you know who wouldn't be considered "healthy" by church leaders, and how can you treat them as Jesus treated the "sick"?