The call of Jesus

Matthew 9: 9-13; Mark 2: 13-17; Luke 5: 27-32

Mark 2:17

  

¹⁷When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

I am always surprised by those who respond to the call of Jesus to discipleship. There is in my own culture a massive resistance to discipleship; to living as Jesus did and taught. The preference of the faithful appears to be a dying denominationalism. The paradoxical result is the abandonment of the real distinctive of being a follower of Jesus and the acceptance of an identity imposed by the institutions that regulate Christian belief and practice. It appears we have become reliant on regimes of power and authority outside of God’s word. The Christian distinctive appears to be derived from expressions of powerful institutional vested interests that flow through communities of believers. The people of God appear committed to staying within these powerful rivers of denominational expression. Every now and again we step out of our denominations and gather in conventions to hear from distant people what the Lord has to say to us. We desire to be part of a gathering not generally available locally and a word we cannot hear nearby. For a time, we can see what life might be like and pretend to be one people with One God speaking with one voice. For a short time we are one. Or are we?  When Matthew responded to the call of Jesus he identified with the oneness of those who follow Jesus. The thing that we all hold in common is our tendency to meet our needs our own way; we recognise we are not righteous people with a monopoly on the truth but rather we are sinners. Our tendency is to distort the story to our own ends. The more we know about Jesus the worse sinners we realise we are and we begin to understand how much we really need Jesus, His teachings and His practices.  Only those who recognise they are sick seek medical help. People who actually believe they are well and seek medical help are malingerers; they are pretenders and are not admitting they have a problem they are simply involved in deception. Jesus spent His time helping the sick because the healthy don’t need Him.  How healthy are we? Do we recognise that the sickness of denominationalism displaces the authority of the Word of God? When we meet in this summer’s conventions and festivals and experience being one people under the authority of God’s Word will we bring this truth back to our lives in our local community? Jesus prayed that we might be one in His prayer on the night when he was betrayed.  May it be that we practice the unity and hospitality of being one people who recognise the sickness of division at the end of our festivals of preaching as we do during them. May we unite around the Story of God as revealed in Jesus; take His teachings seriously and live recognising our profound need to live as Jesus taught.