The Whole or The Healthy Have No Need of a Physician

First, my apologies to those who may be wondering why I am dealing with such a milky subject as this when perhaps I should be focussing on the more meaty matters of The Holy Scriptures. Well, you might be surprised to know that there are many out there who profess to be Bible scholars and teachers and yet don’t understand The Lord’s words on this subject and actually construe it to mean something merely one dimensional (no Spiritual dimension) rather than it being two dimensional i.e. physical and Spiritual.

Now what did Yashua Anointed actually mean when He uttered these words? Was He speaking literally? Was He being facetious? Was He being sarcastic? Was He taking the mickey and thereby mocking those for whom these words were truly intended? In order to answer these questions, let’s quote the verse that’s central to the issue:

Matt 9:12 (KJV) But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

First of all, we need to address this opening part: “But when Jesus heard that.” So OK, what did The Lord hear? This:

Matt 9:10-11 (KJV) And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

Now was The Lord dealing with any physical illnesses here in these verses? Were these publicans and sinners sick in a physical way? We’re not told, so it must be safe to say that they were not sick physically, even though just prior to that The Lord had been healing the sick:

Matt 9:6-7 (KJV) But that ye may know that The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house.

OK, so we’re not dealing with physical illness we’re dealing with publicans and sinners whom The Lord likened to those who are in need of a physician. However, not a physician in the ordinary sense but, rather, a Spiritual Physician that could forgive them and heal them Spiritually from their sins.

The Pharisees, though, asked the disciples in a shocked way why The Lord was eating with sinners, because they would never dream of doing such a thing. They were far too righteous and Law abiding to be associating with such people or to stoop down to such a degrading level, such was their high and mighty opinion of themselves through all their obedience to The Law and The Commandments. These guys were perfect in every way when it came to keeping The Commandments – every ‘i’ was dotted and every ‘t’ crossed, every ordinance observed. However, these publicans and sinners were the complete opposite of everything The Pharisees stood for – they were an anathema to them. Yet there was Yashua Anointed wining and dining with them and then, just to add insult to injury, He makes this mocking remark aimed directly at The Pharisees: “They that be whole (healthy) have no need of a physician.”

The thing is, did He at any time mean this remark to apply literally? Was He saying that certain people i.e. those like The Pharisees who kept The Commandments, could enter Eternal Life and The Kingdom by being whole or healthy without Him as their Saviour (The Physician)? I ask this because some believe that to be so and yet in contrast Jeremiah and Ezekiel sum it all up so succinctly here:

Jer 17:9 (KJV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Ezek 11:19 (KJV) And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

The heart of mankind and humankind is stony hard, deceitful and desperately wicked, and not some hearts, but all the hearts of mankind and humankind are stony hard, deceitful and desperately wicked – no exceptions. So what does this mean? It means that everyone is in need of Yashua Anointed’s redemptive sacrifice and the blessings of His resurrection – Grace. No stony hard heart Law keeping or Commandment keeping of a ‘healthy man’ can save that man, he must be given a heart of flesh and only The Father can do that.

So does this mean that Yashua Anointed was being facetious, sarcastic, cutting and derisive when He said that the whole have no need of a physician? You bet your life He was and make no mistake about it.

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