"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)
Why did Jesus say this?
Here is the text just before Jesus' statement above:'Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect* complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"' (Luke 5:30)The phrase, 'teachers of the law who belonged to their sect' is being translated from the Greek αὐτός (autos) followed by γραμματεύς (grammateus). The word γραμματεύς (grammateus) means "a clerk, scribe, especially a public servant, secretary, recorder, whose office and influence differed in different states." This indicates a better translation to 'their scribes', or 'their secretaries', as in 'Pharisees and their scribes.'
The question posed by these teachers and their assistants was offensive, yet Jesus patiently explained to them his purpose and mission, using symbolism.
Jesus used an analogy when he said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."
What does Jesus' doctor analogy mean?
Jesus' "doctor" analogy serves to illustrate that Jesus' mission was to help those who were spiritually sick. This was the purpose of his teachings: To save those who heard and applied his teachings.Jesus confirms his mission with the statement, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
The word "call" is derived from the Greek word καλέω (kaleō), which means, according to the lexicon, "to call aloud, utter in a loud voice" and "to invite."
This illustrates Jesus' mission to invite us back home to the spiritual realm. He was calling us to come home.
Consider what a mother does when she leans out the back door to call her children in for dinner. She calls out in a loud voice, "children, come in for dinner!" She is calling them home. She is inviting them back into the house so they can eat dinner.
This is what Jesus was doing. Jesus was embarked by the Supreme Being to bring us back to the spiritual realm. He was executing God's invitation. God wants us to come home to Him.
This is why Jesus also said:
"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me." (John 6:38)
"My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me." (John 7:16)
"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it." (John 12:49)In other words, Jesus came to deliver us a message from God. The Supreme Being sent Jesus to re-introduce us to God and invite us back to the spiritual realm.
Was Jesus a healer?
Jesus is utilizing an analogy about being a healer. But was Jesus a healer? He did after all, heal a few people's bodies.Yet it is clear by his teachings that Jesus' central mission wasn't to heal people's physical bodies. If Jesus was a healer - a doctor - why didn't he set up a hospital and line all the sick people up and heal them all day long? Why did he spend so much time preaching about loving and serving God?
Yes, Jesus was a spiritual teacher. He taught about spiritual life. He is God's representative. And his healings were only accomplished to increase the faith of those who did not trust his teachings.
Jesus was trying to heal people's spirit.
We are not these physical bodies. Each of us has our own unique spiritual body, which sits within the physical body much as a driver sits down inside a car. And everyone in the spiritual realm is energetic and vibrant. The spiritual realm is not an extension of the physical world, where our old, decomposing bodies dwell. Our physical bodies decompose in the ground after we leave them at death.
Where is heaven?
Heaven is a place of love. This is where we belong. We don't belong in the physical realm. The physical world is a temporary place. Everything here dies. We are not these physical bodies, and this is why these physical bodies get sick and die.Because of this misunderstanding of our identity, some have conjured up many speculative images of heaven and the Supreme Person. They imagine God to be this white-haired old guy and heaven to be a bunch of old people sitting around on cloud-tops playing harps all day.
Is this what heaven is? Sitting around all day with an old guy?
The spiritual realm is a beautiful place. It is a dimension that maintains many activities - just as the physical world maintains activities, but to a much greater degree.
The spiritual realm is a place of loving relationships and blissful activities. Every citizen of the spiritual realm is engaged in a loving, caregiving relationship with the Supreme Being. These relationships are full of joy and happiness, and lots of activities. The Supreme Being is not an old guy with white hair. He is ever-youthful. He is all-attractive. He is the Most Beautiful Being in the universe, and everyone loves and cherishes Him in their own unique way.
He thus enjoys innumerable relationships with each of His children, because He can expand Himself infinitely. There is no limitation to the power and the glory of the Supreme Being. His Personality is so attractive that everyone in the spiritual realm wants to be with Him every moment. And when they are not with Him they are thinking of Him, missing Him. All of these feelings are completely fulfilling and blissful to each of the citizens of the spiritual realm.
In fact, the citizens of the spiritual realm see Him as their Best Friend and Beloved. They are consumed with their love for Him and their caregiving activities for Him.
This is because we are each creatures of love. None of us can live without love. This is the commonality amongst every living being - we each need to love and be loved. And we each need an infinite amount of love - which only can be supplied by the Supreme Being - the infinite resource of love and loving relationships.
What does being sick mean?
Those who are "sick" - the "sinners" as Jesus describes us, are those who are self-centered. This is confirmed by the use of the word ἁμαρτωλός (hamartōlos), an adjective of the word ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) meaning "to err," "to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong" and "to wander from the law of God, violate God's law." And what is "God's law" founded upon?"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'" (Luke 10:27 and Deut. 6:5)We are "sick" because we are looking to make ourselves happy. This is the opposite of love. Love is wanting to make someone else happy. And the spiritual realm is that place where everyone is focused upon making the Supreme Being and His associates happy. They are in love with God.
The word "repentance" in Jesus' statement is being translated from the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia), which means "a change of mind."
To embrace our relationship with God requires we change. We must be willing to change our consciousness from being self-centered to being God-centered. And the way back home is to rekindle our loving, caregiving relationship with the Supreme Being.
This is the world Jesus is inviting us back to. This is our home, and Jesus is calling us home.
