Do you believe the message in the above Facebook post?[1] I don’t, but that’s me, how about you, and are you able to defend your position? Folks who take a stand about certain issues, if they claim to be Christian need to consider, if that position is defensible, because we shall be judged for the things we do in this life (2Corinthians 5:10). Those of us, who leave the things we believe to others, and submit to their teaching, need to pause a moment and consider, if that is wise. As for me, I’d rather be punished for something I did, because I was wrong, than be punished for what someone else did, and he or she being wrong, I enter into their punishment. But, lets unpack what the author above claims is true and see, if he or she is correct. Shall we?
First, let’s look at what Luke claims and see if that fits with this person’s interpretation:
“But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:30-32).
Note, first, that it is the self-righteous, scribes and Pharisees who are taking issue with what Jesus and his disciples are doing (Luke 5:30). The question is put to Jesus’ disciples, but it is Jesus who replies to them, or at least Luke records only Jesus’ reply. So, Jesus claims that the reason he is eating with “publicans and sinners” is because they aren’t whole, vis-à-vis in the sense that they aren’t healthy or they are not uncorrupt and are, therefore, in need of a physician.
Think about Jesus’ metaphor, the physician and the sick or they who are in the state of decay, for a moment. He applies this to himself and to the publicans and sinners respectively. Do the sick normally heal themselves or is it the physician that heals them? If it is the physician who heals the sick, then how does the above posting fit the scripture it claims to interpret correctly?
The author of the above Facebook post claims the sinners must do something about themselves before they can be accepted by Christ. Am I not correct in saying this about the author’s claim? “Jesus ate with sinners NOT because he wanted to appear… accepting. If Jesus didn’t accept the publicans and sinners as they are (were then), how could they change from what they are (were then) into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). Without having known the Gospel of Christ, which offers us the image of God (John 1:1, 14; Hebrews 1:3), how could we ever be conformed to that image of God that is Christ (cp. 2Corinthians 3:18)?
I have no problem believing that the author of this Facebook post is sincere, but he or she is sincerely wrong. If Christ doesn’t accept us “as we are” (Romans 5:8), and dwells with us “as we are” (John 1:1, 14), we have no image before us, which we could imitate, or to which we could be conformed, and keep in mind that it is not we who do the work of changing. It is the Spirit of God within us that changes us into the image of Christ, according to Paul (2Corinthians 3:18). Our sole responsibility seems to be keeping Christ before us, being attentive to his words and behavior, which the Gospel narratives give us. That’s our work, the changing part come by the Spirit of God, and I think the author of the above Facebook post misses that.
The final verse in the text above is: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). What does Jesus mean by saying this? To begin with, according to Genesis 3 mankind rebelled against God. We had decided to figure things out on our own, vis-à-vis eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has to do with deciding for ourselves what’s good and what isn’t. In other words, our natural impulse is to not consider the word of God. In fact, left to ourselves, we wouldn’t want any input from God (Romans 1:28). This is what we need to repent of. The Spirit within us will take care of our sins and the corruption in our hearts. That’s what a physician does. He heals. Our responsibility is to get to hospital, get into the presence of the Physician by ceasing to try to do things on our own. In Eden, the gate into the presence of God was shut (Genesis 3:22-24), but in Christ the Gate (John 10:9) is open (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:19-22).
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[1] This Facebook post was copied by someone in my family and pasted to her Facebook page in 2025. I took issue with it then, and we engaged in, what I perceived to be a friendly exchange of ideas about its interpretation. While the Facebook post isn’t political in itself, I perceived, because of her background, that she was referring to illegal immigrants, and our discussion did deal with that issue among other things, including the policies of President Trump. I don’t believe minds were changed in the discussion, but I do trust the Lord will lead us both into his truth.
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