Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick?
Luke 5:31-32(MSG) Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”
Why did Jesus say this? Here is the text just before Jesus’s statement above:
Luke 5:30(NIV) But the 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?”
Why did Jesus use the doctor analogy?
The doctor analogy illustrates that Jesus’s mission was to help those spiritually sick. This was the purpose of His teachings: To save those who heard and applied His teachings.
Jesus confirmed His mission with the statement, “I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”
Luke 5:32(NKJV) I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
John 6:38(NKJV) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 12:49(NKJV) For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
Jesus came to save sinners, which includes all of us. He loves us, welcomes us into His presence, and calls us to follow Him. As we walk with Him, He transforms us and makes us fit for His Kingdom.