Two types of people: But only one has hope

What is below the waterline of your heart and mine? Our lives are all full of action from eating to sleeping to working to recreation to education and to every relationship in any given day. In the midst of all that activity, have you taken stock in the condition of your heart... the deepest part of who you are... below the visible water line of life?

Jesus interacted with two types of people in the first century A.D. He continues to interact with those same types of people. There is an irony in the interaction. Here is the perfect Jesus Who was able to be on the cross in our place to pay the price for our sins because He was sinless. None of us are.

So, one might wonder if this sinless Messiah would be drawn to mainly “good acting people” that “seemed” to be sinless too. But exactly the opposite happened then and continues to happen now.

We get hints along the way in the first four books of the New Testament as to what is going on. In Matthew 9:12, Jesus says this unexpected thing: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” You might ask, “why is that unusual?” Well, even physically, we need to assess correctly whether we need a doctor or not. Have you ever known someone who, even boastingly, says, “I don’t ever need to go to a doctor because I can take care of matters myself.” Well, I hope we care about living in healthy ways, but that doesn’t always cover every medical issue we face. Sometimes, we need to humbly admit that we need medical help.

In our Matthew 9 Scripture, Jesus is in the midst dining with some questionable characters... at least, questionable in the prideful eyes of some folks known as Pharisees. You see, as a group, these guys thought that they had it all together in their religious walk. They needed no outside help. They were efficient and proficient in this religion thing. Strange thing, though. They were as far away from God as you could get. If the truth be known, they really didn’t even need much of God’s help to have this “religion thing” down pat.

The other folks, labeled as “sinners” knew they needed help and they knew Jesus could help them. I have a retired pastor colleague who had a ministry in the Las Vegas area. He said, “out here, we don’t need to convince people that they are sinners. They already know it!”

Here’s our point, folks: Let’s be people who know our extreme need of Jesus as our “Whole Life” Great Physician, spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Then, we are living below the waterline. Then, we have hope!