They That Are Whole

Luke records a time when Jesus went to see a publican named Levi (also known as Matthew) while he was at work, “sitting at the receipt of custom” (Luke 5:27-32). We know that the publicans were the tax collectors of Jesus’ day and since they worked with the Romans they were disdained by the Jewish establishment. The Lord offered Levi a new line of work and he accepted. He also made to a great feast for Jesus at his house. Jesus accepted his offer and sat down with Levi and a number of his publican friends.

Luke tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees “murmured against his disciples.” They complained about Jesus eating and drinking with sinners. The Lord’s reply is powerful and full of meaning: “They that are whole do not need a physician; but they that are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The Pharisees saw themselves as being righteous just the way they were. They relied on their allegiance to their traditions (Matthew 15:1-9) for their salvation. They thought of themselves as keepers of the Law of Moses but they often missed the letter and almost always missed the principles. These fellows were quick to criticize and condemn anyone who was not just like them, including tax collectors, the Lord and His disciples.

Luke is known as a physician, indeed a “beloved” one (Colossians 4:14). It is interesting therefore to note the word chosen by the Holy Spirit to describe a healthy person here, rendered in the KJV “whole.” It is from a word that in its verb form means literally “to be in good health, to be healthy or sound.” Generally used to describe good material health, it is obvious that Jesus was not commenting on the physical health of Levi, His own disciples, the publicans or the Pharisees. He came to call sinners to repentance. Jesus Christ is the “Great Physician” because He can make sick and sinful men spiritually whole and healthy. Like many today the Pharisees did not think they needed spiritual healing.

We know that one particular Pharisee came to understand that he really did need the spiritual healing that came only from the Lord. I cannot know if Saul of Tarsus was in the group of Pharisees that saw Jesus eat with Levi, but I would not be surprised if he had been there. After his experience on the road to Damascus and his consequent obedience to the Gospel (Acts 9, 22, 26) Saul became Paul and went on to be the human element of the writing of about half of the New Testament. That Pharisee became a preacher of truth!

He also became a friend to others who worked for the cause of Christ in the first century. We often think of the relationship Paul had with Timothy because we have two letters from Paul to his son in the faith. Those letters help us today to know how to live for Christ; they are a great help to people who love the Word and want to live by it.

There is a connection to the episode we’ve been thinking about from Luke 5. We find that word “whole” in 2 Timothy 1:13: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which you have heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” “Sound” here is the same word the Lord used to describe a healthy or “whole” person to the Pharisees.

What then is a healthy person in the spiritual sense today? According to Paul it is a person who would follow the example of Timothy as he did what Paul taught: hold on to healthy or sound words. This is exactly what we must do today. Later in 2 Timothy Paul used our word again in a warning to Timothy: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (4:1-4). Timothy faced that dilemma then and faithful Christians have been facing it ever since.

But face it we will because being faithful to the Lord is the only hope we have of being whole. We need this wholeness, this health. Our tax collector saw it and followed Him. So should we.

Bill Irby