The need of a physician 1/4

Matthew 9:12 KJV
But when Jesus heard [that],
he said unto them,
They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick.

Other translations

New Living Translation
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

English Standard Version
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Berean Study Bible
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Berean Literal Bible
And having heard, He said, “Not those being strong have need of a physician, but those being sick.

New King James Version
When Jesus heard [that], He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

New American Standard Bible
But when [Jesus] heard [this], He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

Study

[On] — δὲ (de) — Conjunction — A primary particle; but, and, etc.
Hearing this — ἀκούσας (akousas) — Verb – Aorist Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Singular — To hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported. A primary verb; to hear.
[Jesus] said — εἶπεν (eipen) — Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 3rd Person Singular — Answer, bid, bring word, command. A primary verb; to speak or say.
[It is] not — Οὐ (Ou) — Adverb — No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.
The — οἱ (hoi) — Article – Nominative Masculine Plural — The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

They that be whole

Literally, They that are strong. 

Luke gives, with a more professional precision, “They that are in health.”
That, speaking from the thoughts and standpoint of those addressed (which in another than our Lord we might term grave irony), which enters so largely into our Lord’s teaching, appears here in its most transparent form.

Those of whom He speaks were, we know, suffering from the worst form of spiritual disease, but in their own estimation they were without spot or taint.

Therefore, He speaks to them. On their own showing, they ought not to object to His carrying on that work where there was most need of it.

The proverb cited by Him in Luke 4:23 shows that it was not the first time that He had referred to His own work as that of the Great Physician.

There is a touch of irony in the words.
They that are “whole” are they who think themselves whole.
So below, the “righteous” are those who are righteous in their own eyes.

The whole and the sick of the proverb are figurative expressions (Matthew 9:13).
The thought is this: “the righteous (among whom you reckon yourselves) do not need the deliverer, but the sinners.”

This contains an “ironica concessio” to the Pharisees, “in qua ideo offendi eos docet peccatorum intuitu, quia justitiam sibi arrogant,” (Calvin).

The objection, that in point of fact Jesus is come to call the self-righteous as well, is only apparent, seeing that He could not direct His call to these, as such (John 9:39 ff.), so long as they did not relinquish their pretensions, and were themselves without receptivity for healing.

Healthy — ἰσχύοντες (ischyontes) — Verb – Present Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Plural — To have strength, be strong, be in full health and vigor, be able; meton: I prevail. From ischus; to have force.
[who] — ἔχουσιν (echousin) — Verb – Present Indicative Active – 3rd Person Plural — To have, hold, possess. Including an alternate form scheo skheh’-o; a primary verb; to hold.
Need — χρείαν (chreian) — Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular — From the base of chraomai or chre; employment, i.e. An affair; also occasion, demand, requirement or destitution.

Need not; have no need of (Revised Version).

These are the emphatic words in the sentence.

Christ takes the Pharisees at their own estimate of themselves, and, without entering into the question of whether this was right or wrong, shows them that on their own showing he would be useless to them.

A doctor

We have amongst ourselves now special studies of special cases.
One man undertakes the brain, another the heart, another the blood, it may be, another the bones and joints.

This is right, amongst ourselves; for probably hardly any one man has the time, even if he had the capacity, to master with sufficient adequateness all the details and necessities of our wondrous bodily frame.

• But Jesus said to the leper, “Be thou clean,”
• to the man sick of the palsy, grievously tormented, “I will come and heal him.”
• When he went into Peter’s house and saw his wife’s mother laid and sick of the fever, he touched her hand and the fever left her, he put out the fire with his touch.

He is not a specialist,
He has not a necromancer’s power over any one department of human life or human suffering.
His healing was fundamental and all-inclusive.

It is similar in spiritual matters.
There is not in the Church a doctor who cures lying, and another who makes a special study of drunkenness, and a third who is gifted with peculiar ability in dealing with persons of felonious disposition.

There is one Mediator between God and man: he makes the heart right, and then all the accidental local diseases, with all their train of ever-varying symptoms, are cleansed and utterly expelled.

Doctor — ἰατροῦ (iatrou) — Noun – Genitive Masculine Singular — A physician. From iaomai; a physician.
But — ἀλλ’ (all’) — Conjunction — But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

They that are sick

They that are sick are those who are not only diseased and disordered in all the powers and faculties of their souls, as all Adam’s posterity are, whether sensible of it or not;
But who know themselves to be so, these see their need of Christ as a physician, apply to him as such, and to them he is exceeding precious, a physician of value; and such were these “publicans” and sinners.

These words seem to be a proverbial expression, and there is something like it in the Talmud, , “he that is afflicted with any pain goes”, or “let him go to the physician’s house”; that is, he that is attended with any sickness, or disease, does, or he ought to, consult a physician.

The — οἱ (hoi) — Article – Nominative Masculine Plural — The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Sick

There is no one who is really whole. All of us are infected with the virus of sin; in fact we are all suffering from this sickness that ends in death.

There are a few things that ask our attention.

1. They who think that they’re whole, or healthy, have never had a clear sight and sense of sin; but they who know that they are suffering from this sickness, are fully convicted, and deeply sensible of it.
2. They who think that they’re whole, or healthy, are generally easy and serene, and unapprehensive of danger; but they who know that they are suffering from this sickness, have a soul which is alarmed and anxious, and can’t be easy till it perceives some appearances of recovery.
3. They who think that they’re whole, or healthy, are unwilling to go to a physician, or to follow his prescriptions; but to them who know that they are suffering from this sickness, a physician is very welcome, and they will submit to his directions.

Sick — κακῶς (kakōs) — Adverb — Badly, evilly, wrongly. From kakos; badly

Illustration

A great physician

I once went with a friend who wanted to see a great physician.
But there were ever so many other people waiting to see him, and they went in by turns one by one, and we had to wait a whole hour before our turn came.
The physician could not attend to more than one person at a time.

But if all you dear children were to pray to the Savior this evening at the same moment, and tell Him all your wants, He could listen to you all at the same time, and help each of you according to your need. (W. Harris.)

Anecdote

If your little sister was taken very ill and you were sent for the doctor, you would run with all your speed; yet when you came to his house he might be just gone out, and your sister might die before he came home.

But this is never the case with Jesus.
Whenever you call upon Him, you will find Him.

He is always where people can find Him directly when they want Him, and you know He can heal people without coming to them in His bodily presence. (W. Harris.)

Devotional

We easily look down at someone else.
Let us admit, we can be at times so very hypocritical.

Have you never found that in yourself?
Then you don’t know yourself yet.

A Pharisee cannot understand that the Lord Jesus wants to have anything to do with tax collectors and sinners. That He wants to have fellowship with them. That He goes even further, that He’s not even ashamed to call them brothers.

For He is the great Physician of their unclean, guilty soul.
Are you in your experience
▪︎ also such a tax collector and sinner?
▪︎ So incurably sinful that there seems no saving possible?

Unless that almighty faithful Physician takes care of you?
Unless He by His Spirit administers to you His medicine?

Only the blood of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, washes and cleanses from all sin.

Then you will unlearn your Pharisee arts.
We really need to discover who, and what, we really are.
We really need to get more and more self-knowledge, every day.
To the extent that we receive that, we will be able to receive and experience the healing power of the great Physician.

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