Good morning and welcome to Monday’s podcast. My name is Alan and it is a huge privilege to join you this week as you travel through Matthew’s gospel. Last week Bryony walked us through the sermon on the mount – Jesus’ kingdom manifesto – and some subsequent healings and miracles demonstrating that the Kingdom is open to everyone, no-one is excluded. This week we will continue through Matthew’s account of the life of Jesus and allow him to speak to our hearts and our ordinary everyday lives.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage is Matthew 9:1-17, I will read it in its entirety at the end of the podcast but for now I am going to focus on verses 12 and 13.

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

My wife, Helen and I do illness differently. I am a great believer that if you leave it, it will get better. Helen takes the opposite approach – “it looks nasty we better go and see the doctor.” Last summer we were in North Yorkshire visiting a national trust property. We had explored some ruins and walked through the vast gardens alongside a river and large lake. We had retrieved our picnic from the car and had a nice lunch. Feeling relaxed and content my boys got out a football and started kicking it around. I joined in and we were having a great time. One of my lads is a talented goal keeper, the other an accomplished left-footed winger. We were taking shots when – and I promise that I didn’t kick it hard – the goal keeper saved the ball awkwardly with his thumb.

Something went pop. He couldn’t straighten it.

I took a look… ‘it’ll be fine,’ ‘Just rest it.’

His mum took a look and decided that we needed to get it checked out at A&E when we got back to Sheffield… which is where we were headed next.

I drove back to Sheffield silently questioning the wisdom of taking my boy to the children’s hospital… he would after all be absolutely fine in a day or two.

An x-ray later and it was revealed that he had fractured his thumb complicated by significant damage to the ligament. He would be in a splint for 6 weeks and then have to be careful after that.

I don’t know which of those approaches to medical emergencies that you identify with: ‘It’ll be fine, we don’t need help,’ Or ‘we better get it checked out by a doctor’?

Jesus said ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’ And it’s easy to skip over these words and think ‘Jesus is having a little dig at the self-righteous Pharisees again – which he is – so this doesn’t apply to me.’

Here’s the question for us to reflect on today: Do you need a doctor? No, not a physical doctor… Jesus! Do I need Jesus today? Do we need a saviour?

We live in a world, a society that doesn’t do weakness! I have to be strong, I have to be in control, I have to look as if I have it all together, I have to muddle through. I can do it.

That’s all well and good… but if that’s us then we simply don’t need Jesus!

I’ll say that again… let it sink in… digest these words…

If we buy into the way of the world, try to be strong, if we gloss over our weaknesses or make out that we don’t have any, if we believe that we can fix it by working harder, magically finding greater powers of self control… then we don’t need Jesus!

I have been reading and about the phenomenal, worldwide movement that is Alcoholics Anonymous. It is deeply spiritual, at its heart it is deeply Christian. Imagine a bunch of broken people coming together who recognise that they need a saviour, that they cannot fix their lives and their problems on their own, who turn over their lives and their will to God, who are open and honest about their weaknesses, who practice forgiveness, who take responsibility for their actions, who help others and who take their message of ...