Who Needs a Physician?

This week, in Luke 5:12-32, we will see how Jesus' ministry gathers momentum and attention through the healing of many and the calling of his first disciples to a point where Jesus declares he has come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

As in Luke's day, many people today know something of Jesus. They have heard reports about him and have formed an opinion of him in their minds, but the the offer of forgiveness and the call to repentance goes unheard or unheeded, or in many cases, flatly refused.

This call to repentance is the very heart of Jesus' ministry, and is also the point at which opposition begins, in both Jesus' day and ours. Heal the sick and free folk from demons and you gather a crowd; begin talking about forgiveness, sin and repentance and they turn on you rather quickly. In all of this, Luke is demonstrating who this man Jesus is - the Son of Man, and what he has come to do.