Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 2:17
When Jesus heard [it,] he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Mar 2:17
They that are whole have no need of the physician.
For whom is the gospel meant?
I. Even a superficial glance at our Lords mission suffices to show that His work was for the sinful. His descent into the world implied that men needed deliverance. The bearing of the gospel covenant is towards guilty men. His mission is described as one of mercy and grace. The gospel turns its face always towards sin. The gospel has always found its greatest trophies amongst the most sinful. To whom else could it look?
II. The more closely we look the more clear this fact becomes. Christ came that He might be a sin bearer. The gifts of the gospel, such as pardon and justification, imply sin. The great deeds of our Lord, such as His death, resurrection, and ascension, all bear upon sinners.
III. It is our wisdom to accept the situation. The very best thing you can do, since the gospel looks towards sinners, is to get where the gospel looks. You will then be in your right place. This is the safest way to obtain the blessing. This is a place into which you can get directly.
IV. This doctrine has a great sanctifying influence. It changes the sinners thoughts of God. It inspires, melts, enlivens, and inflames him. It deals a deadly blow at his self-conceit. It produces a sense of gratitude. It makes him ready to forgive others. It becomes the very soul of enthusiasm. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christs treatment of sinners
I. Sinners in their natural state have need of repentance. This duty is often urged in Scripture (Isa 55:7; Mat 3:8; Act 2:38).
1. Without repentance none can be saved.
2. Let all, therefore, lay held on it without delay.
II. Sinners cannot repent of themselves. They must be called to it by Christ.
III. One main end of Christs coming into the world was to call and convert sinners, and bring them to repentance.
1. This should encourage sinners to come to Christ by faith, and by true repentance and humiliation for their sins, in hope of mercy and pardon. Since He came for this purpose, He will not reject any who accept His invitation and hearken to His call.
2. How excellent a work it must he-since Christ Himself came to begin it-to be the means of converting sinners, and drawing them to repentance. This is not merely the duty of ministers: all Christians may take part in it.
3. If Christ came to call sinners to repentance, then He did not come to give liberty to any to live in sin, or to commit sin. Repentance is the beginning of a new life-a life of emancipation from the power as well as the penalty of sin. (G. Petter.)
All the lessons of this word could not be even named here, but these are certainly in it.
I. Sin is sickness of the worst kind.
II. Repentance and forgiveness are the healing of the soul.
III. Christ is the souls Physician, skilled to heal all its diseases.
IV. The more grave our case is, the more eager Jesus is to cure it. What should we have done had this not been the ease? Happily He still stoops to closest, tenderest fellowship with sinners. He pities most the guiltiest, and is ever nearest to the neediest. (R. Glover.)
Christs call
I. Christ came not to call the righteous.
1. Because there were no righteous to call.
2. Because if there had been they would not have needed calling.
II. He came to call sinners.
1. All sinners.
2. Especially those conscious of their sins.
III. He came to call to repentance. His call is not an absolute call to the privileges of the sons of God, but to the fulfilment of a condition-repent, and believe. (Anon.)
Wretchedness a plea for salvation
On entering a ragged school you see a boy who can spell his way through a Bible-once a sealed book to him; he knows now of a Saviour, of whom once he had never heard the name. Clean, sharp, intelligent, bearing an honest air with him, he bespeaks your favour. But were these his passport to the asylum? No. He was adopted not for the sake of these, but notwithstanding the want of them. It was his wretchedness that saved him; the clean hands, and the rosy cheeks, and all that won our favour, are the results of that adoption. (Dr. Guthrie.)
The spirit in which to seek salvation
On one occasion, when the late Duke of Kent expressed some concern about the state of his soul in the prospect of death, his physician endeavoured to soothe his mind by referring to his high respectability and his honourable conduct in the distinguished situation in which Providence had placed him; but he stopped him short, saying, No; remember, if I am to be saved, it is not as a prince, but as a sinner.
The sinners hope
A Hottentot of immoral character, being under deep conviction of sin, was anxious to know how to pray. He went to his master, a Dutchman, to consult with him; but his master gave him no encouragement. A sense of his wickedness increased, and he had no one near to direct him. Occasionally, however, he was admitted with the family at the time of prayer. The portion of Scripture which was one day read was the parable of the Pharisee and publican. While the prayer of the Pharisee was read, the poor Hottentot thought within himself, This is a good man; here is nothing for me; but when his master came to the prayer of the publican-God, be merciful to me, a sinner-This suits me, he cried; now I know how to pray. With this prayer he immediately retired, and prayed night and day for two days, and then found peace. Full of joy and gratitude he went into the fields, and, as he had no one to whom he could speak, he exclaimed, Ye hills, ye rocks, ye trees, ye rivers, hear what God has done for my soul! He has been merciful to me, a sinner.
The great Physician and His patients
This was Christs apology for mingling with the publicans and sinners when the Pharisees murmured against Him. He triumphantly cleared Himself by showing that, according to the fitness of things, He was perfectly in order. He was acting according to His official character. A physician should be found where there is work for him to do, etc.
I. Mercy graciously regards sin as disease. It is more than disease, but mercy leniently and graciously chooses to view it as such. It is justified in such a view, for almost everything that may be said of deadly maladies may be said of sin.
1. Sin is an hereditary disease. The taint is in our blood, etc.
2. Sin, like sickness, is very disabling. It prevents our serving God. We cannot pray or praise God aright, etc. There is not a single moral power of manhood which sin has not stripped of its strength and glory.
3. Sin also, like certain diseases, is a very loathsome thing.
4. Fearfully polluting. Everything we do and think of grows polluted through our corruption.
5. Contagious. A man cannot be a sinner alone. One sinner destroyeth much good.
6. Very painful; and yet, on the other hand, at certain stages it brings on a deadness, a numbness of soul, preventing pain. Most men are unconscious of the misery of the fail. But when sin is really discerned, then it becomes painful indeed. Oh, what wretchedness was mine before I laid hold on Christ.
7. It is deep seated, and has its throne in the heart. The skill of physicians can often extract the roots of disease, but no skill can ever reach this. It is in its own nature wholly incurable. Man cannot cure himself. Jehovah Rophi the healing Lord, must manifest His omnipotent power.
8. It is a mortal disease. It kills not just now, but it will kill ere long.
II. It pleases Divine mercy to give to Christ the character of a Physician. Jesus Christ never came into the world merely to explain what sin is, but to inform us how it can be removed. As a Physician Christ is-
1. Authorised.
2. Qualified. He is, experimentally as well as by education, qualified in the healing art.
3. Has a wide practice.
4. His cures are speedy, radical, sure. His medicine is Himself. O Blessed Physician for this desperate disease!
III. That need is that alone which moves our gracious Physician to come to our aid. His Saviourship is based upon our sinnership. Need, need alone, is that which quickens the Physicians footsteps.
IV. It follows therefore, and the text positively asserts it, that the whole-that those who have no great need, no need at all-will be unaided by Christ.
V. It follows, then, that those who are sick shall be helped by Jesus. Are you sick, sinful, etc.? He loves to save. He can save the vilest. Trust Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Healer of souls
It is one of the most remarkable facts in the life of our Lord that He was obliged repeatedly to defend Himself for loving the sinful. It is a fact by which we may measure the usual progress of the world under the influence of Christian civilization. Now, philanthropy is generally practised and held in high esteem. Yet we do Christs censors injustice by looking on them as rare monsters of inhumanity. They were simply men whose thoughts and sympathies were dominated by the spirit of their age. For the love of the sinful was a new thing on the earth, whose appearance marked the beginning of a new era, well called the era of grace. Never was apology more felicitous or successful-Christ was a Physician. The defence is simple and irresistible.
I. That Christianity is before all things a religion of redemption. If such be its character, then to be true to itself Christianity cannot afford to be nice, dainty, disdainful, but must lay its healing hand on the most repulsive. Rabbinism may be exclusive, but not the religion of redemption. It is bound to be a religion for the masses. Christ is not merely an ethical Teacher, or Revealer of Divine mysteries; He is, in the first place, a Redeemer, only in the second the Revealer.
II. That Christianity is the religion of hope. It takes a cheerful view of the capabilities and prospects of man even at his worst. It believes that he can be cured. In this hopefulness Christianity stood alone in ancient times. It needed the eye of a more than earthly love, and of a faith that was the evidence of things not seen, to discern possibilities of goodness even in the waste places of society. The Church must have the Physicians confidence in His healing art; she must be inventive. She must have sympathy with people for their good. She must not frown on the zeal of those who would try new experiments.
III. Christianity is fit and worthy to be the universal religion. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
The sickness-the Physician
I. The sickness spoken of.
1. The likeness between the sickness of the body and that of the soul. As sickness is a disordered body, so is sin a precious soul all in disorder. Sickness of body, not healed, will kill the body. Sin, not healed, not pardoned, will kill the never-dying soul. Or, take any of the particular diseases which Christ healed on the earth, and see the likeness in them. He healed madness. Sin is madness-flying in the face of God. He healed fevers. Sin is a lever-consuming, burning the soul. He healed palsies. Sin is a palsy-laying the soul prostrate. He healed leprosy. Sin is a leprosy-very foul and loathsome. He healed deafness, blindness. The sinner is deaf, blind-deaf to the voice of God and of his own conscience-blind to all it most concerns him to see-to himself, God, Christ.
2. Well, sin is like disease; but see the difference: sickness is usually one disease. Sin is all diseases in one-the madness, the fever, the deafness, all in one! Men wish to be free of sickness of body. Alas! they do not wish to be free of sin, the disease of the soul. Sickness is disease; sin is crime-sin.
II. The glorious Physician.
1. Let me say of Him-there is no other. If you are sick in body you have a choice of physicians. But for the terrible sickness of sin none but Christ-Neither is there salvation in any other, etc. There needs no other.
2. That He knows our whole case, our whole disease, and so is able to deal with it. Other physicians have often to work in the dark. They are uncertain what the disease is, and, if they know, may be unable to heal.
3. That He is unspeakably tender. What else but love could have brought Him into this leprous world?
4. That He is a mighty, all-skilful Physician.
5. That He is a faithful Physician. He will not skin over your wound and say that it is healed-A new heart also will I give you.
6. He is a Physician very near at hand-A very present help in trouble. (C. J. Brown, D. D.)
Christ calling sinners to repentance
The call of St. Matthew the occasion of these words.
I. The observations naturally arising from the several particular expressions made use of in the text.
1. That sin is to the soul what disease or sickness is to the body.
2. That repentance is not an original and primary duty of religion, only of secondary intention, and of consequential obligation. The original duty of all rational creatures is to obey the commandments of God, and such as have always lived in obedience are not obliged to the duty of repentance. It applies to those who have sinned. It is a privilege to them to be permitted to perform it (Act 11:18). There is a repentance to which even the best of men are continually obliged. But this is not that repentance to which our Saviour came to call sinners.
3. The just and sharp reproof contained in this answer to the hypocritical Pharisees.
II. The general doctrine of repentance as here laid down by our Lord. The design of His preaching was to call sinners to repentance. (S. Clarke, D. D.)
Moral sickness
For as the natural health of the body consists in this: that every part and organ regularly and duly performs its proper function; and, when any of these are disordered or perverted in their operations, there ensues sickness and diseases: so likewise, with regard to the spiritual or moral state of the mind and soul; when every faculty is employed in its natural and proper manner, and with a just direction to the end it was designed for; when the understanding judges of things according to reason and truth, without partiality and without prejudice; when the will is in its actions directed by this judgment of right, without obstinacy or wilfulness; and when the passions in their due subordinate station, and the appetites under the government of sober intention, serve only to quicken the execution of what reason directs: then is the mind of man sound and whole; fit for all the operations of a rational creature, fit for the employments of a virtuous and religious life. On the contrary, the abuse or misemployment of any of these faculties, is the disease or sickness of the soul. And when they are all of them perverted, totally and habitually, by a general corruption and depravation of manners; then, as the body, by an incapacity of all its organs for the uses of natural life, dies and is dissolved; so the man in his moral capacity, by an habitual neglect and dislike of all virtuous practices, becomes (as the Scripture elegantly expresses it) dead in trespasses and sins. And as, in bodily diseases, some are more dangerous, and more likely to prove mortal, than others; in which sense our Saviour says concerning Lazarus, This sickness is not unto death (Joh 11:4); so, in the spiritual sense, the same apostle St. John, in his First Epistle, speaks of sins, which, according as there be any or no hope of men recovering from them, either are or are not unto death (1Jn 5:16). (S. Clarke, D. D.)
Christ came to call the sinner
Christ came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The schoolmaster does not gather the finest scholars in the country into his school, and try to teach them; he takes those who know little or nothing and educates them. The gardener does not bind up the strong, hardy plants; it is those that are weak and slender, those that have been broken down by the wind, that he trains to the pole or to the wall. It is the sick people, not the well people, who need the physician. No one can be too great a sinner to be beyond the need of Jesus; it was to save sinners that Jesus came. (The Sunday School Times.)
The value and capability of sinful man
By going to the lowest stratum of human nature, Christ gave a new idea of the value of man. He built a kingdom out of the refuse of society. To compare small things with great, it has been pointed out by Lord Macaulay that in an English cathedral there is an exquisite stained window which was made by an apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by his master, and it was so far superior to every other in the church, that, according to tradition, the envious artist killed himself with vexation. All the builders of society had rejected the sinners, and made the painted window of the righteous. A new Builder came; His plan was original, startling, revolutionary; His eye was upon the condemned material; He made the first last, and the last first, and the stone which the builders rejected, He made the headstone of the corner. He always especially cared for the rejected stone. Men had always cared for the great, the beautiful, the righteous; it was left for Christ to care for sinners. (Dr. Parker.)
Christ an authorised Physician
When a physician presents himself, one of the first inquiries is, Is he a regular practitioner? Has he a right to practise? Has he a diploma? Very properly, the law requires that a man shall not be allowed to hack our bodies and poison us with drugs at his own pleasure without having at least a show of knowing what he is at. It has been tartly said that a doctor is a man who pours drugs, of which he knows little, into a body of which he knows still less. I fear that is often the case. Still a diploma is the best safeguard mortals have devised. Christ has the best authority for practising as a Physician. He has a Divine diploma. Would you like to see His diploma? I will read you a few words of it: it comes from the highest authority, not from the College of Physicians, but from the God of Physicians. Here are the words of it in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted. He has a diploma for binding up broken hearts. I should not like to trust myself to a physician who was a mere self-dubbed doctor, who could not show any authorization; I must have him know as much as a man can know, little as I believe that will probably be. He must have a diploma; it must be signed and sealed too, and be in a regular manner, for few sensible men will risk their lives with ignorant quacks. Now Jesus Christ has His diploma and there it is-God hath sent Him to bind up the broken-hearted. The next thing you want in a physician is education; you want to know that he is thoroughly qualified; he must have walked the hospitals. And certainly our Lord Jesus Christ has done so. What form of disease did He not meet with? When He was here among men it pleased God to let the devil loose, in order that there might be more than usual venom in the veins of poor diseased manhood: and Christ met the devil at his darkest hour and fought with the great enemy when he had full liberty to do his worst with Him. Jesus did, indeed, enter into the woes of men. Walked the hospital! Why the whole world was an infirmary, and Christ the one only Physician, going from couch to couch, healing the sons of men. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ a competent Physician
His cures are very speedy-there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical-He strikes at the very centre of the disease, and hence His cures are very sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that one of His patients should be but patched up for a season, He makes a new man of him; a new heart also does He give him, and a right spirit does He put within him. He is a Physician, one of a thousand, because He is well-skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some specialite. They may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, but there is usually one disease which they have studied the most carefully, one part of the human frame whose anatomy is as well-known to them as the rooms and cupboards of their own house. Jesus Christ has made the whole of human nature His specialite. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another sinner and never yet did He meet with an out-of-the-way case that was out of the way to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. To repentance.] This is omitted by ABDKL, twenty-seven others; both the Syriac, Persic, Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, Gothic, Vulgate; six copies of the Itala; Euthymius and Augustin. Griesbach has left it out of the text; Grotius, Mill, and Bengel approve of the omission. See Clarke on Mt 9:13. I leave it as in the parallel place above quoted. Properly speaking, the righteous cannot be called to repentance. They have already forsaken sin, mourned for it, and turned to God. In the other parallel place, Lu 5:32, all the MSS. and versions retain , repentance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When Jesus heard it, he saith to them,…. Christ either overheard what they said to his disciples, or he heard it from the relation of the disciples; and when he did, he turned to the Scribes and Pharisees, and spoke to them the following words:
they that are whole, have no need of the physician, but they that are sick; which seems to be a proverbial expression, signifying that he was a physician; that these publicans and sinners were sick persons, and needed his company and assistance; but that they, the Scribes and Pharisees, were whole, and in good health, in their own esteem, and so wanted no relief; and therefore ought not to take it amiss, that he attended the one, and not the other. These words give a general view of mankind, in their different sentiments of themselves and of Christ; and of the usefulness of Christ to one sort, and not another. There are some that cry up the power of man’s freewill, and plead for the strength and purity of human, nature, and extol its excellencies and abilities; and it is no wonder that these see no need of Christ, either for themselves or others: hence preachers of this complexion leave Christ out of their ministry for the most part; and generally speaking, lessen the glory and dignity of his person, depreciate his offices, reject his righteousness, and deny his satisfaction and atonement: and such reckon themselves the favourites of heaven, and are ready to say, whom shall God delight to honour, but us, who are so pure and holy? they therefore trust in their own righteousness, and despise others, and submit not to the righteousness of Christ; they make their own works their saviours, and so neglect the great salvation by Christ. There are others that are sick, and are quite sick of themselves; they see the impurity of their nature, how unsound and unhealthful they are; that from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no soundness in them, nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores: their loins are filled with the loathsome disease of sin; they are sensible of their inability to cure themselves, and that no mere creature can help them; and that all besides Christ, are physicians of no value: and therefore they apply to him, whose blood is a balm for every wound, and a medicine for every sickness and disease, and which cleanses from all sin: and whereas such, and such only, see their need of Christ as a physician, these only does he attend under this character; [See comments on Mt 9:12]. Adding this as a reason,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. These words explain, what is more obscurely and figuratively expressed in the former; it appears from hence, that by “the whole” are meant, “righteous” persons; not such who are made righteous, by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, but such who were outwardly righteous before men, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, depended on their own righteousness, and fancied themselves, with respect to the righteousness of the law, blameless; and so, in their own apprehensions, stood in no need of Christ and his righteousness: yea, even needed not repentance, according to their own thoughts of things, and therefore were not called to it, but were left to their own stupidity and blindness; these were the Scribes and Pharisees; and by the “sick”, are meant “sinners”; such who are made sensible of sin, and so of their need of Christ as a Saviour; and who have evangelical repentance given them, and are called to the exercise and profession of it: and Christ’s calling sinners to repentance, and bestowing that grace, together with the remission of sins, which goes along with it, is doing his work and office as a “physician”. This evangelist makes no mention of the passage in Ho 6:6, with which these words are introduced in Matthew. The last words, to “repentance”, are omitted by the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, and are wanting in some ancient copies; but are retained in the Arabic version, and in most copies, as in Mt 9:13.
[See comments on Mt 9:13].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The righteous (). Jesus for the sake of argument accepts the claim of the Pharisees to be righteous, though, as a matter of fact, they fell very far short of it. Elsewhere (Mt 23) Jesus shows that the Pharisees were extortionate and devoured widows’ houses and wore a cloak of pride and hypocritical respectability. The words “unto repentance” ( ) are not genuine in Mark, but are in Lu 5:32. Jesus called men to new spiritual life and away from sin and so to repentance. But this claim stopped their mouths against what Jesus was doing. The well or the strong () are not those who need the physician in an epidemic.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
They that are whole [ ] . Lit., they that are strong. See on Luk 14:30, was not able; and 2Pe 2:11, power.
No need. The Greek order throws the emphasis on these words : No need have they that are strong of a physician. Wyc., Whole men have no need to a leech, but they that have evil.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them,” (kai akousas ho lesous legei autois) “And upon hearing (this), Jesus said to them,” to the scribes and Pharisees, when the report of their cynical, skeptical, and whispering inquiries came to Jesus at the feast, He openly responded.
2) “They that are whole have no need of a physician,” (hoti ou chreian echousin hoi ischuontes istrou)’-‘That not a single need strong ones have of a physician,” at all. This was really a strong reprimand to those Pharisees and scribes who considered themselves to be “whole” righteous; Why should they be taking up the time of the great Physician, if they were as whole and righteous as they posed to be?
3) “But they that are sick– (all’ hoi kakos echontes) “But it is those who are ill that have a need of a physician” a doctor of medicine, Mat 18:11-13.
4) “I came not to call the righteous,” (ouk elthon kalesia dikaious) “I did not come to call righteous men,” Luk 19:7-10. Jesus preferred the company of sinners, common sinners, in making disciples, to that of the self-righteous Jews, Mat 5:20.
5) “But sinners to repentance.” (alla hamartous) “But sinners,” instead, Mar 6:12; 1Ti 1:15; Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5. Act 17:30-31.
Since these critics (hypocrites) considered themselves to be righteous, He had not come to save them, except or unless they changed their attitude, saw themselves to be sinners, as Nicodemus and Paul, who had both also once been self -righteous Pharisee sinners, Joh 3:1-7; Act 9:1-7; Mat 5:20; Rom 10:1-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(17) I came not to call the righteous.Closely as the three accounts agree, it is noticeable that here also St. Mark and St. Luke, as writing for Gentile readers, omit the reference which we find in Mat. 9:13, to the words cited by our Lord from the Old Testament.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And when Jesus heard it, he says to them, “Those who are whole do not need a medical doctor, only those who are ill. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”.’
When Jesus heard the criticism He went right to the heart of the matter. He told them that He had come to reach sinners wherever they may be found and bring them to repentance. That He was like a doctor who seeks out the sick so as to help them. He was not saying that there actually were some who were so righteous that they did not need His teaching, only that there were some who thought that they were. But rather He was pointing out that His words were for those who had a conscious need, who were aware that they were sick. And those who acknowledged that need would come to Him and find wholeness. It was open to all, including the Pharisees once they were willing to acknowledge their basic need. But in order to fulfil this task He was ready to receive all who would come and to move among them in their sickness. Indeed for the doctor to spurn the sick would be ridiculous.
Notice the ‘I’ (included in the verb). Quietly and firmly He was contrasting Himself with the Pharisees and indeed with all men. And as such He had especially ‘come’. Thus for those who would see it His words went deeper than is at first apparent, for by putting Himself forward as the physician of the people He was aligning Himself with God. In Jer 30:17 it was God Who says, “I will restore health to you and will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying It is Zion whom no man seeks after.” In the same way Jesus came, seeking after those who were called outcasts, and with the same intention to restore them to health, aligned Himself directly with God in His actions. He was Himself acting as the divine Physician. For was it not God Himself Who said in Exo 15:26, “I am the Lord Who heals you.”
God was portrayed as the Great Physician, and it was to Him that the Psalmist said, “I said, Oh Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you” (Psa 41:4). For He is the God Who is the healer of those with a humble and contrite spirit (Isa 57:15-19). And that is precisely what Jesus was intending to do here, to heal the souls of those who were repentant and who sought God. He was here on earth doing God’s healing work for sinners. And He could say, “I have come (as a doctor) not to call the righteous, but sinners”, thus aligning Himself with God as the Great Physician. He saw in these people those who said, “Come and let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us and He will heal us. He has smitten and He will bind us up” (Hos 6:1). (Notice that Hos 6:2 may well be behind His claim that He would be raised on the third day and Hos 6:6 is quoted by Him against the Pharisees in Mat 9:13. This was clearly a passage that He knew well and often applied to His ministry, which may well suggest that He had it in mind here).
Notice that this passage in Mark ends on this statement. This is its great climax. Mark is not at this point interested in the response made to His words. It is the words themselves, and what they have to say to his readers, that matter.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 2:17. They that are whole Or, That are well.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1419
THE WHOLE AND THE SICK, THE RIGHTEOUS AND SINNERS, DESCRIBED
Mar 2:17. They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
THERE is no action, however benevolent, which cavillers may not censure. Every part of our Lords conduct was worthy of his divine character; yet was he constantly enduring the contradiction of sinners, &c. He was now conversing familiarly with publicans for their good. This was condemned by the Scribes as unbecoming a holy person, if not also as giving countenance to sin. Our Lord vindicated himself on principles acknowledged by them.
His words contain,
I.
A generally established maxim
Persons desire not a physician unless they be sick. This is true according to its literal import
[A person in health wishes not for any medical assistance: he would refuse it if it were tendered to him; he would not submit to any regimen that should be prescribed. But they who are diseased are glad to hear of a skilful physician: they will cheerfully put themselves under his direction; and they will follow his prescriptions, that they may obtain a cure.]
It is more particularly so in a figurative sense
[There is an analogy between sickness and sin: this is a disorder of the soul as that is of the body. A person unconscious of his sinfulness desires not a Saviour; nor will he comply with the self-denying directions given him. But one who feels his lost state longs earnestly for a cure: he delights to hear of Christ, and to make application to him; nor does he esteem any injunction too severe [Note: 1Jn 5:3.].]
This being acknowledged, our Lord proceeds to make,
II.
An application of it to his own conduct
The physicians office leads him to converse with the sick. Our Lords work required him to maintain an intercourse with sinners.
There are many who conceive themselves to be righteous
[None are absolutely and perfectly righteous [Note: None by nature, Job 14:4; Job 15:14. None by practice, Rom 3:10; Rom 3:12; Rom 3:23.], but many suppose that their sins are neither great nor numerous. Such were the Scribes and Pharisees whom our Lord addressed [Note: Luk 18:9; Luk 18:11]; and there are many of this description in every age [Note: Pro 30:12.].]
Such persons were not so much the objects of our Lords attention
[He willed indeed that all should come to repentance [Note: 2Pe 3:9.], but he knew that they would not receive his offers; they saw no need of the salvation which he came to accomplish; their pride and prejudice unfitted them for receiving it. He therefore bestowed less labour in calling them to repentance.]
But there are many of more ingenuous disposition
[They are not really more heinous sinners than others, but they are made sensible of their guilt and danger. Such was the publican at whose house our Lord was, and such are to be found in every place.]
To call these to repentance was the great object of Christs ministry
[These were prepared, like thirsty ground for the rain; to them he was a welcome messenger; they rejoiced to hear that repentance could profit them; and our Lord delighted to encourage their hopes [Note: Luk 4:18-19.].]
Thus did his conduct accord with the dictates of reason, and with the great ends of his mission.
Infer
1.
The danger of self-righteousness
[Men feel of themselves the danger of gross sin; but they cannot be persuaded that they will suffer any thing by self-righteousness. But a person who, under dying circumstances, denies his need of help, as effectually destroys himself, as if he drank poison or plunged a dagger to his heart. Deny not then your need of the heavenly Physician; nor think to heal yourselves by any self-righteous methods. You must resemble the publican, if ever you would enjoy his lot [Note: Luk 18:13-14.].]
2.
The folly of unbelief
[We are apt to make the depth of our misery a reason for despondency; but the doubting of the Physicians power will be as destructive to the soul, as the denying of our need of him. O behold the remedy! Are you sick [Note: Jer 8:22.]?sinners [Note: 1Ti 1:15.]? lost [Note: Luk 19:10.]? Christ suits his promises to your state; He addresses himself to each [Note: Joh 5:6.], nor shall any suppliant be disappointed [Note: Joh 6:37.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
17 When Jesus heard it , he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Ver. 17. He saith unto them ] Though not for their sakes (for he knew it was to no purpose) yet for his other hearers’ sakes, he makes apology, Jer 3:14-15 . God often gives a pastor after his own heart, for a few that are to be converted.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 2:17 . : to call, suggestive of invitations to a feast (Fritzsche, Meyer, Holtz.), and making for the hypothesis that Jesus, not Matthew, was the real host at the social gathering: the whole plan His, and Matthew only His agent; vide notes on Mt. He called to that particular feast as to the feast of the kingdom, the one a means to the other as the end. , : Jesus preferred the company of the sinful to that of the righteous, and sought disciples from among them by preference. The terms are not ironical. They simply describe two classes of society in current language, and indicate with which of the two His sympathies lay.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
whole = strove, or able.
no. Greek. ou. App-105. The emph. is on “no need”.
the = a.
not. Greek. ou, as above.
the righteous = righteous ones.
to = for. Greek. ois. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
They that are whole: Mat 9:12, Mat 9:13, Luk 5:31, Luk 5:32, Luk 15:7, Luk 15:29, Luk 16:15, Joh 9:34, Joh 9:40
I came: Isa 1:18, Isa 55:7, Mat 18:11, Luk 15:10, Luk 19:10, Act 20:21, Act 26:20, Rom 5:6-8, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, 1Co 6:9-11, 1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 1:16, Tit 2:14, Tit 3:3-7
Reciprocal: 2Ch 16:12 – physicians Job 13:4 – physicians Eze 34:16 – seek that Mat 9:10 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7
If these critics were as righteous as they claimed, then they did not need the presence of Jesus any more than a man in health would need a physician. It is the sinner who needs the services of a Saviour and that would call for the attention that Jesus was giving to these “sinners.” This does not mean that Jesus regarded the Pharisees as righteous men, but he was merely using their own claims against them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Verse 17
Whole; well.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Mar 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The glaring application of this verse is the fact that Christ Himself, the one that healed people time after time tells us that the sick need doctors. Now if Christ told us that, why would the faith healers of the world tell us differently? He knew his healing was a temporary thing. He knew that the gift of healing would soon pass. He knew that doctors were the only hope for the sick so why would we not accept His word and reject the foolishness of the healers of our day.
Yes, James speaks to healing and that is part of the church instruction. If the doctors are not doing the trick call the elders of the church. Note carefully from the context though that James indicates strongly that the sickness he is speaking of is caused by spiritual problems. Thus go to the doctor for your physical problems, and be sure the spiritual is on track as well.
Christ continues to mention that he is there to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous. The righteous are already repentant and ready for the kingdom, but the sinners have not heard the message nor have they given heed to that message. (Rather hard to heed something you have not heard 🙂
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Self-righteous people such as these Pharisees saw no need for true righteousness because they viewed themselves as righteous. However the people the Pharisees labeled "sinners" represented real sinners, those lacking righteousness. Jesus said He spent time with sinners because they were the people who felt a need for what He had to offer, namely, spiritual healing. He was evidently modifying a well-known proverb. Jesus was using the terms "righteous" and "sinners" ironically here.
"It would be true to say that this word of Jesus strikes the keynote of the Gospel. The new thing in Christianity is not the doctrine that God saves sinners. No Jew would have denied that. It is the assertion ’that God loves and saves them as sinners.’ . . . This is the authentic and glorious doctrine of true Christianity in any age." [Note: Hunter, pp. 40-41.]
"The specific reference in Mar 2:17 to Jesus’ call of sinners to the Kingdom suggests that the basis of table-fellowship was messianic forgiveness, and the meal itself was an anticipation of the messianic banquet." [Note: Lane, p. 106. Cf. Matthew 8:10-11; and Revelation 3:20; 19:6-9.]
This verse is a fine summary statement of Jesus’ mission during His earthly ministry. It is one of only two sayings in Mark in which Jesus expressed His purpose in coming (cf. Mar 10:45). Here He presented Himself as the Healer, a divine title in the Old Testament (Exo 15:26).