the sick, the physician, and the 40

40 is a staggering number. 

Not because it represents a fast-approaching midlife crisis.

Or the donuts I ate last month (joking).

Because, it's the number of hours I'm in a secular work environment each week.

40 may not always be the number. When marriage and family happens it will naturally limit that time. And jobs and callings can change. But right now, this is how I spend most my waking hours. So I want to do them right, you know? 

I was thinking about this when I read Matthew 9 the other day. Jesus is in Matthew's home eating with an unlikely crowd. And the Pharisees (apparently peeking in the window?) are greatly disturbed by this. But Christ's response to them is what held me captive: "It is not those who are healthy that need a physician, but those who are sick." For days this passage raged inside me like so much heartburn. Here's what I learned: 

1. Christ was intentional about contact with the world.

Did Christ have to eat here? Did He have to eat with these men? Nope. It was intentional. For some of us, our contact with the world may not happen 9-5 every day. But it should happen. The value of salt and light is found in their contact with their surroundings. 

2. He chose a familiar, comfortable setting to engage them. 

In Jewish culture, fellowship around a meal is a familiar, honored part of life. Reclining next to a table, eating traditional foods, engaging in prolonged conversation...this situation would have put these men at ease. 

A couple months ago, a mutual love of second-hand shopping led to a beautiful opportunity to share Christ. And recently, art has been a platform for Gospel conversations with one friend. Why? In each situation, the surroundings were comfortable and familiar to both of us. These are some of my 'dinner tables.' 
What are yours?

3. He didn't shrink from situations that included many. 

Christ wasn't intimidated to sit around a crowded table of strangers. In a crowd of people who were very different than He was. In a crowd that would have known He was very different from them. Probably because...

4. He understood who He was. 

He was a Physician.

Sick people were His life's work. He came that they might have life more abundantly. 
He came to seek and save. 

The blurry tilt of this world's crazy spin can cause us to forget who we are. And we're given so many other labels like spouse, parent, coworker, boss, friend, sibling, child, committee member--that it's easy to forget our most basic role:

We are Christians. little Christs. little physicians. 

5. He understood who the people around the table were. 

They were sick. 

He chose to identify them not by their social status, wealth, job position, political bent, response to Him etc. His vision had one filter.

Does mine? 

6. His interaction with them was governed by who He was and who they were. 

We may not know every word of that table conversation, but we do know the theme would have been "you are sick, here's how to be healed." Because that's what a physician does. He diagnoses and treats. He meets the sick person's greatest need: He tells them how to heal.

Life surrounds us with people who are very different from us. From our Christian beliefs and values. And our first reaction can be to fix the differences. To debate a conservative political position. To persuade to a more moral lifestyle. But in doing so, we can forget the actual source of this world's condition. Their sickness is rooted in their enmity with God. And there's only one remedy for that. The man Christ Jesus.  

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How do these truths affect my 40? Not enough. Not near enough. But I want to make the 40, the 5, the 30 minutes...want to make whatever time I have around this world count. Want to live intentionally, understanding who I am and who this world is. Interacting in a way that is bent on healing. I want to work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. For just as 40 will not always be the number...

It will not always be day. 

Beth