Healthy People Don't Need A Doctor....

 Perhaps I think about this idea backwards from most, or maybe I have just mostly heard from people who say it in another way.  I have been reflecting a lot on my walk with Jesus over the 20 plus years I have followed him.  I have often heard it preached that we must go to the poor, the orphan, the sick and the margenlized to which I would agree the Bible is very clear on this point.  But I think where I perceive a difference is in the why.  From my study of the Bible and my personal experience it was clear that those who would give their lives fully to Jesus were those with the perceived least to lose.  We love the stories of those on the brink of death and devistation, or pulled out or walked through poverty or the lonely finally finding community.  This is good.  But we tend to overlook the other things that relate to the why.  Those that have their status, their riches or their power to lose aren't looking for a savior.  In fact they look at it as a potential negaive.  The rich young ruler who was all in until Jesus told him give all you have to the poor.  Now turn this story around and if it was the one who knew poverty this would be a give, of course they would share all they had, not only was it not much and of not much value, but moreso they understood what it was like to have nothing.  But a wealthy man with the finest of things, this wasn't a miracle this was a burden. Look at this verse, Jesus himself speaking... 

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17

See the first poor man or the sick or the lonely they understand their need for someone who embodies love, care and peace to turn their lives over to.  They recognize they are the sinners that live in a broken world, they have been the victims of the unfairness.  But the rich ruler and those in the temple did not see it the same, they "think they are righteous" and they don't undersand the or choose to be ignorant of the unfair nature of a fallen world.  They can buy that which can fix their suffering or they can gain power and status.  I live in an affulent area of the Bible belt area and many believe they are the righteous ones and while they are the first to look for the one in a "lower" economic status to donate to or help, they are much less likely to sacrifice much of their own comfort, power, or even mindset.  They have become spiritually blind to their own sin, their friends sin, their sinful attitude or the more for me mentality.  I honestly don't believe many can even see how pharisitical their hearts have become.  The idea of vulnerabilty for the sake of another becomes too personal and too dirty.  They could lose their position, their power, their lifestyle....  Sadly they lose out on what it means to be sold out to Jesus, they don't experience the true freedom in trusting Christ. Those righteous are those who are walking with Christ and allowing him to use their lives as a testamony and we can only do that with transparency and vulnerability.