Painful Truth

June 2026

Dear Friends

The side of my jaw is numb all the way to my ear and I’ve been warned not to chew on that side for two days.  Yes, I was at the dentist this morning having a filling replaced.  Why do we subject ourselves to such pain?  My mouth hadn’t been hurting at all, until the dentist got to work!  But of course I trusted the dentist’s judgment when she told me that there was some decay that needed to be treated, even though I was unaware of it.  Disease is a bad thing, but not knowing that you need treatment is more serious.  Even while I was suffering the pain of treatment I did find comfort in knowing that a skilled practitioner was doing me good.

Complaining sticklers (aka ‘Pharisees’) followed Jesus everywhere grumbling about what he was doing and saying.  They strongly objected to him eating at the home of a tax collector (notorious for cheating and for collecting taxes on behalf of the hated Roman invaders).  And they grumbled that the other dinner guests were ‘sinners’ who had openly flouted moral standards and laws.

But Jesus said that he hadn’t come to treat people who were well.  Doctors and dentists focus their efforts on those who are sick, and Jesus claimed to be a doctor for our souls with the power to treat our deepest disorders.  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  (Mark 2:17)

Christian congregations are not places for people who are good and who want to shine up their gold stars.  They are for those who know they are sick and are willing to entrust themselves to the painful but effective treatment of Doctor Jesus. 

The Pharisees, of course, did not need such treatment.  They were good people, at least in their own eyes, ‘who never did anyone any harm’.  Maybe if they hadn’t been so quick to dismiss Jesus he would have been able to tell them about their undiagnosed disease and counsel them to come to him for a cure.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows