“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” (Luke 5:31-32)
International organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank have led the fight in the war against global poverty. Sympathetic organizations such as these, have relentlessly worked to eradicate the globe from an environment infested by hunger, disease, and violence springing from poverty. According to the most recent data posted on their website, the World Bank states that an approximate 10.7 percent of the world lives on less than $1.90 a day. In 2010, researches from the World Health Organization (WHO) determined that about one third of deaths in that year (an estimated 18 million people) were a consequence of poverty-stricken living conditions. Hunger and malnutrition (which is predominant in an impoverished country) has been classified by the WHO as the greatest threat to public health. Lack of basic resources such as food, clean water, and medicine are all major contributors in the acceleration of lowering a person’s life expectancy. Hence the urgency prompting these organizations to target, and eliminate, global poverty. Irrefutably, poverty is a terrible foe that has haunted humanity for several centuries, and sadly it appears it has yet to be defeated. Perhaps what is most devastating about this endemic is the realization that one of the main reasons it has not been cured is human apathy. Man’s selfish ambition and indifference toward his fellow man has long served as one of the major stumbling blocks to conquering this serious threat. This, sorrowfully, stands in the way today like it did during the Lord’s time on earth. Apathetic discrimination toward the poor was horrendously prevalent in the first century. A major reason for this cultural indifference was because poverty was seen as a punishment from God. Since being poor was viewed as a curse from heaven, the calamitous conclusion was that the poor, by “logic,” were sinners. When destruction and loss reached Job, Eliphaz claimed that this was so because “remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:7-8). Due to this misconception, man slowly began to distance himself from compassion, empathy, and sympathy. An air of self-righteousness and superiority polluted the atmosphere, asphyxiating the knowledge that “the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14, Leviticus 19:17-18). Of this commandment, the Master proclaimed it to be just as great as loving God with all of our being (Matthew 22:37-39)! Indeed, the world was in desperate need of being cured from its apathy, self-righteousness, and cruel indifference. Man had reached an impoverished spiritual state, dangerously starving for empathy, sympathy, and compassion. Due to the spiritual malnutrition and hunger, man’s soul was slowly and painfully dying. This medical metaphor could not be described better by anyone other than Luke, “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Being a medic himself, Luke understood the value of having sympathy and compassion for the sick. After all, the main reason many become doctors is their desire to heal the sick. Therefore, he knew well that the reason God sent His Son in the form of man was because humanity was dangerously infected by apathy. An apathy born from a self-righteous attitude dominating the religious leaders of those days. Luke’s portrayal of the need for the Master to become the Son of Man is revealed since “He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). Let us bring back to our memory that the central theme of this inspired letter is Christ’s superiority. Jesus’ ability to empathize with humanity is what allowed Him to display sympathy in His mercy. Mercy, was the action that had been ignored by the Pharisees (among other religious leaders) due to their arrogant indifference. Their mistreatment and discrimination of their fellow man is targeted heavily by Luke in his Gospel account. He constantly disproves the concept that God’s grace was exclusively for the Jews. He demonstrates that the Samaritans, too, were healed by Him (Luke 17:11-19), that Gentiles were also entitled to salvation (Luke 2:28-32), He welcomed tax-collectors, sinners, and outcasts to follow Him (Luke 5:27-32), and taught that the poor, like the rich, have a right to be redeemed by Him (Luke 7:22, 19:1-10). Irrefutably, Luke understood that Christ was able to do all these things because of His human compassion toward His brethren. He was convinced that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Echoing Luke’s wise deduction, the writer of Hebrews once more points to the Savior’s compassion and sympathy as the factor that made Him greater than the Levite High Priest. He continues to sustain the wonderful omniscience of God in choosing to send His Son in human form “for in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Therefore, once more we are witnesses to the beauty that is God’s inspired word because of how flawlessly it can explain itself! Luke had seen firsthand the cruel visage of apathy as a physician seeking to heal the neglected sick, but also as an eyewitness to Rome’s brutal persecution of the Church. Throughout his book, Luke sought to return man to compassion by illuminating the pattern that Jesus had left behind, as a Man. Thus, Luke is the only one of the four to include in his treatise, the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). A parable reminding man who is his neighbor. Jesus being the Son of Man is undoubtedly of high importance, but it is just as valuable to know that like He descended from heaven, He has ascended once more. A truth that proves that before He was a man, in the beginning He was the Word. The Word that was with God and was God. To be continued…