Mark 2:17
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On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
To repentance - This is omitted by ABDKL, twenty-seven others; both the Syriac, Persic, Coptic, Ethiopic, 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 on Mat 9:13 (note). 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, Luk 5:32, all the MSS. and versions retain μετανοιαν, repentance.
Open source ↗HEALING OF A PARALYTIC. ( = Mat 9:1-8; Luk 5:17-26). (Mar 2:1-12) And again he entered into Capernaum--"His own city" (Mat 9:1). and it was noised that he was in the house--no doubt of Simon Peter (Mar 1:29).
Open source ↗And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast,.... Or "were fasting"; perhaps that very day, and so were the more displeased at this entertainment, Matthew had made for Christ and his disciples, and at their being at it; or fasting was usual with them: they fasted often, both John's disciples, and the disciples of the Pharisees, or the Pharisees themselves; so the Vulgate Latin reads: of their frequent fasting; see Gill on Mat 9:14, and they came: both the disciples of John, Mat 9:14, and the Scribes and Pharisees, Luk 5:30, and say unto him, why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? See Gill on Mat 9:14.
Open source ↗In this chapter, we have, I. Christ's healing a man that was sick of a palsy (Mar 2:1-12). II. His calling of Matthew from the receipt of custom, and his eating, upon that occasion, with publicans and sinners, and justifying himself in so doing (Mar 2:13-17). III. His justifying his disciples in not fasting so much as those plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath day (Mar 2:23-28). All which passages we had before, Mt. 9 and 12.
Open source ↗2:17 Jesus answered his opponents with a well-known proverb, comparing himself to a doctor and sinners to sick people. Salvation is for those who know they are sinners, not those who think they are righteous (Luke 16:15; 18:9; Rom 3:23).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”
testifying to Jews and Greeks alike about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.