The Bank Doctor

A while back, in the Teen Class, we were talking about what it means to be “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). In an effort to help the young teens grasp the meaning of this phrase, I wanted to paint a picture that would make sense to them. Figuring that they were all old enough to grasp the concept of being in financial debt, I asked them what it would mean to be “poor in earthly things” or “physically poor”. They responded that it meant you didn’t have very many or very nice things. You wouldn’t be able to afford to do anything that costs much money—no fun vacations, or cool videogames, or nice fishing equipment. When I asked them if they knew what a loan was, they responded in the affirmative, “It’s when a bank gives you money to buy something that you then have to, over time, pay back to the bank.” Credit cards, they understood were similar to this—though those of us who have them know that credit cards can be much more dangerous than traditional loans. Now, having established these facts, I began to paint the picture.

Imagine:

You just got a new job in a new town and have recently made several big purchases. You bought a new car, a nice big house, new furniture, and a new wardrobe. The car and the house were paid for with a loan from the bank, while the furniture and clothes were purchased using credit cards. You have racked up a significant debt, but it shouldn’t be any problem to pay it all back because of your high paying job. But then the unthinkable happens—you lose your job! Now you have all this outstanding debt with no income to pay it off. As the bills begin to pile up, you are barely able to make the minimum payments. Many times, you are not able to pay anything. With no income your savings have dried up and you begin to use credit cards to purchase the necessities of life—food, rent, and utilities. The longer your debt remains outstanding, the more interest it accumulates, and ultimately you owe even more! Things are not looking good. You are scared as the debt collection agencies begin to call you seeking their money that you owe them. There doesn’t seem to be any hope to this situation. You are on a downward spiral with no light at the end of the tunnel. This is what it would be like to be “physically poor”.

This corresponds well with being “poor in spirit.” I mean, if this is what it would look like to be poor in the flesh—have nothing, because you wasted everything, gotten yourself in over your head, accumulated a huge debt, owe more than you could possibly repay, no hope, no light, just fear—then being “poor in spirit” is all of these things in a spiritual sense. Those who are “poor in spirit” recognize their spiritual desperation. They realize that they owe a great debt, because they have squandered their lives in sin—a debt they cannot possibly repay. There is no hope, no light, only fear and desperation. A pretty dismal outlook, don’t you think?

It was interesting that as we were discussing these matters in class, particularly the idea of being physically poor, one of the girls said that what the poor person needed was a “bank doctor.” She recognized that it was going to take the help of someone else to get out of this terrible debt. The idea of a “bank doctor” was intriguing to me. For those of us who have been in some financially tough situations, we know that getting out of debt is a little more difficult that just going to the “bank doctor”. It takes discipline, hard work, sacrifice, consistency and great effort on our part to dig ourselves out of the financial hole in which we have placed ourselves. Even with the help and counsel of others, the majority of the work is up to us. If we want to get out of debt, we have to do the hard work ourselves. It would be nice if there really was a “bank doctor” that we could go to when we get in trouble with money and just let them “heal” us, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

However, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to those who are “poor in spirit”. Jesus said that those who were “poor in spirit” should be happy, because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). How could someone who is so messed up, so broken, in so much trouble spiritually be happy? Well it is because these are the people who turn to, not the “bank doctor”, but the spiritual doctor, the Great Physician.

Jesus was certainly the Great Physician in a physical sense. We read in Matthew’s gospel: “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). Peter would put it like this when preaching to Cornelius: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). But it wasn’t just that Jesus went around healing people physically for the sake of healing them physically. He did this to prove that He had the power to heal them spiritually (cf. Mark 2:1-12).

In fact, Jesus likened His work of teaching the lost to that of a physician when the Pharisees complained about His dinning with tax-collectors and sinners. He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Here sinners are likened to the sick, and the Lord is likened to the Doctor who cares for them. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). It is the Lord who will make us whole again. He has paid the price for our sins. He is able to make us just in the eyes of God. He is the Physician that our souls need.

We may sometimes dream about how nice it would be to have a “bank doctor” who would come in and magically clean up our financial problems, a dream which will probably never materialize. But, unlike the “bank doctor” who is just a wishful dream, the “spiritual doctor” is real. And unlike climbing out of financial ruin, where we have to do all the hard work ourselves, we are actually lifted out of spiritual ruin by the Great Physician. All we have to do is turn to Him and throw ourselves upon His mercy. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).