Mark 2:17
Mark 2:1717On 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.”
Read as Jesus explaining why he associated with sinners — they needed help and the self-righteous did not think they did. The Watchtower applies it to the preaching work, reaching people wherever they are. It sits awkwardly beside the practice of withdrawing all contact from someone who has been removed, and the two are not usually considered together.
This is the answer to the illustration Witnesses are sometimes given about shunning — that stepping back and leaving a disfellowshipped relative to the elders is like leaving an emergency to trained paramedics. Receive the illustration fairly first; it sounds responsible, and it is designed to relieve the guilt of the person doing the shunning. Then test it against what medical people actually do. A paramedic does not withhold treatment until the patient agrees with them. A paramedic's entire job is to move toward the hurting person and touch them. Which is exactly what Jesus says here. The physician goes to the ill. He came to call sinners, not the righteous — and the whole scene is him eating with the people the religious leaders had separated from. Every biblical picture of restoration moves toward the lost: the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine, the father runs while his son is still far off. The illustration is right that it is an emergency. It has the direction of travel wrong. Compare , , .