Only the Sick Need a Physician

“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” — Matthew 9:12

There are moments when a verse of Scripture does more than speak to your faith. It gives language to something you have been experiencing for years but could never quite explain.

For me, Matthew 9:12 became one of those moments.

When Christ was questioned about why He ate with sinners, His response was simple: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” Christ was explaining His purpose. He did not come seeking those who believed they had no need for Him. He came for those who were lost, broken, struggling, and in need of healing.

As I reflected on those words, I began to recognize something about my own journey as a messenger of the game.

I have always been drawn to the players who need the most help.

The Players I Was Always Drawn To

Over the years, I have been asked whether I would rather coach Division I athletes, elite players, or athletes competing at the highest levels of basketball

My answer has almost always been the same:

No.

Not because I don't respect high-level players. I do.

But I have always found something different in working with the player who struggles to understand the game.

The beginner.

The player who is lost.

The player sitting at the end of the bench.

The player who isn't one of the best performers on their team.

The player who has athletic ability but doesn't understand how to use it.

The player who has been told that they aren't good enough.

Those players seem to connect with me—and I connect with them.

For years, I couldn't completely explain why.

I would look around and see other coaches working with the strongest, fastest, most talented players. Meanwhile, I would somehow find myself surrounded by the players who appeared to be the furthest away from becoming successful basketball players.

Sometimes it honestly seemed almost comical.

With the amount of knowledge and experience I believed I possessed, why was I spending so much of my time with players who seemed light years away from being skillful?

For years, this puzzled me.

But eventually, I began to understand.

The Physician Doesn't Search for the Healthy

Matthew 9:12 gave me the language I had been missing.

The physician doesn't search for people who believe they are already healthy, sound, or well.

The physician is needed by the sick.

And I began to see the same principle operating in basketball.

The game does not need to be taught only to those who already perform well. In fact, some of the players who appear to need the least instruction may be the ones who have the least need for the kind of work I am called to do.

My purpose has never been simply to make skilled players better.

My purpose has increasingly become helping lost players understand the game.

That distinction changed the way I viewed my coaching.

The Lostness of the Game

At Be Like David, our connection between the Game and the Gospel is sincere and deliberate.

I didn't begin connecting the two because I wanted basketball to sound religious.

I needed to understand players.

I needed to understand why players struggle, why they become frustrated, why they stop learning, why they lose their love for the game, and ultimately how they can find their way back.

As my faith grew, I began seeing principles in the Gospel that helped me understand the Game more clearly.

The Bible became more than something I studied separately from basketball.

It became a lens through which I could understand the purpose of the Game and my responsibility within it.

This is where the language of law, sin, repentance, and righteousness became particularly meaningful.

Sin on the Basketball Court

Scripture teaches that sin is the transgression of God's law.

In basketball, there are also laws.

The game has principles that govern how a skill functions. When a player violates those principles, there are results.

These aren't spiritual sins in the biblical sense.

But within the analogy of Be Like David, they represent transgressions of the laws of the game. Sins in the Game.

And those transgressions produce destruction on the court.

• The player struggles.

• Their understanding breaks down.

• Wisdom is lost.

• Others suffer.

• The love of the game begins to fade.

The player becomes frustrated because they are repeatedly experiencing results they don't understand.

That is the lost player.

And that is where I believe I am called to work.

Repentance Means Turning Back to the Laws of the Game

This is why repentance has become such an important concept in my basketball philosophy.

Repentance is not simply feeling bad about what you did.

It is turning away from what is wrong and turning back toward what is right.

In basketball, that means recognizing the laws, understanding the principle that was violated, learning the law that governs the skill, and applying it to your play.

That is development.

A player doesn't need to be shamed for being lost.

They need someone willing to help them find their way.

This is one of the reasons I have always felt so strongly about teaching principles rather than simply giving players movements to memorize.

The game is its principles.

The more principles a player acquires, the more of the game they understand.

And the more they understand, the more they are found.

My Calling Became Clear

For a long time, I thought it was strange that I kept attracting these kinds of players.

• The “runts” of their teams.

• The overlooked players.

• The beginners.

• The athletes who didn't seem to fit into the sport.

• The lost.

While other coaches were developing the brightest and strongest players, I was passionately investing in the ones who seemed furthest away.

What I once considered a strange pattern eventually began to look like a calling.

I wasn't being given the players I didn't want.

I was being given the players I was meant to serve.

That realization changed everything.

I began to understand Christ's words differently.

“I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

And sinners are the lowly in the Game.

If my calling in basketball is to be a messenger of the game's truth, then I shouldn't be surprised when the players who need the message most are the ones who find their way to me.

A Messenger to the Lost Students of the Game

The purpose of Be Like David has become increasingly clear.

I am here to teach the truth about basketball.

Not simply plays.

Not simply drills.

Not simply mechanics.

Not simply how to win.

But the laws and principles of the game that allow a player to understand what they are actually doing on the court.

The goal is to bring players out of the lostness that causes so many to lose their love for basketball.

And when a player begins to understand the game, something begins to happen.

They stop merely reacting.

They begin seeing.

They stop guessing.

They begin understanding.

They stop fighting against the game.

They begin submitting to its principles.

And eventually, they begin to prosper within it.

That is what I have come to understand as my work.

I Know Who My Students Are

I no longer find it strange that I am drawn toward beginners.

I no longer wonder why the struggling player can mean as much to me as the highly accomplished one.

I understand it now.

Only the sick need a physician.

And in basketball, the players who know they need help are often the ones most willing to receive the medicine of understanding.

My job is not to make the righteous feel more righteous.

My job is to seek the lost.

• To teach.

• To serve.

• To fulfill.

• To bring understanding.

• To call players back to the principles of the game.

And perhaps most importantly, to help them rediscover why they fell in love with basketball in the first place.

This has been my journey for years.

I simply didn't have the words for it.

Now I do.

I am a messenger to the lost sheep of the game.

And I will embrace that calling more fervently.

Calling the sinners on the court to repentance—not the righteous.

For they are my students.

Shalom.