Not the righteous but sinners
Matthew 9:9 – 9:13
Jesus Calls Matthew
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This transcript has been automatically generated
Father, thank you for those truths of the value of your Word, and we ask that so it would prove to us this morning as we hear your voice. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Do please be seated.
So you’re in the doctor’s surgery. You’re waiting your turn. Your name is called, and so you go into the consulting room. So, says the doctor, how are you? I’m fine, thank you very much for asking.
In fact, I’m in superb health. I’m fighting fit. I’ve never felt better. I’m on top of the world.
Doctor’s a little bemused. So how can I help you? she asks. Oh, you can’t, you reply. No need for any of that.
I’m just here to tell you it’s that lot out there in the waiting room who need your help. Absolutely nothing wrong with me at all.
Now, isn’t that ridiculous? We would never do that, would we? Surely. And yet, when it comes to Jesus, that’s what happens all the time. Our next instalment from Matthew’s Gospel is only a few short verses, but it challenges us on this: who do we think Jesus is for?
So please turn with me to Matthew 9. We’re on page 980.
Matthew chapter 9, and we’ll pick it up at verse 9.
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. But sinners.
So in our series in Matthew, we’ve been following Jesus around, haven’t we? Hearing what he has to say, seeing what he can do as he travels around Galilee. And now we are in Capernaum. Remember, this was Jesus’ home. We’re near the northern shores of Lake Galilee.
When, verse 9, we’re told, Jesus passed on from there, and he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth. Well, remind ourselves that in Jesus’ day, in the first century, tax collectors were outcasts because they worked for the Roman occupiers. And they did their dirty work for them against God’s people. So tax collectors, although Jewish, were traitors. And not only that, they would then overcharge.
They would line their own pockets. And to do that, they would use, well, let’s call them non-friendly means. Of extracting the income. So, in first-century Israel, they really were despised, and that was understandable because of how they behaved. So, as we read this, it is worth thinking who we might put in that category today.
Maybe it is those who make the front pages of the tabloid newspapers. The kind of people the discussion then goes, can you believe what they did? Or maybe there’s that nasty piece of work, maybe in your office, makes life so difficult that you all feel quite uncomfortable around. Maybe someone has ripped you off through work or at home. Maybe that notorious neighbour, or think of the loan shark in your community, you can just see they are preying on vulnerable families.
Well, that maybe gives us a sense of the insight of the community feeling, or we could really say hostility there would be towards Matthew. And so now, as Jesus comes along, the crowds are there. You can guess there’s a sense of expectation, but a hope that Jesus, the fearless preacher, would give Matthew both barrels. Hard for everyone else to do because tax collectors had the backing of the soldiers. But Jesus, surely.
Matthew had it coming for so long. Well, verse 9. Jesus says to Matthew, follow me.
We’d love to know more. We’d love, I think, to know the look on Matthew’s face as Jesus said that. Was there any more to the discussion? We’re not told. We don’t need to know.
This is what matters. Jesus said, follow me. Matthew rose, left the tax booth behind, and followed Jesus. Now, why are we told this? It’s only one verse.
You might think, well, it’s a little story filler. We’ve had the dramatic storm-stilling, demon-driving-out, paralytic-walking kind of action. Is this just a minor detail, just to keep things ticking along, a rest until Jesus does something amazing again? Well, actually, far from it. Everything in this Gospel is recorded for a reason.
And what happens here is a very big deal. And we’re meant to realise that after what we’ve seen recently in Matthew. Do you remember back in chapter 8, Jesus told us what it means to be his followers? Do you remember it was a real challenge to leave behind your old life? Well, here we see someone, Matthew, who does it.
He gets up, leaves the tax booth, and follows Jesus. A reminder again, Jesus has the authority to demand that you leave the old life and follow him. And Matthew does it. Then do you remember the opening verses of chapter 9? We looked at them on Easter morning.
Jesus claimed that authority to forgive sins. Do you remember how he demonstrated it by telling that paralytic to rise and get up and go on his way? And now, here in verse 9, Matthew rises, gets up, and goes on his way following Jesus. So we are here seeing someone, as they follow Jesus, they are forgiven. So actually, what we see in this one verse is as great as anything else we’ve seen Jesus do.
Matthew is a ratbag. He’s an out-and-out sinner. He simply trusts in Jesus, and he’s forgiven. It is as wonderful and as simple as that. His eternity transformed for the better.
I wonder, as we read again the story of Matthew, did our hearts skip a beat once more? Or is it all far too familiar? Or did we think, that is amazing that Matthew gets to follow Jesus, that a sinner like that gets to follow Jesus, because that’s good news not just for Matthew but for me?
Well, if we are following Jesus, this is big news. Here is the story to tell. We are forgiven.
But not everyone grasps the wonder of that. But Jesus really wants us to see it, and so he goes on. We’ve seen that a sinner follows Jesus. But next, a physician heals the sick. Just think for a moment of that little part of London, maybe, where you simply wouldn’t go.
Maybe because it’s dangerous. Maybe the kind of people who live there, the kind of stuff that goes on means Well, you will go out of your way to avoid it. And now just imagine if the Queen left the gates of Buckingham Palace behind and she headed in that direction. Not on an official capacity to open maybe a homeless centre or anything like that. Simply, let’s say, to let her hair down, if the Queen ever does that.
To hang out with the locals, just to spend some time with them because she wants to. Without the media, simply to enjoy their company. I wonder what we would make of that. Well, verse 10: And Jesus, as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Now again, think.
We’ve been reading Matthew. Why is he telling us this? Well, notice the repeating word, Jesus reclined at table, twice. Well, we think back, and here’s a party, but it’s not the first one we’ve seen. Do you remember chapter 8, verses 11 and 12, where Jesus says, I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
Well, look at that. There in Capernaum, in the house of Matthew, we are being given a glimpse, a brief foretaste, of the Messianic banquet. What’s going to happen at the end of the age, as the whole of the Bible has pointed to that day when God with his people will celebrate. And Jesus is saying, here’s a little glimpse of it with Matthew and his friends. There they are, reclining with Jesus.
A wonderful sight to behold.
Except, except of course, some see this and have issues with the guest list. Because yes, Jesus is there, his disciples too, but also Matthew. And not just Matthew, his mates, his circle of friends. And of course, the only people who’d spend any time with Matthew would be people like him. So, the Pharisees really couldn’t accept this.
Now, as these Pharisees come on stage, please forget the idea they are the pantomime villains, the baddies. The bad person is the tax collector, is Matthew. In the first century, Pharisees knew their Bibles, taught it. They were concerned to live according to it. They would be the upstanding, respectable people of the day.
There would be much to commend in their lives. And, of course, by comparison, you would then look at these tax collectors, these who failed by a long way to be anywhere near that. They would be immoral. They’d be money-grabbing. They’d rip people off.
Wouldn’t care for God. Then verse 11, when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors sinners? So it’s a question, but we know it’s an accusation. What was Jesus doing? Didn’t he realise?
Surely, if he did realise— verse 12: When Jesus heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Well, let’s think about these words. Jesus is world-famous, isn’t he, as a profoundly wise teacher? But here in verse 12, he says what surely is crashingly obvious: those who are well have no need of a doctor, but the sick. So why would Jesus say this?
Clearly, to get us thinking. Why would he point out the obvious? Again, we think of Matthew 8 and 9, and of course we’ve seen the sick, haven’t we, many times. We’ve seen the leper, the paralytic, a fever, another paralytic, and then all who were sick were brought to Jesus. And we’ve thought, haven’t we, how physical sicknesses are an expression, a symptom of our root problem, humanity’s root issue of sin and guilt.
Jesus told us he came to deal with sicknesses by taking it on himself at the cross. So we’ve heard a little bit about sicknesses, but what about the well which Jesus speaks of in verse 12? What does he mean? And of course, he’s not here talking about those he’s made well, those who are well after seeing the doctor. He’s talking more about those who are well even before the doctor arrives.
Well, what’s he getting at? Well, he explains himself there at the end of verse 13, where Jesus says, For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
So what does he mean by well? Well, put very simply, obviously, if you’re well, you don’t think you need the doctor. If you’re feeling fine, you won’t go and make an appointment with the GP. And so the righteous is a description here of those who don’t think they need Jesus. Of course, this is a comment aimed at those Pharisees, getting them to think about their own state.
It’s very clear what they thought about the sinners, but what about them? And it’s obvious, isn’t it, they don’t think they are in need. So we need to ask ourselves, do we need Jesus? Now, I don’t think any of us would fall into the category of these tax collectors and sinners, in the sense that most of us have a background and upbringing that means we won’t have outwardly done maybe the kinds of things these guys did. Maybe we have, but we have kept it well hidden.
Of course, even so, we still wouldn’t be so crass, I don’t think, as to claim that we are righteous. We wouldn’t want to say that I’m righteous, perfect, or anything like that. But where do we think that we come? I wonder, do we think, not perfect, but okay?
And I guess it shows itself in maybe how we speak, like these Pharisees. How much of our conversation is, in the end, actually taken up with criticising others, with the unstated but vital assumption that we are not like them? We would never do what we are talking about they would do.
And so then when it comes to Jesus, well, we’re here, we admire Jesus, don’t we? We like him. We enjoy listening to his teaching.
While maybe all the time, deep down, we don’t actually think we need him more than anything else in all the world.
But Jesus wants us to realise, if that’s us, then he hasn’t come for us. He hasn’t come for the well. I don’t know what Ben and Rachel give out for good behaviour in school. Maybe a sticker, maybe a gold star. Well, I’m afraid Jesus hasn’t come to give us gold stars or anything like that.
He’s come as a doctor. He’s come for the sick. And here’s a shock: if we think we are okay, Jesus has nothing for us. Sometimes we hear, don’t we, that Jesus is for everyone. Well, here Jesus says that’s not true.
He is not for everyone. He’s for those who think they need him.
Well, I wonder what the Pharisees would think hearing this. Quite something for Jesus to say that he has nothing for them, for us. Because again, we think of the last few chapters. Here’s a Jesus with this astonishing authority. He can clearly sort out our world, make it a better place, now and forever.
Do we really want to be saying that when it comes to sickness, evil, death, well, actually, we’re OK, we have no need for Jesus, we’ll be alright all by ourselves?
Jesus wants us, if you like, to re-examine our condition, our hearts. Maybe to think, Do I have this problem of which he speaks? Now, of course, it is possible to have a serious medical problem, but you don’t go to the doctor because you’re not aware of it at all. But it doesn’t mean it’s not there and that it won’t, in time, have serious consequences. So here is the doctor, Jesus, volunteering his opinion.
Surely we should listen to what he has to say.
Because Jesus doesn’t actually think there are 2 categories of people, the righteous and the sinner. He doesn’t want us to think, well, which one, I wonder, do I fall into? Read the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, it’s pretty obvious, crystal clear what Jesus thinks. We’re all sinners. There’s some verses there on the outline if you want to look that up.
But will we listen to the diagnosis? And it’s worth listening because the diagnosis doesn’t stop there. Just think today, you go to see the specialist at the hospital, do the tests, but there comes that moment, doesn’t there, where the doctor has to say with a solemn face, I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do.
And maybe as we’ve begun to listen to Jesus, we’ve been reminded again spiritually, well, I can do nothing about it. That’s true. There’s nothing anyone else could do about it. But wonderfully, if we come to Jesus, he will never say, there is nothing I can do. Because he came for the sick.
He came for the really sick to make them well. So, we’ve seen a sinner following Jesus. We’ve seen a physician heals the sick. Then finally, we need to see a people who are like their God. You’ll have noticed we missed a few words of what Jesus said to the Pharisees in the middle of verse 13, where he says, go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Now let’s not forget who Jesus is talking to— the religious experts. They spend their lives upholding the Scriptures, teaching them, applying them to every area of life. And to these experts, Jesus says very simply, go and learn.
You can imagine, can’t you, the Pharisees would have been furious. He is literally quoting the Bible at them from the book of Hosea. How dare Jesus do that? And even worse, it’s obvious he thinks they haven’t understood the Scriptures. He also thinks they don’t live by them.
So what does Jesus mean by quoting Hosea when he says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice? We need to be careful because the Old Testament actually takes sacrifices very seriously. They were necessary, they had to happen, and they mattered to God. But a religious observance that merely or scrupulously kept the outward rituals, without what should be at the heart of it, was worthless and missed the point. A mere empty shell.
It might have looked busy and active, impressive, but there was no life there. At all. Which is a challenging word for our world today. For London, plenty of churches today will be busy and active with meetings. People will turn up, as we have here this morning.
But Jesus is saying that can all happen, but the heart is missing. God says through Hosea, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And that mercy is a key word all through the Bible, Old Testament and New. God’s character is revealed to us. He’s merciful, he’s gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
We see that in Jesus. We’ll see in a few weeks’ time in Matthew 9:36. You can look onto it if you like. Jesus sees the crowds. He has compassion on them.
You know, he sees this mixed bag, to say the least, of all sorts of people. He cares. He has compassion. That’s the heart of God in action. It’s why Jesus came.
It’s why he proclaimed his message far and wide, even to people like Matthew. Can you believe it? Because Jesus cared for them. Wonderfully, of course, is this compassion for needy people like us that takes him to the cross.
And the point that Jesus is making to those Pharisees, that those who’ve grasped this, who’ve come to Jesus, who’ve realised what they are like, will then accept Jesus’ compassion towards them and then display it to others. That is, if we’ve grasped that I’m a sinner, but God has shown mercy to me, then I’ll be full of mercy to those around around me. That’ll be the heart of our Christian lives.
I’ve not come for sinners— for righteous, but for sinners. Jesus didn’t come for the well, but for the sick. We think that is so obvious. Well, is it? Here’s the question: how do we treat those we would be tempted to look down on?
How do we treat those whom society thinks are outside the pale? How do we treat when others wrong us and treat us so badly? How do we choose to spend our lives? Do we carefully negotiate life so we only spend our time with the people who are nice, who are like us, making sure we don’t cross paths with those who— well, the sick ones?
It’s a real challenge because if that’s us, well, we haven’t actually understood Jesus’ very simple truth that he came not for the well but for the sick. We are like these Pharisees. We are thinking, I’m okay, I’m better, I don’t need Jesus. But if we’ve really understood that we need Jesus and that he will heal us and forgive us, Well, how then could we look down on others? Quite the contrary.
We will be determined, with God’s help, to show that same mercy to those around us. So, it’s been a challenging and encouraging consultation with Dr. Jesus this morning. We are sick. We need him. But look at Matthew.
He invites us to follow, and if we do, we are forgiven. And then that will show itself in our lives. In particular, we’ll become like our God more and more, like Jesus. We’ll demonstrate this love and this compassion to a needy world around us. Let’s close in prayer.
Father, we do praise you that you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving of sin. Praise you that Jesus came full of this compassion. Thank you that you’ve shown it towards us, that Jesus forgives even sinners like us. And so we ask that now, as we follow Jesus, help us to be more like him, filled with this compassion. Would our knowledge of your love and mercy overflow in showing such love and mercy towards those around us?
We do pray that as we speak of Jesus, that more would realise their need of him. And so, like us, come to him to be made well. In his name we pray. Amen.
