Matthew 9:10-13 - 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.”
When we read the Bible, we often like to visualize ourselves in the hero’s position. We are David when he slew Goliath. We are the good Samaritan who stopped to help the injured man. We like seeing ourselves as the good and faithful servant. More often, though, the truth is that we are the helpless one, the one caught gloating over their own power, or the one who doubts Jesus. We are the sinners! Jesus is seen reclining with us.
The Pharisees had setup boundaries to keep themselves holy. Unfortunately, this was only holiness in their own minds. They thought, “If I never associate with those ‘bad’ people then everyone will know that I am a ‘good’ person.” This is something that they added to the law that God never intended.
The Pharisees would have loved today’s social media echo chambers—those places you go where any dissenting thought is shouted down so everyone thinks “the correct way.” The Pharisees take a shot at Jesus by asking how this person who claims to be a teacher can associate with all these “bad” people. And Jesus answers them plainly, “those who are sick are the ones who need the doctor.”
Jesus then tells them, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’” Here Jesus is quoting Hosea 6. In Hosea’s day the people were diligent about bringing their sacrifices, but it had become a rote habit. They were neglecting the purpose, and they were neglecting mercy.
The Pharisees who heard this would have been taken aback because they thought they already knew everything. For us it means we need to take Jesus’s Great Commission to heart and make disciples everywhere we go. They don’t need to look like you, they don’t need to think like you, they just need you to embody the grace and mercy that you have already experienced as a follower of Christ.
Let’s tell everyone we know that Jesus came for them.