Radical Forgiveness and Transformation
Matt 9: 9-13
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Our text recounts the calling of Matthew by Jesus, along with some controversy over Jesus' association with tax collectors and sinners. But in it, there are profound insights into Jesus' mission, the nature of discipleship, and the heart of God's mercy and grace.
Let’s put the text into context, Prior to this passage, Jesus had been teaching and performing miracles throughout Galilee, that demonstrated His authority over sickness and demons. But here In the opening verse, Jesus encounters Matthew, a tax collector sitting at the tax booth as he walks by. The Jews despised Tax collectors as they saw them as traitors who made their living by collaborating with their oppressors, the Romans.
Yet here in verse 9, Jesus extends a radical invitation to Matthew:
"Follow me."
As he goes against social norms and calls this social outcast!
Why? Jesus sees beyond Matthew's occupation, because He can see the heart of all people, and in Matthew, He sees a disciple.
And what’s Matthew's response, “Matthew got up and followed him” leaving everything behind to follow Jesus.
By accepting Jesus’ invitation to “Follow me” Matthew’s old life is literally history. Q. Does this not illustrate the transformative power that is found when we encounter Jesus and answer his call to follow him?
Our personal encounter may not be just so dramatic, but when we heard Jesus’ call to “follow me”, and we responded positively, we too left our old lives behind, receiving forgiveness and mercy as we were made new in Him.
In verses 10-11 we read of Jesus' Association with Sinners, and thank the Lord that He did, because if he didn’t, there’d have been no hope for any of us as all of us are sinners. We’re told that as Jesus sits at a table in Matthew's house, “many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples”
The religious leaders are disgusted, so they question the disciples about it. Have you ever seen someone look down their nose at someone else? It’s not nice. With Faces full of condescension, judgmentalism, and self-righteousness the Pharisees ask.
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
And by this question, they reveal their fundamental failure to understand the very heart of God's mercy and grace.
But who are the Pharisees?
The name Pharisee literally means "Separated ones" and they were the largest of the 1st-century religious groups (Sadducees, Essenes, Scribes, Zealots, etc,) They were a brotherhood that wanted to establish a “True Israel” by extending the Priestly life into the daily life of all of the people.
As a brotherhood, they debated God’s Law, the Torah. And they developed strict rules for its practical application. These interpretations are called the “Oral Law” or the “Midrash” in Hebrew and they’re still followed by orthodox Jews today.
In the Gospels, we read of many encounters between Jesus and the Pharisees. Most of them were not so good, but some were. And it appears that the main problem that Jesus had with the Pharisees was their interpretations of God’s Law because their Oral Law distorted and twisted the Law from what God had intended.
Yet it’s also clear to see that the Pharisees were drawn to Jesus through his preaching, teaching, and miracles, they knew he was a man of God. We see this clearly when we think of Pharisees such as Joseph of Arimathea who would later lend Jesus his tomb.
And Nicodemus, who in John 3, visits Jesus at night and says,
“we know that you are a teacher come from God”.
So, it’s clear that some Pharisees held Jesus in high regard.
Remember also Nicodemus quizzing Jesus about how a person can be reborn?
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
To which Jesus replies,
“You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things?
We also know that Jesus loved the law, he said this in Matt 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
But Jesus, the Son of God, was the very lawgiver who knew its meaning, intent, and truth.
There were many encounters with Jesus because of the Pharisee’s flawed interpretations of the law. And here their religiosity wouldn’t permit them to sit with the “Am Há aretz” which means the people of the land or the ordinary people. People like tax collectors, shepherds, tanners, donkey drivers, etc. These people were considered sinners, ritually unclean, and so the Pharisees wouldn’t associate with them in case they became tarnished and filthy!
But notice that Jesus called Nicodemus “Israel’s teacher”, which scripturally means a “shepherd of God’s flock”. Yet because of their Oral law and their religiosity, as leaders they had failed in their role as shepherds of God’s flock,
God spoke through the Prophet Ezekiel about the shepherds of Israel in chapter 34: 2-6
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
Then later in verses 10-12 God says that He himself would Shepherd his people,
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
“‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
Jesus, the Son of God, is the good shepherd that was prophesied by Ezekiel.
In Luke’s gospel, chapter 15, the Pharisees again complain about Jesus mixing with sinners, so Jesus responds by telling the parable of the Lost sheep, and in it reveals himself as the Good Shepherd. This parable was a verbal slap in the face for the Pharisees, as they would have recognised instantly the reference to Ezekiel 34 and who the good Shepherd was.
But In response to their question in our passage from Matthew, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
Jesus responds with a powerful statement:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Here Jesus reveals the heart of God's mercy, highlighting His earthly mission to seek and save the lost. By quoting Hosea 6:6 He challenges the Pharisees to examine their understanding of God's word that reveals God’s desires and priorities of the importance of placing mercy over and above religious rituals.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
As Jesus's followers, we too are challenged to re-evaluate our understanding of God's mercy. Just as Jesus urged the Pharisees, so too he urges each of us to embrace a heart of compassion and grace toward all our neighbours.
By this, we are reminded that discipleship involves extending grace and mercy to all. Just as we experienced God's mercy, forgiveness, and transformative power when we encountered Jesus and responded positively to His call to “Follow me”
Have a great day, and God bless,
Trev.