Refusing the righteous
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 22 July 2012
Jesus has given us a dramatic and comprehensive statement in Matthew 9:13 that has been much misunderstood. This statement gives us a full perspective on His ministry and the reason for his incarnation and is one of the most important statements ever recorded in the bible.
In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says, "I have not come to call on the righteous but the sinners." The message of Christianity is that Jesus has come for bad people and not for good people. And what Jesus means is that He has come for those people who know that they are sinners, who are desperate and hurting and who are broken and willing to admit that they are sinners.
People do not come to Christ unless they understand that they have a major problem, they don't come for life unless they know that they are spiritually dead. Jesus came to expose us as sinners and that is why His message is so penetrating and so forceful. And we will never win anybody for Christ unless they know and admit that they need Him.
Jesus came to call not the righteous but sinners. Peter said in Luke 5:9, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord." Paul said it in 1 Timothy 15, he summed it all up for all of us and said, " This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” And he surely had in mind, among other things, the word of our Lord in Matthew said that Jesus had come to call sinners.
If you have heard me in Matthew 8 and 9, you know that Matthew is verifying the reality that Christ is the Messiah and here he does that through specific miracles that Jesus performed. These are not random miracles but they are to prove the Messiah's credentials and to fulfill Old Testament expectations.
The first three miracles deal with Christ' power over disease, the second three showed His power over nature, demons and sin. And then we see the response that is divided, a positive response from a person who knows he is a sinner and a negative response from one who thinks he is righteous.
But first let us look at Matthew 9:9-13 where we see the call of Matthew who penned this gospel of Matthew. We just saw the power of Jesus to forgive sin in Matthew 9:1-8. And then as He was walking along the shore He saw a man named Matthew.
Verse 9 is the call of Matthew. That's the first part of the response, the positive. He sees a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. He said unto him, "Follow me, and he rose and followed,” this is a positive response. Then He enters into a dialogue with the Pharisees, getting a negative response, their conclusions are poles apart and yet reacting to the same exact miracles.
By the way other gospels call him Levi but the Lord called him Matthew which means "gift of Jehovah." It was not uncommon for Jesus to give his disciples new names. Now let us learn more about Matthew 9:9, "As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, "Follow me." So he arose and followed Him."
Think with me now to see the transition. Jesus has just forgiven sins. Matthew makes that point in verses 1 through 8. He has the ability and the power to forgive sin. The question that a lot of people struggle with is the how much sin is Jesus willing to forgive? And with the example Jesus gives us we learn the answer to that question.
By all standards of that time Matthew was the most hated person in Capernaum. Matthew was a tax collector and because of that was considered a traitor to Israel. In that job he was required to collect a certain amount of taxes and anything over that he could keep and he had the support of the Roman government behind him. And there was a lot of abuse and excess tax collected.
Most of the Jews believed it was wrong to pay taxes because only God should receive their money. And on top of that they considered that job anti religion so that tax collectors were not allowed to enter the synagogue. They also were forbidden to be a witness in court because they could not be believed.
And there were two categories of tax collectors, the general tax collectors that dealt with land, property and a poll tax that required you to pay a tax because you were alive. They were called gabbai. Then there was another kind of tax collector whose job it was to to collect taxes on everything else.
For instance these are taxes on what you buy, on your boat, on going over a bridge, on each wheel of your cart, on market taxes, on your business, on entering a town and they could invent new taxes on anything, and they were called mokhes and their abuse was unlimited and they were more despised than the gabbai.
Now Matthew was probably collecting taxes on the side of the road on all people who passed by. But wait, there were two kind of mokhes, the great mokhes who hired somebody to sit at a table to collect taxes because they wanted to keep their hands clean on the outside. And then you also have the little mokhes who did everything themselves, unconcerned about their reputation, so that they could make the most money possible.
Matthew was the little mokhes from Capernaum, the worst man in the city. And the rabbi taught that repentance for a litlle mokhes is impossible. So when Jesus said "follow Me," and Matthew did instantly, leaving everything behind, that must have astonished everyone.
But Matthew did not mention anything about himself or about how he felt being forgiven or how honored he was to be an apostle. Matthew was a man who wanted to be forgiven with all his heart but the religious system told him he could never have it. He recognized his sin and that is the reason he followed instantly.
And Luke says in Luke 5:28, "So he left all." Matthew himself was too humble to mention that leaving a tax collector job would be a forever thing because the minute you leave, the Romans would find a willing replacement for your job right away.
Matthew knew the Lord’s work because Capernaum is little and the miracles were huge. He must have longed for what Jesus was offering him. True conversions are like that. Jesus looked lovingly at him and searched his innermost heart and soul and instantly turned him into a child of God.
He must have been so surprised by that unexpected grace that he did not say a word but just followed and he was redeemed at that spot. Matthew lost a career, security and riches but gained a destiny and a spiritual fortune. He was proof that Jesus can and is willing to save the worst man in town.
And so Matthew decides to have a huge banquet attended by rotten people like himself but says litlle about the details because of his humility. So as we read Mark 2 and Luke 5, we read that the feast was at his own house with Jesus as the honored guest.
Now some would say, Jesus should not go to those evil people, and that was precisely what the Pharisees thought. They could not understand why Jesus if He was really God would be having dinner with the worst of sinners instead of with them.
And the answer is in Matthew 9:10, “Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.” Jesus came to save sinners who were willing to admit their sins and not sinners who are self righteous who are not willing to admit their sinfulness and who think that they do not need anything and are good enough to go to heaven based on their own merits.
And in Matthew 9:11 they say, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" They are expressing their bitterness, they are saying, "True pious people like us, we do not want to associate with such vile sinners."
Jesus knows all their thoughts and so He answers in Matthew 9:12-13, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice." for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Here Jesus has a three-fold defense in answering these Pharisees. The first argument is from logic, the second is from Scripture and the third is based on His divine authority.
Jesus begins by saying that people who think they are well do not seek a physician, and Jesus says that these Pharisees consider all those tax collectors and people that are their friends as being the sickest people and so by their own reasoning they are the ones who need help the most.
Jesus is saying to these Pharisees, if your perception is so accurate, why are you not concerned about them? Are you a doctor who only diagnoses but does not want to cure patients? They are self righteous and totally indifferent towards others.
In Matthew 23:23 Jesus says to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” You make sure you tithe the smallest little tithing requirements but you have omitted the more important parts of the law like justice and mercy. Where is your love and compassion?
Many of us do the same, we condemn people all the time and yet we do nothing to really help them. Where is our love and compassion that is shown by our deeds? Jesus on the other hand came as close to them as you can get and ate together with them. He is the divine physician who not only is able but also willing to make them pure and white as snow.
Secondly Jesus uses an argument from Scripture and says to them, "Go and learn what this means." This is a phrase from the rabbis who rebuke those people who should have known better. And then Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
The Lord is saying, I'm more interested in your heart attitude than all the outward rituals that you perform without thinking. God says to the people, you are committing adultery and you have forsaken Me in your heart, and yet you still perform those little rituals as if they will wash away your sins.
Jesus is saying to these Pharisees, you will not receive any mercy from God because you yourself show no mercy, which indicates that your hearts are not right. God only accepts those sacrifices if they were an expression of a broken and contrite heart.
Some people think that going to church and helping at the bazaar will please God. But if your effort is not accompanied with an inward attitude of obedience to His laws that produces personal holiness, it becomes a dead ritual that deceives you and is not pleasing to God.
When Jesus says “go and learn,” He is not only talking to those Pharisees long time ago, no, He is talking to all Christians now as well. Our life is not just making a decision at the time of salvation but it is a life long road of continual learning and continuous repenting and continuous growing through trials and tribulations, because that is the way God changes our character to become more like Jesus.
That is why Paul is glad that there are trials because he sees them as God’s caring works to teach him faith and perseverance (Romans 5:3). How do look at trials in your own life? Are you mad at God when He makes your life difficult or do you thank God for those trials because they make you come closer to Him and depend on Him more and give you more insight about your own weaknesses?
Thirdly Jesus explains His own authority in Matthew 9:13, "For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The Pharisees in Luke 18:9 believed that they were righteous, so Jesus looks at their heart and sees their self righteousness and knows that they will not accept the reality that they are just as sinful as the rest of humanity.
In Matthew 22:1-10, the Lord gives us a picture that fits very well. The Lord pictures His kingdom like a banquet and He sends out invitations, but the people invited refuse to come. That is the picture of Israel.
So then He says, "You go out in the highways and byways and the poor, lame and blind and bring them in." You see the kingdom is for the hungry and thirsty, for the people that are hurting, for the mourning and the meek and sinful. He says you self-righteous people refuse me, so I invite those who know they really need Me.
Here Matthew became the saint of God who wrote this great gospel and entered into a spiritual inheritance that will last forever. I'm a sinner like that and every one who believes in Jesus is the same. I hope that you are one too.
I'm so grateful that He loved us anyway even though our sins are so great. And I pray for all that are here who have never invited Christ in their life, who have never considered themselves as vile sinners, may they hear the call to follow the Lord and may they react instantly, like Matthew did and leave the past for a certain future together with Christ. Let us pray.