Matthew 9:9-13
Receptivity

As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, "Follow me." He got up and followed him. It happened as he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

World English Bible

I've always found this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees a bit disturbing. Why would Jesus refer to the Pharisees as "righteous"? Surely there are not people on earth to whom Jesus did not come!

This encounter is also found in Mark 2:16-17 and Luke 5:30-32, but only Matthew also includes Jesus reprimanding the Pharisees with a reminder of the passage in Hosea 6:6 about God's desire for obedience, love and mercy over sacrifice and ritual. They must have been incensed that this Nazarene preacher would doubt their knowledge of the prophets, and they would have clearly understood the sarcasm when Jesus indicated they did not need the Great Physician.

I know that when I want to respond with sarcasm, I usually shouldn't say anything at all. Often in those cases, I will feel slighted and want to chastise my attackers for devaluing my opinions or failing to show me the respect I think I deserve, but these are not God-like thoughts, and I am slowly learning to control my pride and arrogance.

Jesus was not answering out of my sinful motives. He was not simply parrying their verbal attacks with sharp criticism, but calling for them to view their situation in a different way. His remarks were intended to make the Pharisees think, and what He wanted them to ponder is why they were not searching out the Great Physician. The truth of the matter is that people who do not recognize that they are sick will not seek out a doctor. In just the same way, people who are confident in their own righteousness will not seek forgiveness and salvation. The listeners could not fail to understand that the Pharisees constructed their righteousness out of ritual and sacrifice, and prophets for hundreds of years before Jesus denounced those whose self-righteousness supplanted mercy and love.

Jesus called Matthew, who we know as a Jewish tax collector, one who charged exorbitant taxes to his fellow countrymen to pass along to the Roman occupation. Matthew left behind his former life to follow Christ because he knew that he needed the relationship with God that Jesus offered. Peter, James, and John left behind the fishing trade. Nicodemus struggled with the call when he considered his position of respect and prestige in the Jewish community. Paul fought vehemently against the call of Christianity until the blinding light on the road to Damascus. All the miracles Jesus performed and all the teaching Jesus shared were not enough to persuade most of the Pharisees to give up their ways and truly discover the Truth. Every demonstration of God's power in Jesus' life just made them oppose Jesus with that much more resolve. No where is the sadness of this response clearer than in Matthew 23:37, when Jesus cried that he ached for Jerusalem, the city that killed the prophets, and longed to gather them to Himself as a hen gathers her chicks.

Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for the sinners. The righteous do not understand their need for Jesus. The righteous believe they can negotiate with God, that they have something of value to give to God in return for what they want. They do not understand that the best that we have is worse than filthy rags compared to the wonders of God's blessings prepared for us. Nothing we own didn't come first from God. No knowledge, insight, or talent we possess was not first a thought in God's mind. No power we have can compare. Even our love, which God wants so much for us to give, is weak and unreliable.

Of course it is, Jesus replied. Of course humanity is sick and needs a doctor, and those who do not see that they are sick have an even more severe case of sin. Jesus calls us to give to Him our sickness, our sin, and our frailties. These are horrible "gifts", but only when we give up our sinful selves can Jesus make us His own.