EXPLORE THE TEXT
We can trust that Jesus came to offer salvation to sinners.
10 While he was reclining at the table in the house,
many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples.
11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 Now when he heard this, he said,
“It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.
13 Go and learn what this means:
I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Capernaum.
This was the hometown of Peter, Andrew, James, and John.
Matthew also worked as a tax collector by the Sea of Galilee.
After he accepted Jesus’s call to discipleship,
Matthew immediately reached out to his friends.
Despite the social stigma attached to tax collectors and other “sinners,”
Jesus attended a banquet at Matthew’s house.
This drew the attention-and the contempt-of the religious elite.
The Pharisees negative response.
Why did they approached the disciples instead of Jesus.
Explain the Lord’s response to His critics.
Jesus was aware of the intent of the Pharisees but refused to take the bait.
Instead, He answered the question directly
by quoting a well-known proverb of the day.
The proverb stated that it is sick people who need a doctor. .Jesus, however, shifted the meaning of the proverb away from physical healing.
He had already demonstrated His power and His willingness to heal physical maladies.
Spiritual healing was Jesus’s focus as He addressed the Pharisees.
Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship
and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.
(See Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 1:21-22.)
Briefly discuss how Jesus’s words affirm the Key Doctrine.
“Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship.”
Jesus quoted from Hosea 6:6
why would he emphasize mercy above sacrificial laws.