TEXT [Commentary]

6. Jesus calls Matthew (9:9-13; cf. Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32)

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?[*]”

12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’[*] For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

NOTES

9:9 a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. Somewhere near Capernaum Jesus encountered Matthew working at a tax collector’s booth (cf. 5:46; 10:3). Matthew was called Levi in Mark and Luke. The collector’s booth may have been near the Sea of Galilee, where Matthew would have collected taxes on fishermen or duties on goods brought into Antipas’s domain by boat. The call of Matthew to follow Jesus recalls the previous call of four other disciples in 4:18-22 and anticipates the list of the Twelve in 10:1-4. One wonders whether there was any contact between Matthew and Jesus before the call, but as in 4:18-22, Jesus took the initiative, and Matthew responded immediately, without question.

Follow me and be my disciple. Although the words “and be my disciple” are not in the Gr. text, it makes explicit what is entailed in following Jesus. (Following Jesus is mentioned in 4:19-25; 8:1, 10, 19, 22; 9:9, 27; 12:15; 14:13; 16:24; 19:2, 21, 27-28; 20:29, 34; 21:9; 26:58; 27:55.)

9:10-11 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests. The length of time between Matthew’s call and the dinner mentioned here is not specified in the text, but it was likely a short time span. The NLT’s translation of 9:10 expresses the likely view that Matthew invited Jesus and the disciples to a dinner at his house (cf. Luke 5:29), but the Gr. text is not explicit on this matter.

many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. The NLT’s somewhat redundant “disreputable” is not in the Gr. text, though it gives the right connotation. Undoubtedly, these were Matthew’s friends and colleagues, who were invited to the dinner along with Jesus and his disciples (cf. 11:19; 21:31-32). Tax collectors would likely be unacceptable to the Pharisees due not only to their deserved reputation for extortion (cf. Luke 3:12-13) but also to their frequent associations with Gentiles. The term “sinners” (9:11, 13; 11:19; 26:45; cf. Mark 2:14-22; Luke 5:27-32) designates those whose behavior was egregiously ungodly, but from the Pharisaic perspective it may also include those who did not observe the traditional interpretations of the Bible (15:2) on such matters as ritual purity, food laws, and Sabbath observance. The Pharisees would not attend such a dinner as this, and they were offended that Jesus and his disciples did attend. Fellowship around a table was taken seriously in Jesus’ time, as being an act that implies deeper unity than is currently attributed to it in the West. His participation in table fellowship probably should be viewed as a foretaste of eschatological festivities (8:11; 22:1-14; 25:1-13; 26:29).

Why does your teacher eat with such scum? The phrase “such scum” interprets the tone of the question, which lit. repeats the same terms used in 9:10, “tax collectors and sinners.”

9:12-13 Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. Jesus’ answer depends upon a cultural association of sin with disease, which is involved in some way in 8:16-17; 9:1-8. Metaphorically and proverbially speaking, the sinners with whom he associated were “ill” and needed a “physician.”

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. This is an allusion to Hos 6:6, a prophetic critique of the mentality that prioritized the performance of religious ritual over the maintenance of personal integrity (cf. 5:7; 12:7; 1 Sam 15:22; Jer 7:22-23; Ps 40:6-8; Heb 10:4-9). Jesus bluntly put the two as “either-or” alternatives, but it is likely this is an idiomatic way of saying that God desires ethical loyalty more than participation in the sacrificial system (cf. Isa 1:10-17; Jer 7). The prophets did not want to abolish the sacrificial system but to reform it by stressing inner purity over ritual purity. Jesus’ final words apply the metaphorical language to the reality of his mission—the “healthy” are those who think they are righteous, like the Pharisees (whose question was really an accusation), and the “sick” are those who realize that they need Jesus’ “medicine.” It is to this second group that Jesus was sent, and he called them to repentance (3:2; 4:17).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The second set of three miracle stories is now complete, so once again the narrative turns to a discipleship story (9:9-13; cf. Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32). This pericope clarifies the mission of Jesus by recounting events that transpired after the call of Matthew (9:9). After being called, Matthew had a dinner party for his associates, both old and new (9:10). Certain Pharisees accusingly asked Jesus’ disciples about their social companions (9:11; cf. the similar story about Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10). The teaching about Jesus’ mission flows from this controversy (9:12-13; cf. Hos 6:6).

As the ultimate and definitive teacher of the law (5:17), Jesus exemplified the ideals of Hosea 6:6 in calling Matthew the tax collector to be his disciple and in associating with tax collectors and sinners. While the Pharisees no doubt knew this text, they did not grasp its applicability to the matter of associating with outcasts. Jesus had previously exemplified such ideals in his ministry to the leper, the Roman officer, and Peter’s mother (8:1-17). His Kingdom ministry is not circumscribed by ritual impurity, ethnicity, or gender, and neither will social stigmas limit its outreach. God’s primary attribute in relating to sinful humans is mercy. Thus, God’s primary desire for his people is for them to show mercy, not to offer sacrifices. Matthew portrays Jesus’ ministry to outcasts as epitomizing this ideal. It is not that Jesus downplays adherence to the law or the sacrificial system, but that for him, adherence to the law starts with a compassionate heart. Davies and Allison (1991:105) put it well: “cultic observance without inner faith and heart-felt covenant loyalty is vain.” Certain Pharisees opposed this kind of ministry.

Matthew skillfully presented the opposition to Jesus from the religious leaders as becoming more and more pronounced. Here the Pharisees questioned Jesus indirectly through his disciples, but later (excepting 17:24) the questions of the various Jewish religious leaders will be addressed to him directly (cf. 15:1-2; 16:1; 19:3; 21:16, 23; 22:16, 23, 35). Ultimately, Jesus “turns the tables” and asks them a question they either cannot or will not answer, and this effectively ends the pattern of interrogation (22:41-46). Jesus’ social interaction with notorious sinners scandalized the Pharisees of his own day, and it likewise tends to embarrass those in our day whose views of separation from worldliness stress externals rather than personal integrity. Jesus and his disciples had no qualms about associating with sinners, and Christians today dare not hide their light under a basket due to legalistic scruples. Associations with unbelievers must be handled with wisdom, so that ethical compromise is avoided, but fear of such compromise cannot become an excuse for isolation from those who most need the message of the Kingdom (5:13-16). Associating with unbelievers is the way to summon them into the Kingdom of God.