A Tax-Collector Meets Jesus: Matthew 9:9-13
In the previous paragraph (vs
1-8), our Lord demonstrated his authority to forgive sins. Now it was never a question that sins needed
to be forgiven. But there were two mistakes
made by people in Jesus’ day about the forgiveness of sin. The first was who could forgive. Recall that the scribes were shocked that
Jesus claimed to have the power to do it.
That misunderstanding was cleared by the miracle of healing that he
performed on the paralytic. The second
misconception was who could be forgiven.
The confusion concerning the objects of forgiveness is dealt with in our
text. Another way to put it would be:
who is the intended audience of the gospel, this message of forgiveness? And the unequivocal answer of our text is
that Jesus receives and calls sinners to embrace the gospel.
Now it is especially important in
our day to come to grips with the message of this text for two reasons. One is that one of the mistakes the church
has made many times throughout its history is to retreat from the world. Now this not only happened in the past when
Christians retreated into monasteries, but also in our day when Christians have
retreated into their own little evangelical enclaves, trying to put as much
distance between themselves and the world as possible. Our Lord never retreated from the world;
rather, he advanced into it, shining his light into the darkness. You see this in the text. Our Lord did not hesitate to sit down with
Matthew and his friends who were the riffraff of society and enjoy a feast with
them. Though it shocked the respectable Pharisees
(v. 11), our Lord had no problem doing it.
In the same way, Christians should not be afraid of associating with
sinners. After all, our Lord had the
reputation of being “a friend of publicans and sinners” (Mt. 11:19). I wonder if our unwillingness to associate
with those who do not share our faith in Christ is more a product of fear than
it is of faith.
But there is another reason this
text is important. Throughout the
history of the church, and especially in our day, people have used Jesus’ words
to advocate for the very opposite of seclusion, worldliness. We hear a lot in these days of Jesus being a
friend of sinners. And I am glad that he
was and is! But what many people mean by
this is that Jesus was okay with sin. “Don’t condemn sinners!” we are told,
“because Jesus hung out with sinners.”
And depending on what the current favorite vice of the culture is, our
Lord’s words are used to evaporate any condemnation against it. In other words, our Lord’s words and actions
are used to justify depravity. And they
are used to silence those who would call sin for what it is.
However, you cannot look to Jesus
to justify either seclusion from world or conformity to it. Our Lord’s words, “I am not come to call the
righteous but sinners” (v. 13) are actually an overt condemnation of both of
these positions. Rather, in these words,
Jesus calls his disciples to lovingly confront the world with truth and to call
sinners from sin. And in doing so, our
Lord announces the essence of his mission in the world. So in that sense this passage is incredibly
important. If you want to answer the
question, “Who was Jesus and what was he about?” the answer is in our
text. John MacArthur explains, “This
statement [verse 13] contains a full perspective on Jesus’ ministry, a summary
of the message of Christianity, a close-up of the nucleus of the gospel, and
the basic rationale behind the Incarnation.”[1]
In this text, we learn the
following things about the mission of Jesus.
First, he was sent to call sinners.
The Son of man receives sinners.
Not just respectable sinners, but the worst sorts of sinners. Second, he refuses those who see themselves
as respectable and righteous. In other
words, in a true sense our Lord’s call is not universal, for it does not
include those who see no need of the gospel.
It is directed to those who see and feel their need for a Savior. He has come to call those who are weary and
heavy laden – to these he offers rest (cf. Mt. 11:28-30). Third, his call cannot be divorced from
repentance. Salvation from the guilt of
sin cannot be separated from salvation from the grip of sin – both sin’s grip
on you and your grip on sin. As the
angel put it to Joseph in Mt. 1:21, our Lord’s mission is to save people from their sin, not in their sins.
Let us more fully consider these
three truths together.
First, Jesus receives
sinners. In no case was the more
publicly and clearly displayed than in the calling of Matthew. We are told that “as Jesus passed forth from
thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he
saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose,
and followed him” (ver. 9). Matthew was
a tax-collector located in Capernaum.
However, you need to understand that this was a profession that no
self-respecting Jew would have held.
Tax-collecting was done for and in the name of the Roman Empire, which
imposed heavy and burdensome taxes upon those whom they conquered. So for Matthew to take such a job was to
become a traitor to his Jewish identity.
In fact, this was so odious to other Jews that tax-collectors were
excluded from the synagogue, their testimony could not be accepted in a court
of law, and they were considered as ceremonially defiled and unclean. One commentator has noted that although
touching a leper was bad enough, that would have been not nearly as shocking as
it must have been to see Jesus walk up to Matthew’s tax booth and call him to
follow him.[2]
But if it was bad enough to work
for one’s enemies, the way tax-collectors conducted their business was even
worse. Their position was a franchise
that they bought into. Basically, the
Romans let men bid for this position, and who won the bid was determined by who
they believed could collect the most taxes.
Each tax-collector was then given a quota, but whatever they collected
above and beyond the quota was theirs.
This of course led to rampant corruption on the part of the
tax-collectors who used their position to line their pockets with the money of
their fellow countrymen. We see an
example of this in Zacchaeus, another tax-collector that Jesus befriended (cf. Luke
19:1-10). When he met Jesus, and his
life was changed, he said, “Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and
if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him
fourfold” (ver. 8). We don’t know if
Matthew himself had taken advantage of others in this way, but certainly his
position put him in the category of a thief and a liar in the eyes of the
respectable.
So Matthew was a sinner. But he was not just a sinner. There are respectable sinners and there are
notorious sinners. Matthew was one of the
latter. And he hung out with other
undesirable characters. Because of his
job, the only friends Matthew could have made would have been others who also
had been pushed to the fringes of society.
This shocked the Pharisees. “Pharisee” means “separated one,” and they
prided themselves on being separate from those who were sinful and ceremonially
unclean. Remember the Pharisee’s prayer
in Luke 18? “God, I thank thee, that I
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this
publican [tax-collector]” (Luke 18:11).
They just couldn’t believe that God would even look on such people. But in that story, our Lord went on to
compare the prayer of the Pharisee with the prayer of a tax-collector who felt
the burden of his sin and who could only smite his breast and beg God to have
mercy on him, a sinner (ver. 13).
Remember the conclusion of the story: “I tell you, this man [the
publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”
(ver. 14). God justifies and saves
sinners.
I think that our Lord loved to
highlight this fact by intentionally calling those who the religious would have
thought unredeemable. It is not just true
that God forgives sins. It is also true
that God forgives the worst of sinners of their sins. He shows mercy to outcasts like Matthew. He redeems persecutors like Paul. And he does this to prove to you and me that
he will forgive our sins too, when we follow his Son. The apostle Paul put it like this: “This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
What is also amazing about this
is not only does he forgive sins, but he desires the fellowship of those whose
sins are forgiven. By this time no doubt
Matthew had heard of Jesus. He had
probably seen his miracles and heard his teaching. Perhaps his life had already begun to
change. But as he sat there at his tax
booth, he probably would never have entertained the notion that Jesus would
ever want to have him as one of his close disciples. And yet that is exactly what happened.
Our Lord is still calling
Matthews to follow him. If you think
that you are not worthy to follow him because you have messed up so badly in
the past, that does not disqualify you.
Because Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. We don’t bring anything to
the table. We don’t bring any
qualifications. We simply bring
ourselves to be changed by the grace of Jesus Christ.
But this not only says something
about how God looks at sinners, it also by implication says something about how
we should look at sinners. Yes, God
delights in showing mercy (cf. Micah 7:18).
But if God delights in showing mercy, then so should we. This is why Jesus told the Pharisees, “But go
ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice” (ver.
13). This is a quotation from Hosea
6:6. What Jesus is saying is that though
the Pharisees made such a big deal about ceremonial purity and sacrifices and
external religious performances, what God really wants from us is mercy. He wants us to reach out to sinners, not to
comfort them in their sins but to encourage them to part with their sins for
Christ. He wants us to recognize that
the only difference between us and the worst sinner is the grace of God. And if we feel that, then we are going to
show mercy. We will reach out to
sinners, like Jesus, instead of holding them at arms’ length, like the
Pharisees.
Calvin makes an interesting
observation that the reason why Matthew associated with the dissolute was
because no one else would be his friend.
The religious culture of his day basically pushed him into the
shadows. He explains that “when the
publicans saw themselves cast off as ungodly and detestable persons, they
sought consolation in the society of those who did not despise them on account
of the bad and disgraceful reputation which they shared along with them.
Meanwhile, they mixed with adulterers, drunkards, and such characters; whose
crimes they would have detested, and whom they would not have resembled, had
not the public hatred and detestation driven them to that necessity.”[3] It makes me wonder if the church is guilty of
that. Do people ever avoid the church
for the society of sinners because we refuse, like Christ, to receive
sinners? Are we in some sense aiding and
abetting the work of the Devil by pushing the Matthews of the world into the
necessity of mixing with the openly wicked?
It is a question worth pondering.
The second thing our text teaches
us is that Jesus refuses the righteous. We
are told that after Jesus had called Matthew, that Jesus went to eat a meal at
his house with Matthew and his friends (ver. 10). This enraged the Pharisees even further. They accosted the disciples, and asked the
accusatory question, “Why does your Master eat with publicans and sinners?”
(ver. 11). To this our Lord responds,
“They that be whole need not a physician but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will
have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous but
sinners to repentance” (ver. 12-13).
Basically, the Pharisees couldn’t
understand why Jesus wanted to hang out with the sinners instead of them. It was so offensive. They were the ones who loved the Bible! They were the ones who sought to implement
the teaching of the Law into all areas of life!
Their attitude was mirrored in the thoughts of another Pharisee who had
invited Jesus into his house but who then witnessed a woman who was a social
outcast washing Jesus’ feet: “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known
who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner”
(Luke 7:39). They just couldn’t imagine
why a teacher of the Law, as Jesus claimed to be, would identify with such
people.
Jesus’ response is
instructive. He is a physician, and
physicians aren’t in the business to help people who aren’t sick. He did not come to call the righteous (those
who are whole) but sinners (who are sick).
Now it’s important to understand that he is using irony here. He was not implying that the Pharisees were
actually righteous or whole. They
weren’t. Remember what Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount? “Except your
righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). In other
words, the “righteousness” of the scribes and Pharisees was completely
deficient. No, Jesus did not say they
were righteous because they actually were; he said it because they thought they were righteous. They considered themselves in the category of
the righteous and people like Matthew and his friends they put in the category
of the sinner.
In other words, Jesus is saying
that he did not come to save those who don’t think they need to be saved. He did not come to offer forgiveness to those
who felt that they were already righteous.
Rather, he came to seek and to save the lost. He came, not only to heal the sick, but to
heal those who know they are sick. He
came to call sinners who know they are sinners to repentance.
What does this mean? It means that part of conversion to Christ
involves a real understanding that we are sinners. This means more than just an acknowledgement
that we have sinned. The Pharisees would
have done that. I think a good test of
whether or not we believe in our need for Christ and the grace of God is this
is to put ourselves in the position of the man who knows that he is sick,
really sick. Now a man may be sick and
not know it. But such a person isn’t
going to go to the doctor. But the
person that really believes that something is wrong is going to seek the advice
and help of their physician. They know
something is wrong. Do you know
something is wrong, fundamentally wrong between you and God? A good way to determine whether or not you
understand this is to ask yourself if you think that you are worthy of God’s
judgement. “And if my soul were sent to
hell, thy righteous law approves it well.”
Can you say that? Any Pharisee
would have admitted that he sinned from time to time. And yet no Pharisee would have also admitted
that he was exposed to God’s wrath because of those sins. His good was good enough to cover up his
sins. Is that the way we feel? Because if it is, then it will be impossible
for us to authentically hear the call of Christ in the gospel.
To believe this, we have also to
believe that in the final analysis our sins are against God. And it is to understand that God is so highly
exalted and holy that to sin against him is the worst sort of evil, no matter
how that sin takes particular expression.
It is to say with King David, “Against you, you only have I sinned, and
done what is evil in your sight: so that you may be justified in your words and
blameless in your judgment” (Ps. 51:4, ESV).
Another test whether or not we
really understand our sinfulness and need of Christ has to do with our attitude
towards sin. Again, put yourself in the
position of the sick person who knows their sickness. Solomon put it this way in his prayer, “What
prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel,
which shall know every man the plague of his own heart . . . then hear thou in
heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive” (1 Kings 8:38-39). Do you know the plague of your own heart? A person who understands their sick condition
is not going to be okay with it. They
are going to want to be rid of whatever it is that is causing their ill health. In the same way, a person who understands
that they are a sinner is going to want to be rid of sin. They are not going to be content to go on
living in the quagmire of their moral filth.
Do you? It is one thing to cry
over your sin because of the consequences it has brought. It is another to turn from it
altogether. Only those who truly turn
from their sin prove that they really understand their condition in sin.
Which leads to our third and
final point. You cannot divorce the call
to forgiveness from the call to repentance.
Or, to put it another way, you cannot separate the call to embrace
Christ as Prophet and Priest from the call to embrace him as your King. And the simple reason is that those who know
that they are sick are going to want to be rid of the sickness. Now the sickness that Christ has come to heal
is the sickness resulting from sin.
Those who are sick of sin are going to want to be rid of the sin in
every aspect. We have to turn from sin
if we want to turn from Christ.
That’s why Jesus said, “I am not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance” (cf. Luke 5:32).
Remember that the message that our Lord began to preach at the very
outset of his ministry was one of repentance.
The idea that being saved means nothing more than intellectually
accepting Jesus into my heart as Savior is so far removed from the Biblical
idea of salvation as to have nothing in common with it. Those who are saved are those who follow
Christ. And those who follow Christ are
those who have turned from their sin and whose lives are increasingly becoming
the Beatitudes.
To do this, you must see that
Jesus Christ is worth it. You must see
that here is such an extraordinary person that it is worth it to part from your
dearest sin, no matter how precious you may perceive it to be, in order to have
Christ. Matthew saw this. I think one of the reasons he is putting his
conversion story here in the middle of this narrative about Jesus’ miracles is
to underline the fact that one of the things that brought him to Christ and
enabled him to leave everything for Christ is just the fact that he saw in
Jesus more than a teacher. Here was a
man who could heal leprosy at a touch, who could heal a sick man at a distance,
who could calm storms and cast out demons.
Here was the Messiah. Yes, he was
worth it.
Though Matthew doesn’t tell us
this, Luke records that Matthew left everything to follow Christ (Luke
5:28). It was one thing to leave your
fishing business for Christ. You could
always go back to fishing if it didn’t work out. But when he left his tax booth, Matthew was
making a radical decision. There was no
going back, because the Romans would have replaced him with someone else. And yet there is no hint of regret. In fact, he gives Jesus a party in his own
house. Before, he was taking money from
his fellow countrymen. Now all he wants
to do is to give Jesus to all his friends.
Is Jesus worth it? Yes, I believe he is. My prayer is that you would join me in
following him. Let Paul’s word become
ours: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I
may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his
sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:8-11).
[1]
John MacArthur, The Gospel According to
Jesus, Revised and Expanded (Zondervan: 1994), p. 67-68.
[3] http://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/matthew/9.htm
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