Eating With Sinners: A Meditation on Matthew 9 for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

And 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.

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house,

behold, many publicans and sinners came

and sat down with him and his disciples.

 

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples,

Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them,

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.

 

In the modern Western church, there are few texts as maligned and misapplied as our reading in Matthew 9.  Read directly, it records the instance where Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, leaving his corrupt occupation as tax collector behind to be Jesus’ disciple.  As Jesus ate with Matthew, other sinners of various types and sorts came to Jesus, and Jesus ate with them as they sat with Jesus’ disciples.  The tenor of the conversation between Jesus and these gathering sinners is shown in the sidebar discussion with the Pharisees, who took offense in a perceived violation of the Law Jesus was committing by having fellowship with such people.  Jesus made it clear to the Pharisees that He had not come to participate in sin, but as a Physician treating those with a sickness, He was applying the spiritual balm of calling sinners to faith and repentance where grace and mercy could be found.  The Pharisees were big on sacrifices at the Temple, particularly when they could make a show of their holiness to bolster their social standing.  On the contrary, Jesus reiterated the declarations of the Old Testament Prophets, that God desired mercy over sacrifice—authentic, living faith turning from evil and working in love, rather than a focus on religious ceremony.  The ceremonies were good and right as they were instituted, but apart from faith it is impossible to please God, since by faith alone comes the grace and mercy which God desires to pour out upon mankind.

 

What this text most certainly does not mean, is that the Church should join in the evil of unrepentant people.  Jesus never encouraged tax collectors to continue extorting and fleecing those over whom they had authority, just as He never condoned continuing in sexual sins such as adultery.  Jesus is still the very Word of God Incarnate, so He cannot be separated from the Books of Moses and the Law revealed within them.  The Ten Commandments are still holy and good, even if fallen man at his best fails to keep them.  Idolatry, broken vows in God’s Name, profaning of the Sabbath, dishonoring parents, murder, adultery and all sexual activity apart from a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman, theft of another person’s property, speaking lies about another person, and covetous lust for the property and people given to others, is all just as evil now as it was when God gave His commandments against such evil at Mount Sinai.  Extrapolations of these laws throughout the Mosaic writings help refine the point that witchcraft, necromancy, homosexuality, swapping gender roles or identities, disregard for the poor, abuse of power, false judgments, crooked scales of justice, taking advantage of others by cleverness or deceit, insurrection and rebellion, and a host of other nuances are also always evil, while faith, hope, justice, truth, love, fidelity, temperance, self-control, wisdom and the like all continue to be good and virtuous pursuits.  When Jesus ate with sinners, He didn’t destroy or invalidate any of the moral Law—instead, He confirmed it.

 

The problem with all mankind is that we’re fallen into sin and can’t get ourselves out, because deep down in our fallen nature we don’t want to leave evil behind.  The same pride and self-love which motivated the devil to rebel against God and take a third of the angels with him, infects us, too.  Our pride resists a full devotion to God that we might rightly love and trust Him above all things, even though we know by His Word that He alone is worthy of such love as the only Creator and King of the Universe.  Likewise our love of self contorts our minds into subjugating our neighbors, always seeking our own best interest at the expense of others rather than loving them as ourselves.  Jesus noted rightly that the whole Law hangs upon these great commandments to love God and love neighbor, and that doing so would result in a keeping of the Law testified by Moses and the Prophets.  What the Pharisees of Matthew 9 couldn’t see was that they were just as sinful (if not more so) than the tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, and political malcontents who came to Jesus, because the Pharisees had absolved themselves of the need for mercy and love so as to nurture their pride and selfishness.  Jesus was and remains the Great Physician who comes to heal the sin-sick souls of mortally wounded people, but He does so by calling all people to faith and repentance by His Word.  The Pharisees declared themselves perfectly well and thus missed the healing absolution of Jesus’ grace, while the tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, and other malefactors heard Jesus’ Word, trusted and believed in Him, and thereby received His healing absolution.  Jesus desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and He would be both for all who trusted in Him.

 

Jesus’ eating with sinners was not an abrogation of the Law, but a fulfilment of it.  Jesus knew He would be taking these people’s sins upon Himself as He made His way to Calvary, and He knew that the grace which He would pour out through His Vicarious Atonement would be their forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.  Jesus called sinners to repentance because only authentic, living faith in Him could bring such sinful souls to turn from the death of evil paths, and to walk with Him in the way of virtue and life.  If the Law had been abrogated or removed, then the Cross would not be necessary.  On the contrary, it is the severity and justice of the Law which drove our Savior in selfless love to embrace the Cross for us, so that we might not receive the hellish justice we have earned by our pride and selfishness.  Yet what was true in first century Judea is still true today:  only faith brings about repentance, and such faith alone receives grace unto salvation.  We must not forget that the same Jesus who sat with sinners and verbally jousted with religious authorities, was the God who poured out wrath upon the world through the great flood in Noah’s time, poured fire out of heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s time, destroyed Pharoah’s kingdom with plagues and drowned his army in the Red Sea during Moses’ time, caused the land of Canaan to vomit out its previous wicked inhabitants during Joshua’s time, routed the armies of the Philistines during King David’s time, brought calamity and captivity upon Israel for their unfaithfulness during the times of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and judged the rising and falling of empires since the dawn of man to this day.  God will not be mocked and men still reap what they sow—which makes the Gospel proclamation so imminently urgent in every generation.  Judgement always falls upon unrepentant evil, and grace always rescues every repentant sinner.

 

It is a blessing beyond measure that the Lord of Hosts, the Savior of the World, deigns to eat with sinners like us, calling us to faith and repentance that we might receive His healing grace unto eternal life.  Let go the antinomian heresies of our day which only end in destruction, and the blasphemous wrapping of sin under the rainbow covenant given to Noah after the terrible judgment of the deluge.  For the faithful and repentant, there is mercy, healing, and life in the Gospel Word of the Lord—but for the unrepentant and unbelieving, the Law still comes in all its fury to demand inexorable justice.  Rest well in the grace you have been given, O Christian, and heed not the call of those who would lead you to destruction.  Rather, may the Word of Jesus so richly indwell you, that you might in Jesus’ Name call other sinners like ourselves to the saving table of the Lord.  Soli Deo Gloria—amen.