Week 23 ———  Jesus Calls Matthew
Matthew 9:9b-14 — Mark 2:14-22 — Luke 5:27-39

Matt. 9:9   As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.   And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”   But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus is passing by the edge of the town of Capernaum (likely the eastern border because the tax collector booth would be near the border of Herod Antipas’ territory, where the Jordan River enters the Sea of Galilee.) He would be there to collect customs duties on items brought into the territory and taxes on the town members. Verse 10 mentions “many tax collectors” at the banquet, so Matthew’s was one of many in Capernaum.  

“Tax collectors and sinners” is a common phrase in the Bible, revealing how the Jewish community regarded this profession.  Tax collectors seem to be universally held in poor regard, especially in this situation where they were seen as collaborators with an oppressive occupation government.  Added to that is the common knowledge that these tax collectors frequently became wealthy by overcharging people and keeping the overages.  The Pharisees would never consider calling a tax collector to be a disciple.  Jesus calling Matthew would have been quite a surprise to everyone, almost as surprising as Matthew’s decision to give up a wealthy position and become a disciple.  

We are not told how the disciples react to Matthew’s calling, though The Chosen series was not afraid to make a fictionalized response that I think is in keeping with the personalities involved as we know them.

So Matthew joins Jesus, and then Jesus has him throw a banquet at his home for all the other tax collectors.  (Jesus is not embarrassed to invite himself to anyone’s home (the Centurion in Matthew 8, or Zacchaeus in Luke 19. )  He certainly doesn’t escape the notice of the Pharisees who ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  

But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 

Jesus repeats what he said in the Beatitudes at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount.  The Beatitudes are descriptions of who will be part of Jesus’ kingdom.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” There are two Greek words for poor, ‘penes’ and ‘ptochos’.  ‘Penes’ describes the poor person who is surviving day-to-day.  They hope to make enough money today to pay for today’s food.  ‘Ptochos’ describes the completely destitute, homeless street beggars.  They are totally bankrupt.  They are dying.  They have nothing and have little hope of ever escaping their poverty.  They have had to learn how to beg, and because they are starving, they have developed a single-minded purpose in life: to find grace from someone or die.  Jesus uses the word ‘ptochos’ for the ‘poor in spirit,’ and he says the people who realize they are in this state spiritually (bankrupt) are the fortunate ones.  Because of them, the kingdom of God exists.  

There is a temptation to fight against this realization that we are all spiritually ‘ptochos.’  We attempt to cover our spiritual poverty with material wealth.  We build ornate church buildings to attend; we dress in our finest clothes; we magnify the parts of scripture that seem to pronounce judgment on others and ignore the words that might convict us.  We come and donate money, sing songs, and then return to our self-sufficient grand lifestyles, scared to admit that we are beggars.  Jesus sent a letter to a church like that.  You can read it in Revelation 3:14-22.  He says, “For you say I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev. 3:17)

Jesus has this same idea in mind in the story of the two men who went to pray:

Luke 18:10-14   “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.   The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’   But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’   I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

It is the man who knows the depth of his spiritual need who will be justified.

Also, there is the story that Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus (whom Jesus describes as ‘ptochos’). Unless we understand our need to come before God as beggars, we can not be ready to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Finally, in Matthew 21, Jesus tells the chief priest and elders a parable of two sons and then tells them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”  

Pope Francis said it this way:  “There is a poverty that we must accept, that of our own being; and a poverty that we must seek instead, from the things of this world.”  But there is a quote I think summarizes Matthew 5:3 even better.  I found it on my daughter’s Instagram page as her bio quote. (We don’t know the original source.)  It takes a phrase Forbes magazine made popular: having a seat at the table, which means being a part of the decision-making process in business.  Her quote is, “I brought nothing to the table, and he gave me a seat.”   Only those who recognize their complete spiritual poverty can become part of the Kingdom of God.  So Jesus goes to those people who will understand: the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the poor, and the outcasts.  As a physician, I get it, Jesus; it is hard for those who wrongly feel they are healthy to understand the need for treatment.

Then Jesus says to them:

Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

“Go and learn” is a common rabbinic phrase used to persuade listeners to dig into a portion of scripture to learn its true meaning.  So, did you do that?  Did you go back to Hosea 6:6, research the context, and seek the text’s true meaning through the Holy Spirit, prayer, and fasting?  This is the way you read the Bible. (If you don’t know about the Bereans, read that section in #35.)

First, here is a little context on the book of Hosea.  I recommend that anytime you start studying a Bible book, watch the 5-7 minute corresponding video at bibleproject.com.  Dr. Tim Mackie and his team have developed excellent yet simple videos for each book of the Bible that give you the context, the organization, and the overall message of the book.  Here is the link for the video on Hosea:

If you can’t watch it now, I’ll summarize.  The book’s first part is about Hosea’s marriage to a woman named Gomer.  She is brazenly unfaithful in her marriage, sleeping around with multiple men.  God tells Hosea that despite her unfaithfulness, he is to remain faithful to his marriage vows, find her, pay off the debts to her lovers, and commit his love and faithfulness to her again.  Hosea’s story is then an object lesson.  God enters a covenant relationship with Israel at Sinai, like a marriage.  Israel is unfaithful, committing adultery with other gods.  God had every right to break off the covenant relationship, but he chose to pursue Israel and reestablish the covenant only because of his ‘chesed.’  Mackie says the central theme of Hosea is “Israel has rebelled, and God will bring severe consequences, but God’s covenantal love and mercy are more powerful than Israel’s sin.”

Jesus quotes from Hosea 6:6, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

“Steadfast love” is from the Hebrew ‘chesed.’ This word appears 249 times in the Old Testament and is translated variously as “love,” “kindness,”  “grace,” “loyalty,” “mercy,” “favor,” “lovingkindness,” and others.  Since your browser has already been on the Bible Project site, check out the video on Chesed: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/loyal-love/.    

Chesed is one of the five characteristics God uses to describe himself to Moses. (We looked at this in Exodus 34:6 last time (#41).  Chesed combines unconditional loyal love, mercy, and kindness, all based on a covenant relationship.  Both parties in this covenant should show chesed to each other.  Hosea tells Israel in 6:6 that chesed is what God wants from his people.  Jesus feels the religious leaders of his day were very good at the mechanics of religion, sacrifices, tithing, etc., but failing at what God really desired – chesed.  

Then Hosea says God prefers the “knowledge of God” to burnt offerings. 

When I was in Egypt in 2016, we were staying in a hotel on an island in the middle of the Nile.  We had taken a boat south on the Nile that morning, stopping at various places. It had been a long, hot day; we had hiked 6 miles and were returning north on the Nile to our hotel.  We pulled the boat up to the dock, expecting to walk from the pier to the hotel for supper.  But we instead transferred to some sailboats.  We sailed a short way further north down the Nile, a very peaceful, restful trip with some Egyptian music playing and the sun beginning to set, with only the wind driving the boat.  We stopped on an empty beach on the banks of the Nile, and our teacher said, “We have been on the Nile or just beside it all day.  Do you feel like you know the Nile?”  He then went on to explain the Biblical concept of knowing something. 

The Hebrew root word for ‘know’ is ‘yada,’ which comes from the word for the palm of the  hand, ‘yad.’  Biblically, to know something is to hold it in your hand, experience it, and have a relationship with it.  (This is why the Bible says, “And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and they conceived and bore Cain.”)  So, our leader instructed us to drop our packs, remove our hiking boots, and get to know the Nile.  And we got to know the Nile up close; we swam and splashed around for a while. Yada is relational knowledge.  This is what God desires.  Not just an intellectual understanding of him, but a knowledge based on relationship and experience.  Again, going through the motions of religious practice, no matter how well you do it, is no substitute for an intimate, ongoing relationship with the Father.

Jesus said he came to call the sinners, not the righteous.  Only those who know they are sinners are capable of repentance.  If you feel you are righteous, then you do not need the righteousness of God.  So Jesus spends most of his time with sinners because he has something to offer them.  Who do you hang around with?  Do you seek out people who need help or prefer to spend your time with those who have no needs?