Bible Verse Lookup
Mt 9:13
Chapter 9
13
Go and find out what this means: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Go and find out what this means: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Commentaries
He Calls Matthew and Shares the Table With Sinners.
Matthew’s calling is very important: Jesus chooses a tax collector, a publican working for Rome, the occupying power. Like all tax collectors, he has a very bad reputation among the people. Jesus shows him trust without asking for public confessions of conversion. Jesus’s sovereign call frees him from the slavery of money and leads him to discipleship.
On the other hand, Jesus, a regular guest at the tables of the poor and sinners, made sharing food with everyone, regardless of who they were, one of the most powerful symbols of the newness of the kingdom of God that he proclaimed. This is why his practice of inviting or allowing himself to be invited by tax collectors and sinners caused such scandal. Before God, we are all equal: sinners in need of his mercy and his bread of life.