This narrative is told in Matthew 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-22, and Luke 5:29-39 [1] . The Pharisee rebuke Jesus for eating with sinners, to which Jesus responds, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."
The narrative primarily shows Jesus' emphasis on mercy as opposed to self-righteous judgment. The narrative occurs directly after the Calling of Matthew.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
— Matthew 9:10-13, New International Version
The tax-collector in the Roman world was an official that was often greedy, and usually took the position from love of money. They would frequently extort unjust dues, especially from the poor. Such tax-collectors were infamous among the Jews. As Cornelius a Lapide points out, the Jews "maintained that they, as a people dedicated to God, ought not to pay tribute to the Romans, who were Gentiles and idolaters: for this was contrary to the liberty and dignity of the children of God." [2]
To associate with tax-collectors and sinners was considered sinful behavior for Jews. Tradition stated: “Let not a man associate with the wicked, not even to bring him to the Torah” (Mechilta). [3]
Cornelius a Lapide notes that in this discourse, Jesus must have heard the accusation from his disciples, since evidently the Pharisees were not bold enough to make this charge against Christ directly. Jesus responded to them by comparing himself to a physician, who is not infected by the diseases of the sick, but instead overcomes their illness. So it is not a disgrace, but an honor for a physician to be with the sick. Thus Lapide points out that, Jesus is "a physician of sin-sick souls," and is not contaminated by their sins, but rather heals them. [4]
John McEvilly postulates that the "sinners" referred to in the Matthew the Apostle's house, were "either Jews who led loose, dissolute lives, regardless of the law of Moses, and lived after Gentile fashion, and possibly were excommunicated and cast out of the synagogue; or Pagans, who may have been stopping at Capharnaum." McEvilly believes, these sinners would likely have come at Matthew's request, or perhaps they were attracted by Jesus' power, and drawn by Matthew’s example. [5]
Mark 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In this chapter, the first arguments between Jesus and other Jewish religious teachers appear. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, meets with the disreputable Levi and his friends, and argues over the need to fast, and whether or not one can harvest food on Sabbath.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is about a shepherd who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost. It is the first member of a trilogy about redemption that Jesus tells after the Pharisees and religious leaders accuse him of welcoming and eating with "sinners."
The Parable of the Two Sons is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament, found in Matthew. It contrasts the tax collectors and prostitutes who accepted the message taught by John the Baptist with the "religious" people who did not.
The Sheep and the Goats or "the Judgement of the Nations" is a pronouncement of Jesus recorded in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, although unlike most parables it does not purport to relate a story of events happening to other characters. According to Anglican theologian Charles Ellicott, "we commonly speak of the concluding portion of this chapter as the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, but it is obvious from its very beginning that it passes beyond the region of parable into that of divine realities, and that the sheep and goats form only a subordinate and parenthetic illustration". This portion concludes the section of Matthew's Gospel known as the Olivet Discourse and immediately precedes Matthew's account of Jesus' passion and resurrection.
The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is a parable of Jesus that appears in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 18:9-14, a self-righteous Pharisee, obsessed by his own virtue, is contrasted with a tax collector who humbly asks God for mercy.
Matthew 9 is the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and continues the narrative about Jesus' ministry in Galilee as he ministers to the public, working miracles, and going through all the cities and towns of the area, preaching the gospel, and healing every disease.
The parable of the barren fig tree is a parable of Jesus which appears in Luke 13:6–9. It is about a fig tree which does not produce fruit.
Matthew 9:10 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:11 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:12 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:13 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:14 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 11:12 is the twelfth verse in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 11:19 is the nineteenth verse in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 12:2 is the second verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 12:3 is the third verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:34 is a verse in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 11:25 is the 25th verse in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Matthew 12:8 is the eighth verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
The Calling of Matthew is an episode in the life of Jesus which appears in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew 9:9–13, Mark 2:13–17 and Luke 5:27–28, and relates the initial encounter between Jesus and Matthew, the tax collector who became a disciple.
| Chronology |
|
|---|---|
| New Testament | |
| Historicity | |
| Depictions | |
| Christianity | |
| In other faiths | |
| Family |
|
| Related | |
