Matthew 9:9-13 - Two Words That Make All The Difference

You are a follower of Jesus Christ. So what does that mean?

---

Gospels: Week 3 - Jesus' authority to call, heal, forgive, and welcome sinners

Faithlife.com

Matthew 9:9–13 (NASB95)

⁹ As Jesus went on from there [the healing of the paralytic that we read about yesterday], He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁰ Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.

¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Canons of Dordt

Point III/IV, Article 11: The Holy Spirit’s Work in Conversion

When God carries out this good pleasure in his chosen ones, or works true conversion in them, he not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant; he activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.

Summary

The first thing we read about Matthew is his occupation, and he couldn't have a worse one for the Jewish society he lived in. Tax collectors are never popular people, but ultimately we all sooner or later grudgingly concede that taxes are necessary part of national citizenship and therefore somebody must collect them. But imagine if you were forced to pay taxes to an enemy occupier of your nation, and then to make it even worse, if those collecting the taxes extorted an exorbitant fee on top of the taxes in a mafia like way. This is the reality that first century Jews faced and why they would have hated men like Matthew so much.

But, with a simple two word command from Jesus, Matthew's life completely changed. Jesus tersely said follow me, and he got up and followed Him, leaving his substantial income generating tax collector's booth behind forever. But their first stop wasn't far away; it was Matthew's own house, and soon Jesus was reclining at the table.

Such a visit on Jesus' part violated reams of rules and customs developed by the Pharisees, a political/religious party set against the growing theological liberalism of their rival Sadducees who comprised the majority of the Sanhedrin (a governing group with limited authority in Israel). And to make matters worse, Jesus wasn't just reclining at the table with His new disciple, but with many tax collectors and sinners (sinners here are people on the fringes of society who'd given up keeping the Pharisees' made up rules - or any other rules for that matter).

But upon hearing the Pharisees' grumblings, Jesus quotes a well known proverb about how it's not the healthy, but those who are sick - people like tax collectors and sinners - who need a physician. Jesus then quotes the prophet Hosea to them reminding that God desires compassion and not sacrifice and adds that He didn't come to call the righteous - because nobody is truly righteous! - but sinners like the people reclining at the table with Him.

  Dig Deeper  

Jesus' command to Matthew may have only been two words - follow me! - but this seemingly simple order had all sorts of major implications, for Matthew so long ago, but also for you here and now. One of the most basic understandings of what it means to be a Christian is that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. So what does that mean?

We don't have the space here for a full and complete definition, but we can note a few things here that it meant for Matthew that also apply to you. First of all, it means that you must leave behind the pursuits of the world - especially if they're sinful like what Matthew's tax collection enterprise was, but even beyond that, you must leave behind anything that inhibits or distracts you from following Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (as God had commanded His people so long before).

Secondly, to truly follow Jesus - the great physician - you must first realize that you're not spiritually healthy on your own, but quite sick. In fact, as Paul will go on to describe it, you're actually dead in your sins and trespasses and desperately need to be healed. But just as pride can keep us from the doctor for our physical health because we think we can handle various illnesses and conditions ourselves, it's even more powerful in keeping you from clinging to Christ as you try over and over to fix yourself.

But again, we see here the wonderful good news of the gospel: Jesus hasn't called the righteous to be His followers. Indeed, as we've already seen, who then would be His followers?

So far as we've been reading the gospels now for just over two weeks, we've seen two primary commands from Jesus: first of all, repent - that is, think differently than the world by confessing and turning away from sin. And now as we've read today, follow Jesus, who came to call sinners like us to salvation.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose sent His Son to bring sinners back into a good relationship with Him;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will follow Jesus with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

---