“And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and those [who are] sinful? But when Jesus heard it, He replied, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims. For I came not to call and invite the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:11-13 ->me: I have heard this passage several times in my life but today the Holy Spirit is working this into my heart; reinforcing my theology as a follower of Jesus. Jesus is quoting Hosea -> “For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6 The danger Hosea is calling out here is the risk that religion, which is all external, can be a place where ritual demands have taken the place of love. Jesus then reverses the standards of formal religion and invites only the disqualified. In the sense of the Pharisees, they believed they were righteous but it is precisely the adequacy of righteousness that Jesus constantly calls into question. Sinners who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ are closer to true righteousness than the self-satisfied.
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