Seeds for 07/21/2023 - Matthew 9:9-13
Scripture: 9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Observation: Why do we avoid speaking with the person with whom we have an issue?
The Pharisees—miffed, curious, or both that Jesus is eating with “tax collectors and sinners,” do not ask Him why He is sharing table fellowship with people of ill repute in their eyes. Instead, they approach His disciples and ask them. Uncomfortably authentic to human experience, right?
Jesus cuts that business off at the pass. Overhearing this end-around, Jesus speaks to them directly. We can read carefully—more important, listen—and surmise what’s happening here.
The Pharisees seem to be looking down on the tax collectors and sinners. Sharing table fellowship meant welcoming someone as a friend. It meant making room in your life for people. Jesus has room in His life for friendship with tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees have questions. They are viewing table fellowship conventionally, as a means to reinforce boundaries, advance one’s standing, and protect one’s reputation. But Jesus seems to view table fellowship as an opportunity to extend friendship to anyone who is far from God.
The question for Jesus is not, “Who would enhance my reputation if we share a meal?” Rather it is, “Who needs to encounter the presence of God?”
So, He eats with people who do nothing for His reputation. But He will do wonders for their life, if they will let Him. After all, that’s why He’s here.
Application:
Who would be considered “tax collectors and sinners” today by respectable church folks today?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for making room in your life for me. Show me where and how to extend your welcome. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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As always, you leave me with “food for thought”........thanks!