Matthew 9:9-13
New International Version (NIV)
The Calling of Matthew
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.”
So why did Jesus tend to focus on the poor, the needy, the sick and the sinners? Were the Pharisees not sinners, were they not in need of Jesus or did Jesus simply know that they were so bent on earning their own way, that he focused on people who would choose him rather than people who were so bent on religion like the Pharisees?
The tax collectors and the prostitutes were clearly looked down on in that culture. The Pharisees thought they knew it all, they thought they had it all figured out, so doesn't it make sense then that Jesus would focus on the so called lessor lights, the people who didn't have so much to lose, the people who didn't have so much to give up, the broken people who were more interested in a saviour? Why would he spend his energy on the people who thought they had it all, who thought they knew it all?
Jesus wanted and still wants people to choose him.
When a person becomes a Christian, they do so in a submissive and in a repentant state, not in an arrogant puffed out chest state. They are at the end of their rope and reach out for Jesus. So while I do believe that the Pharisees needed a saviour, their hearts were not open to receiving one and so Jesus turned to the cultural misfits, the needy and then to the Gentiles.
Isn't our culture the same today, we still have the religious, the people who are bent on earning their own way, the people that would be offended at being offered something free, the people who don't want to surrender this life for eternity.
Friend Of Sinners Story Behind the Song
Casting Crowns - Jesus, Friend of Sinners
Sidewalk Prophets You Love Me Anyway
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.”
So why did Jesus tend to focus on the poor, the needy, the sick and the sinners? Were the Pharisees not sinners, were they not in need of Jesus or did Jesus simply know that they were so bent on earning their own way, that he focused on people who would choose him rather than people who were so bent on religion like the Pharisees?
The tax collectors and the prostitutes were clearly looked down on in that culture. The Pharisees thought they knew it all, they thought they had it all figured out, so doesn't it make sense then that Jesus would focus on the so called lessor lights, the people who didn't have so much to lose, the people who didn't have so much to give up, the broken people who were more interested in a saviour? Why would he spend his energy on the people who thought they had it all, who thought they knew it all?
Jesus wanted and still wants people to choose him.
When a person becomes a Christian, they do so in a submissive and in a repentant state, not in an arrogant puffed out chest state. They are at the end of their rope and reach out for Jesus. So while I do believe that the Pharisees needed a saviour, their hearts were not open to receiving one and so Jesus turned to the cultural misfits, the needy and then to the Gentiles.
Isn't our culture the same today, we still have the religious, the people who are bent on earning their own way, the people that would be offended at being offered something free, the people who don't want to surrender this life for eternity.
Friend Of Sinners Story Behind the Song
Casting Crowns - Jesus, Friend of Sinners
Sidewalk Prophets You Love Me Anyway
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