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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
When is the last time you were accused of sitting with tax collectors and dining with sinners?
If Jesus really came to serve the sick and call the sinner, then why are we so surprised when the sick and sinful show up at our doorstep? At our church? In our workplace? In our lives? Why do we push them out or look away?
Too hard?
Too messy?
Did you know when Jesus is talking about the “sick” here, He’s referring to those who cannot heal or cure themselves? Someone who needs something more, something bigger than what they can offer themselves. This means “sick people” are going to have to find some sort of cure, some sort of solution that is beyond their own strength.
We know the Healer, the Great Physician. We can point them to the doctor with the cure.
And instead, we push them away or pretend like we don’t see.
How easy is it to say, “You’re sick and dying? Come, let me show the way to the Physician who can heal your illness!” Friends, we have the cure! We know the Great Physician and we’re just too afraid, too comfortable, too busy to sit with the sick, to dine with the tax collector, and to befriend the sinner.
Let’s follow Jesus and His example. Let's be willing to dine with others who aren’t like you and point them to the Healer.