Who’s Coming For Dinner

Matthew 9:10-13

INTRODUCTION

It’s a simple fact that between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we do a lot of eating together. Way too much eating. November and December are why the gyms are full in January and February. In the Bible, Jesus does a lot of eating. There are many places and accounts where Jesus is eating meals. They’re essential to look at because the way Jesus eats with people, why and how he eats with people, is actually a very important part of his message. Understanding these moments is a very crucial way to understand who he is and what he came to do. That’s why we’re looking at some of the meals Jesus ate with people this October.

Meals are incredibly relational moments. They are times of intimacy. They are personal. The barriers come down. People constantly have business meal meetings even though little business is often done. You’re having lunches and dinners where you’re trying to do business, but have you ever noticed you never get as much done? That’s because a meal has something personal about it. You can’t just plow on through your points as well. It’s very, very difficult. There’s something relational about meals. Meals bring the barriers down. Meals are intimate. Meals are personal. During meals, we connect.

Jesus knew that meals connect us. Through meals where Jesus was present, we can learn and understand much about Christ and His message. The meal we're studying today shows who Jesus would invite to dinner. Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Matthew 9:10–13 ESV

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

SCRIPTURAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of this section in Matthew is to identify the object of Christ’s ministry. These verses also authenticate the Gospel of Matthew as an eyewitness account.

Verses 10-11

Matthew was a publican. They were a breed of people who served Rome. When Rome moved in and took over Palestine, they wanted to exact taxes. Individuals living here would buy franchises from the Roman government, which gave them the right to operate the taxation system in a certain district or a certain town. So when Matthew bought into the Roman system, he revealed himself as a traitor to the cause of Israel. He bought a franchise of taxation from Rome. Then Rome required that he collect a certain amount of taxes. Anything he could get over that he could keep. The Roman government, to keep him happy and on their side, would support him in his excesses and his abuses, so when he did charge and extort the people, he had the Romans behind him.

Matthew will have heard the teaching of Jesus in the Capernaum area. He will have seen the miracles of Jesus. He will have been wondering about this amazing man everyone was talking about. And then suddenly Jesus stood in front of him, and said, ‘Follow me’ (9). Matthew did just that. That is truly amazing. Its amazing that Jesus should bother about someone so universally despised and hated; amazing that Matthew should leave everything to follow this carpenter; amazing that Jesus had such authority that when he said to a businessman, ‘Follow me’, the man obeyed; and amazing the transformation in Matthew’s life that resulted. We owe to Matthew the first written records about Jesus.

Such a conversion is worth a party. Matthew throws one, and we see Jesus totally at home among a bunch of crooks who were Matthew’s friends and colleagues. Table fellowship indicated intimate relations among those who shared it. The Pharisees were particularly scrupulous about their special rules on eating and did not like to eat with less scrupulous people, especially people like tax collectors and sinners. Here they assume that Jesus, being a wise teacher, ought to share their religious convictions, which they believed were scriptural. The Pharisees started finding fault; they wanted a socially acceptable Messiah, not a spiritual Messiah with a burning compassion for all sinners.

The Pharisees did not address Jesus directly. Perhaps they were trying to use the disciples’ limited understanding to drive a wedge between them and Jesus. Their use of the title teacher may have been sarcastic. It was generally assumed that such a righteous man as a Jewish teacher would refrain from associating with society’s undesirables. Their question was mocking and critical.

Verses 12-13

Jesus is dealing the Pharisees a double rebuke by treating them first as learners rather than teachers and second as beginners who have yet to learn Scripture correctly. To the Pharisees, a sinner is a person who has violated the law according to their interpretations. But to Jesus, a sinner is any person who remains opposed to God’s will.

The Pharisees thought they knew Scripture perfectly; Jesus told them to go back and study again the words of God spoken through the prophet Hosea, “I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices” (Hosea 6:6). God did not want the Israelites’ rituals; he wanted their hearts. Jesus challenged the Pharisees to apply Hosea’s words to themselves. God wants a heart attitude that includes a right relationship with him and others, an attitude that reaches out to those in physical and spiritual need.

Christ takes the Pharisees at their own estimate of themselves, and, without entering into the question of whether this was right or wrong, shows them that on their own he would be useless to them. The healthy needed no doctor. Only the sick need healing. Discreetly Jesus is trying to send a message that all are sinners.

TODAY’S KEY TRUTH

Jesus’ Mission Was to Connect With All Sinners.

APPLICATION

Jesus comes close to Matthew. It says, “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?’ ”

What the Pharisees were concerned about was contamination. Through our recent history we all know about contamination. Contamination happens through proximity. For example, physically, if you’re healthy and come into contact with an object or person with germs and viruses, you may be healthy but you can quickly become unhealthy. Contact means the germs come onto you and you’re contaminated and it attacks your health and you get sick.

Jesus eating, coming into proximity, coming into contact, with people who didn’t live the right way, who cheated people and didn’t obey the Mosaic law and didn’t follow God and didn’t worship, people who were morally and spiritually corrupt, Jesus was going to be defiled. He was going to become corrupt.

Having heard this complaint, Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” On the surface, that sounds wonderful. Here he is saying, “I am the great spiritual doctor.” Look, you know yourselves. Spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically, we’re sick. We’re angry. We’re scared. We’re anxious. We’re divided. We’re proud. We’re depressed. We’re superior. We’re inferior. You know we’re sick. Here’s Jesus, and he comes from heaven. He says, “I’m the doctor for your soul.”

Throughout history, when the infected comes into contact with the healthy, the healthy gets infected. When the unclean comes into contact with the clean, the clean becomes unclean. All of religion is based on this. You work very hard to become good, and you work very hard to be good enough for heaven, and if you’re going to be good enough for heaven, you have to stay away from the defiled. You have to stay away from immoral things and people. You have to stay away from the unclean people.

Jesus Christ calls to Matthew. Here’s what he’s saying. “Nothing, can make me unclean, and anything and anyone I touch, anyone I connect with, anyone I have a relationship with, no matter how defiled you feel yourself to be, no matter what your record, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how ashamed you are of yourself, no matter what has been done to you, no matter how stained, no matter how low you feel, no matter how guilty you are, I make you instantly clean.” That is unlike any other belief system or faith in the world.

That’s why when you come into contact with Jesus, it completely changes the way you relate to the world. It’s a completely opposite dynamic to the dynamic that works in every other religion. Notice in verse 10 that it’s not just Jesus who goes to eat with Matthew, the sinners, and the tax collectors; it’s also his disciples.

Religion creates a fragile holiness. “Oh, we’re working so hard.” Everybody is trying to earn their self-worth. Everybody is trying to perform. Everybody is trying to feel good about themselves, and religious people are trying to get God’s favor by living a very good life. If that’s the case, your holiness is always fragile. You’re never sure you’re good enough. You’re never sure you’re doing well enough. There’s an insecurity, so you have to stay away from the defiled. You have to stay away from the sinners, and you have to draw a bright line.

Jesus says, “You become clean in me on the spot. No more repetative rituals. No more regulations. You’re in a position now to know I love you. You are clean in me, and you are blameless before God in me. Now, you move out into the world differently. Now, you reach out to people with the same mercy. You’re not afraid of them, nor do you have to hate them. Now you are my ambassadors to everyone no matter who they are.”

Jesus’ Mission Was to Connect With All Sinners.

CONCLUSION

Why did Jesus come into the world? Clearly He says it, to call sinners. Those who know they have a terminal disease, those who are desperate, those who are hurting, those who are hungry, those who are thirsty, those who are weak, those who are weary, those who are broken, those whose lives are shattered, sinners who know they’re sinners. Augustine, whom the world considers a great saint, said, "Lord save me from that wicked man, myself.” John Knox affirmed as perhaps the greatest preacher in the history of Scotland, certainly a man that most would think to be a man of great righteousness said, “In youth, in middle age, and now after many battles I find nothing in me but corruption.” John Wesley wrote, “I am falling short of the glory of God. My whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable.” Peter said, “Depart from me, oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Paul said it in I Timothy as he summed it all up for all of us and said, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to what, save sinners of whom I am foremost.” And he undoubtedly had in mind, among other things, the word of our Lord in Matthew that Jesus said he had come to call sinners.

This is the point of the passage. Jesus has come to call sinners. Aren’t you glad about that? If He came into the world only for the righteous, there wouldn’t be anybody in His kingdom because there is none righteous, not one. Jesus is saying, “I did not come to invite people who are so self-satisfied that they are convinced of their own goodness, that they are convinced they don’t need anybody’s help. Rather, I have come to invite people who are desperate and conscious of their sin and need for a savior. The scribes and Pharisees would have made lousy doctors. They were more concerned of the preservation of their own holiness than with helping someone else. They’d be like a doctor who would say, “Oh, I would love to come over and cure you, but I might get your sickness if I try to help.” If you’re relying on your own goodness you will get contaminated.

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the arrival of the kingdom indicates that the greatest miracle is often the one least noticed. It is the miracle of forgiveness. When Jesus called Matthew, one of the notorious tax collectors, he momentously announced his kingdom mission—to bring healing to a sin-sick world. His compassion extends to unexpected individuals who were often despised or neglected by the religious elite.

Sin is not cured by religion. In the encounter of Jesus with the Pharisees, who question his practice of dining with the dregs of society, we see that sin is an inner spiritual sickness that must be honestly acknowledged to be incurable by one’s own attempts at religious righteousness. Sin is cured only by the Great Physician. Moreover, sin is the real culprit of humanity’s distress. The physical suffering of the hemorrhaging woman and the blind men was real, and Jesus attended to their needs, but in pointing to their faith in him, he indicates that there are deeper spiritual issues at stake. Sin is the real contaminate.

Jesus’ Mission Was to Connect With All Sinners.

Jesus’ fraternizing with disreputable people remains a scandal in the predominantly middle-class, suburban, Western church. Many of us, like the Pharisees, at best ignore the outcasts of our society and at worst continue to discriminate against them. We do well to consider substantially increasing our spiritual, evangelistic, and social outreach to minorities, the homeless, prostitutes, addicts, gays and lesbians, AIDS victims, and the like, as well as to the more hidden outcasts such as divorcees, single parents, the bitter elderly, white-collar alcoholics, and so on. We must get to know them as intimately as Jesus did—only close and trusted friends shared table fellowship over meals. We dare not join with sinners in their sinning, but we may well have to go places with them and encounter the world’s wickedness in ways that the contemporary Pharisees in our churches will decry. The healthy need no doctor. Only the sick need healing.

Jesus’ Mission Was to Connect With All Sinners.

Jesus says, “The mark that you have real contact with God through me is mercy, not sacrifice.”

What does that mean? By sacrifice, he means the sacrificial system. He says, “If you want to know whether you’re connected with God, don’t look at how compliant you are with rituals and rules, whether you’re getting to the services all the time, whether you’re giving your offering, whether you’re making the sacrifices, and whether you’re observing all of the holy days and all of the festivals. Don’t look at that. Look at God’s mercy.”

Mercy in the Bible means love, service, and compassion to people unlike you. If you find yourself able now to deal with all people, the bright line between the good and the bad people is gone. You’re becoming like Jesus. You’re becoming merciful people. Jesus connected to sinners not to legitimize sin but so they may learn of salvation through His grace and mercy.

Showing God's mercy to others is vital as it reflects the core of His character. It fosters compassion, understanding, and forgiveness, helping to break cycles of anger, resentment, separation, and misunderstandings. When we extend mercy, we create a supportive environment that spiritually, personally, and communally encourages healing and growth. It also is a powerful testimony of faith, inviting others to experience God's love through our actions. Ultimately, mercy transforms relationships, promoting peace and unity in our lives and communities. And everyone is invited to dinner at the table of God’s mercy.

Jesus’ Mission Was to Connect With All Sinners.