Matt 9:9–13 — His Fellowship With Sinners

Jesus expresses his love for sinners and his willingness to have mercy upon those whom the Pharisees and Jewish leaders regarded as unclean and unworthy. He eats and drinks with them and welcomes them into his presence. This passage first calls for a verse-by-verse exposition and then draws out its central implication for the gospel, especially in Jesus’ climactic declaration: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Connection Between Healing and Forgiveness

This passage immediately follows Jesus’ healing of the paralytic. The paralyzed man’s friends carried him to Jesus, and Jesus saw both the man’s faith and the faith of those who brought him. Yet Jesus’ first words were not a promise of physical healing. He said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

That declaration provoked a controversy. The scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy because only God can forgive sins. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus asked, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” Then, so that they might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he commanded the paralytic to rise, pick up his bed, and go home.

The man’s physical healing was therefore an outward sign of the inward reality of forgiveness. Jesus first declared that the man’s sins were forgiven. When his opponents questioned whether he possessed the authority to make such a declaration, Jesus supplied visible proof by healing the man’s body. The healing revealed his authority to forgive the sickness of the soul.

That connection is important because the account of Matthew’s call employs the same relationship between sin and sickness. Once again the Pharisees grumble, this time asking why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus answers, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” As the previous healing joined physical restoration with the forgiveness of sins, this saying identifies sinners as the sick who need the Great Physician.

This does not mean that every particular illness is God’s judgment for a particular sin committed by the afflicted person. Rather, all sickness and death entered the world through Adam’s sin. Sickness is connected with the fallen condition of humanity, and Christ’s healing ministry outwardly signifies his power to heal souls by forgiving sins and showing mercy. Matthew places the healing of the paralytic beside the calling of the tax collector to make precisely this point.

Matthew Is Called to Follow Jesus

Verse 9 says, “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.” The author of this Gospel is telling the story of his own call. Elsewhere he identifies himself plainly as “Matthew the tax collector” (Matt. 10:3). Mark and Luke call him Levi, indicating that he had two names, just as Peter was also called Cephas.

Tax collectors stood on the margins of Jewish society and were despised for several reasons. They were extortioners who used the threat of government force to collect more than Rome required and then kept the excess for themselves. Their wealth was infamous because it had been gained through the abuse of power and at the expense of God’s people. Zacchaeus illustrates both their riches and their dishonesty: after his conversion, he promised to repay fourfold anyone whom he had defrauded.

Tax collectors were also regarded as unclean because of their continual dealings with Gentiles. In Matthew 18, Jesus says that an unrepentant offender is to be regarded “as a Gentile and a tax collector.” The terms are paired because, although men such as Matthew were Jews by birth, their occupation caused fellow Jews to regard them as little different from Gentiles.

Moreover, tax collectors collaborated with Herod and the Roman occupiers. Roman taxation was not merely a financial burden; it was a constant reminder that Israel remained under foreign rule rather than enjoying national independence. Those who collected Rome’s taxes appeared to have sided with the oppressor and betrayed their own countrymen. Tax collectors were consequently regarded as apostates, traitors, and notorious sinners. Jesus himself later places “tax collectors and prostitutes” in the same category (Matt. 21:31).

Matthew was sitting at a booth where tolls were collected on goods passing through the area. The ancient world imposed various kinds of taxes—land taxes, head taxes, and taxes on commerce—and Matthew participated in this system. Jesus saw him there, fully aware that he belonged to a despised and unclean class, and nevertheless said, “Follow me.” Matthew rose and followed him.

His call recalls the calling of Peter and Andrew, James and John, in Matthew 4:18–22. Jesus saw the fishermen at their work, summoned them to follow him, and they left their nets. Here, however, the disciple’s former occupation carries a moral stigma. There is nothing sinful about fishing, but Matthew’s tax collecting raises the startling question of Jesus’ friendship with notorious sinners. His response also implies repentance: he rose from the tax booth, left that life behind, and followed Christ.

Reclining With Jesus at the Table

Verse 10 continues, “And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.” Luke supplies a detail that Matthew omits: Matthew himself arranged this great banquet in his own house (Luke 5:29). As a prosperous tax collector, he presumably had a home large enough to receive Jesus, the other disciples, and many of his former associates.

The language of reclining is significant. This was not an ordinary daily meal at a table with chairs. At a formal dinner, guests lay on their sides upon couches arranged around a low table. Their feet extended away from the table and their heads were directed toward its center, allowing them to converse while reaching for the food. Servants would bring food and remove dishes. The arrangement expressed friendship, fellowship, and sustained conversation, much as the guests in Plato’s Symposium reclined together while discussing philosophical questions.

Jesus uses this visible sign of table fellowship to illustrate the nature of the kingdom he proclaims. Matthew 5–9 expands upon the summary that Jesus went throughout Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease. His healings visibly manifest the gospel, and this banquet offers another symbolic manifestation of it. The kingdom is not the nationalistic restoration many Jews expected—the renewal of Israel’s political glory in the land, the temple, and the monarchy. It is a spiritual kingdom centered upon salvation and the forgiveness of sins.

The key phrase is that the guests were reclining “with Jesus.” They had fellowship with Christ himself at his table. The same imagery returns before the crucifixion. Matthew 26:20 says, “When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.” There Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, giving the bread and wine as signs of his body and blood and of his atoning work. The Supper signifies not only that he dies to atone for sins, but also the result of that atonement: sinners enjoy fellowship with Christ.

The scene therefore directs attention to Jesus as its central figure. The disciples, tax collectors, and other sinners are present because they have come to be with him. He stands at the center, surrounded by sinners whom he brings into fellowship with himself.

The Pharisees Object to Fellowship With Sinners

The Pharisees saw what was happening and asked the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Their words carry contempt. Whether they confronted the disciples after the meal or observed the banquet through an opening from the street is uncertain. What is clear is their disapproval.

Eating with sinners implied acceptance, friendship, and fellowship. The Pharisees would never have permitted themselves such intimate association with people whose wickedness was public and notorious. They believed that doing so would compromise the law, approve the sinners’ way of life, and contaminate those who came near them.

Matthew 11:19 records another version of their charge: “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” The crucial word is “friend.” Jesus eats and drinks with these people rather than keeping his distance. The Pharisees, by contrast, were separatists who sought to preserve their purity by remaining far from the unclean.

Their error was not their recognition that these people were sinners. Their error was forgetting the possibility of conviction and conversion. They reasoned as though a tax collector must always remain a tax collector and a sinner must always remain unchanged. Separation appeared to be the only possible response. They left no room for defrauders and extortioners to be convicted of their sins, turn to the Lord, and become followers of the Messiah.

The Great Physician Heals the Sick

When Jesus heard their criticism, he answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” By implication, Jesus identifies himself as the Great Physician who heals the sick.

In this analogy, those who are “well” are the righteous in their own eyes. They imagine that nothing is wrong with them and regard themselves as morally superior to the tax collectors. Those who are “sick” are sinners who know that something is wrong, recognize their guilt, and seek the grace and healing of Christ. People do not call a physician when they believe themselves healthy. They seek one when they recognize that they are sick and need help.

The Pharisees believed that they had no need of such a physician. They did not regard themselves as sinners in need of repentance, fellowship with Christ, or the healing of their souls. Their strict attention to purity laws could appear commendable because God had indeed commanded those laws under the old covenant. Yet they observed them for self-centered reasons: to preserve a sense of their own purity and to sustain their moral superiority over others. Their outward strictness did not arise from true knowledge of God.

“I Desire Mercy, and Not Sacrifice”

Jesus continues in verse 13, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’” “Go and learn” was a customary way for a rabbi to instruct a student. Jesus turns the tables upon men who regarded themselves as authoritative teachers of the law. He tells them that they must return to the Scriptures and learn the elementary truths of their own religion.

The quotation comes from Hosea 6:6. In this context, “sacrifice” represents a scrupulous, detailed, and inflexible observance of ceremonial requirements without the corresponding devotion of the heart. God is not rejecting sacrifices that he himself commanded. He is condemning ritual observance severed from steadfast love and the knowledge of God.

The context in Hosea 6:4–6 makes this clear:

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Ephraim represents the northern kingdom of Israel, while Judah is the southern kingdom. Israel’s love was fleeting. Like the morning cloud or the dew that disappears, the people seemed devoted to God for a time but soon returned to idolatry and neglect. They offered sacrifices, performed the correct rituals, and visited the temple, but their hearts remained far from the Lord.

For this reason, God sent the prophets to convict them of sin. Hosea describes the prophetic word as a sword that hews and slays. This is the first use of the law: it exposes sin, leaves sinners condemned and helpless, and drives them to Christ. The prophets also announced future hope—the coming Messiah and the new covenant—but they first confronted Israel with its guilt. Only those who understood their sin and need could love the Lord with genuine steadfastness rather than with fleeting lip service.

The Hebrew word translated “steadfast love” is hesed. In Matthew, Jesus cites the Greek rendering “mercy.” These related terms stand in parallel with “the knowledge of God.” Mercy and the knowledge of God are not identical, but they are intimately connected. To know God is to acknowledge that he is God, that he is holy, and that we are sinful before him. It is to turn from sin to God in faith and repentance. Hosea calls Israel to know the Lord in a deeper way than mere ceremonial performance.

The opening verses of Hosea 6 add the hope of restoration:

Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

This passage anticipates Christ’s own death, burial, and resurrection on the third day. In its original context, it also describes Israel’s experience of being slain by the prophetic word and sent into exile, yet not abandoned to death. God promises to revive his people and restore them to heartfelt covenant communion with himself. This is the blessing of the new covenant: God gives his people new hearts so that they truly know him.

By quoting Hosea in this setting, Jesus applies the prophet’s indictment to the Pharisees. Like unfaithful Israel, they honor God with their lips and observe ritual purity while their hearts remain far from him. They do not rejoice when tax collectors repent and seek to become friends and followers of Christ. Their lack of mercy reveals their lack of conviction of sin and true knowledge of God. They have not been slain by the law and therefore do not recognize their need for the Physician.

The quotation also demonstrates that Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom is not contrary to the Old Testament but fulfills it. The Pharisees thought he was extending grace too far by welcoming unclean sinners and perhaps even abolishing the law. In reality, his preaching, healing, casting out demons, and fellowship with sinners accord perfectly with the law and the prophets. His ministry displays the mercy that God declared he desired. The Pharisees needed to study their own Scriptures and discover that Jesus’ fellowship with repentant sinners was more biblical than their self-righteous separation from them.

He Did Not Come to Call the Righteous

Jesus brings the passage to its climax: “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” This is one of his great “I have come” sayings and declares his fundamental mission as the Messiah. It also recalls the promise of Matthew 1:21: “He will save his people from their sins.”

The “righteous” are those who are righteous in their own eyes. They are not invited to the table of fellowship because they do not recognize their need and do not wish to come on the terms Christ establishes. A Pharisee who desired fellowship with Jesus would have to sit beside a despised tax collector and confess that he was not fundamentally different: he too was a sinner in need of grace. His sense of moral superiority barred the way.

The only prerequisite for fellowship with Christ is to admit that one is a needy sinner—to know that one is sick and needs the forgiveness and grace of the Physician. We cannot experience the joy of forgiveness apart from conviction of sin. Unless the weight of our sinfulness becomes real to us, the wonder of being forgiven and welcomed into fellowship with Christ will remain unreal as well.

He Came to Call Sinners to Repentance

Jesus’ welcome of sinners must not be recast as mere tolerance or acceptance regardless of a person’s way of life. Some appeal to his table fellowship as an image of radical inclusivity, as though he upheld no moral standard and denied the law of God. Yet Jesus explicitly calls these people “sinners.” He does not deny that tax collectors had violated the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not steal,” or the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet.” His mercy does not redefine their conduct as righteous.

At the same time, he truly calls sinners to follow him in faith and repentance. Matthew does not explicitly state that the tax collectors repented, but the point is implicit in Matthew’s response. Jesus said, “Follow me,” and Matthew rose from the tax booth and followed him, leaving his former way of life. His friends likewise came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples.

Luke’s parallel account makes the matter explicit by adding a phrase to Jesus’ climactic declaration: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Jesus does not deny the need for repentance. He calls those who recognize their sin and respond to him.

It is important, however, to distinguish two aspects of repentance because the distinction clarifies the gospel. Repentance may refer to conviction of sin and the recognition of one’s need. It may also refer to turning from sin and striving to obey the Lord. We are not justified by cleansing ourselves, improving our character, or achieving sufficient moral reformation. We are justified in Christ and by what Christ has accomplished.

In the first sense, repentance as conviction of sin is presupposed in the act of coming to Jesus. Why would anyone come to the Savior without knowing that he is a sinner, or come to the Physician without knowing that he is sick? In the second sense, repentance as turning from sin and striving for obedience is not a condition that must be fulfilled before coming to Christ. It is the fruit of coming to Christ and enjoying fellowship with him.

The tax collectors came and reclined with Jesus. Their coming displayed faith and an awareness of their need. Having received fellowship with him, they were then called to go and sin no more. They turned from sin not as the price of admission to Christ’s table, but as the response of those who had been welcomed there by grace.

The hymn “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched” captures this truth:

Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised and broken by the fall; If you tarry till you’re better, You will never come at all: Not the righteous, not the righteous— Sinners Jesus came to call.

No sinner should wait to become better, devise a new life, or clean himself up before coming to Christ. Come as a needy sinner. Christ welcomes sinners into fellowship with himself. Then, having come to him and received his grace, live as becomes one of his followers.