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Matthew: From Tax Collector to Apostle
165
Attempt to Alienate Disciples
The rabbis grasped the opportunity to accuse Jesus, but they
chose to work through the disciples. By stirring up their prejudices,
they hoped to alienate them from their Master. “Why does your
Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they questioned.
Jesus did not wait for the disciples to answer. He replied Himself:
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who
are sick. ... I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.” The Pharisees claimed to be spiritually whole and
therefore to have no need of a physician, but they regarded the
tax collectors and Gentiles as dying from diseases of the soul. Then
was it not His work, as a Physician, to go to the very people that
needed His help?
Jesus said to the rabbis, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire
mercy and not sacrifice.’ “They claimed to expound the Word of
God, but they were completely ignorant of its spirit.
The Pharisees were silenced for the time but were only the more
determined in their hostility. They next tried to turn the disciples
of John the Baptist against the Savior. These Pharisees had pointed
with scorn to the Baptist’s simple habits and coarse garments and
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had declared him a fanatic. They had tried to stir up the people
against him. The Spirit of God had moved on the hearts of these
scorners, convicting them of sin, but they had declared that John was
devilpossessed.
Now when Jesus came mingling with the people, eating and
drinking at their tables, they accused Him of being a glutton and
a drunkard. They would not consider that Jesus was eating with
sinners in order to bring the light of heaven to those who sat in
darkness. They would not consider that every word dropped by the
divine Teacher was living seed that would germinate and bear fruit
to the glory of God. They had determined not to accept the light,
and although they had opposed the mission of the Baptist, they were
now ready to cultivate the friendship of his disciples, hoping to win
their cooperation against Jesus. They claimed that Jesus was setting
aside the ancient traditions, and they contrasted the austere piety of
the Baptist with how Jesus feasted with publicans and sinners.