Think back to form school when you sabbatum with your friends in the lunchroom. Maybe at commencement, you saturday with a stranger who became your best friend. Groups that ate together daily tended to homogenize. No one wanted to be seen sitting with unpopular or 'weird' kids. Drama formed around who sabbatum with who. This concept is extremely similar to a cultural element of the Bible that modern readers frequently miss: table fellowship.

The Bible exists as both a theological document and a record of the all-powerful God coming together humanity inside their own context. This means original readers didn't need actress written report tools while we are left playing catch-upwardly. Allow'south take a expect at how this important concept of table fellowship comes upwards in the story of Jesus eating with sinners at Matthew'south firm in Matt nine:9-13, Mark two:xiii-17, and Luke five:27-32.

To assist our studies, we'll be using the NKJV Study Pack, a collection of hand-picked Bible study tools.

Hither is a quick summary of events:

  • Jesus sees Matthew (AKA Levi), a tax collector, sitting in his tax function. Jesus tells him to get up and "Follow Me", which Matthew does. (Matt 9:9; Mark 2:fourteen; Luke 5:27-28)
  • Matthew throws a banquet for Jesus at his house. Revenue enhancement collectors, sinners, and the disciples nourish. (Matt ix:x; Mark 2:15; Luke v:29)
  • The scribes and Pharisees (who were also there) question the disciples most Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners (Matt 9:eleven; Marking 2:sixteen; Luke 5:thirty)
  • Jesus hears their questioning and answers them directly, telling them, "Those who are well have no need of a dr., just those who are sick. For I did not come up to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance".
  • Matthew's Gospel adds, "But go and acquire what this means, "I want mercy and not cede". (Matt 9:12-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32).

Upon showtime glance, this passage might not seem to terribly confusing. Hither, Jesus ministers to tax collectors and sinners by dining with them. The Pharisees criticize Him and He gives a rebuke. Earlier looking at what the study tools have to say, let's enquire some questions nigh this passage.

  • What is the significance of Levi/Matthew's profession of tax collector?
  • Why did Jesus dine with Levi/Matthew?
  • How come up it was so scandalous to eat with revenue enhancement collectors and sinners?
  • Why does Jesus talk about doctors and the sick?

Tax Collectors

Matthew was Jewish, only he collected taxes for Rome. The Jews hated taxation collectors. They had a reputation for taking more than than they needed in lodge to add to their own wealth. Licensed collectors often hired small-scale officials called publicans to do the actual work of collecting tolls. The publicans extracted their own wages past charging a fraction more than their employer required. Matthew was a publican who collected tolls on the road between Damascus and Acco; his booth was located just outside the metropolis of Capernaum. The tariffs were minor by themselves (often less than 3 percent) but drove upwards the price of appurtenances because they were multiplied by all the borders they passed through. He also collected taxes from fishermen who worked along the Sea of Galilee and boatmen who brought their goods from cities on the other side of the lake.

Most people in the Roman Empire did non similar revenue enhancement collectors; Jewish people viewed them as traitors. For assessment purposes, tax collectors could search anything except the person of a Roman lady; whatever property non properly declared was discipline to seizure. In Egypt, tax collectors were sometimes so brutal that they were known to beat upwards aged women in an effort to learn where their taxation-owing relatives were hiding. Ancient documents reveal that when harvests were bad, on occasion an unabridged hamlet, hearing that a taxation collector was coming, would leave town and commencement a hamlet somewhere else. People sometimes paid taxation collectors bribes to forbid even college fees.

What's the bargain with these sinners?

Shortly later condign a follower of Jesus, Matthew gave a reception in his abode to some of his former business concern colleagues and other associates and so they could run into his new Master. Subsequently rabbis sometimes contrasted Pharisees, as the godliest Judeans one would commonly meet, with tax collectors, as the about ungodly one would commonly meet. Pharisees did not approve of eating with sinners, making Jesus' beliefs perplexing to them.

"Sinners" was a general term covering persons who were not allowed to act equally judges or witnesses because of their moral unreliability. The Talmud enumerates them as dice players, pigeon racers, usurers, dealers in produce from the Sabbatical year, robbers, herdsmen, customs officials, and taxation collectors. It is probable that the sinners whom Matthew invited were and so called, not on the ground of their being notoriously bad characters, but considering they were not in the habit of studying and practicing 'the tradition of the elders'.

What'southward so bad nearly eating with sinners?

In aboriginal State of israel the table was a place where spiritual points were taught and where fellowship occurred. The term "dinner" often connotes a feast (a festive repast where people reclined), which was probably in Jesus' honor. Eating with someone established a covenant human relationship of friendship, which commonly also signified approval. In one aboriginal story, two warriors stopped fighting each other when they discovered that their fathers had shared a meal! The outcome of eating with sinners was sensitive in Judaism since some believed that eating with such visitor conveyed an acceptance of that person'southward sin. Jesus preferred pursuing relationships that might lead sinners to God rather than "quarantining" Himself from such people (run into i Cor. 5:9–13).

Jesus' Response

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Just become and learn what this ways: 'I want mercy and not cede.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Matthew ix:12b-13, NKJV

The ill

Jesus replies that as a md sought the sick for handling, and so His place was with the sinners He had come to salve, despite artificial conventions.

Aboriginal writers often used sickness and physicians as moral or intellectual analogies. Jesus was non saying that the Pharisees and scribes had no need of spiritual healing. Instead He was saying that only those who know their spiritual need can be treated. The self-righteous Pharisees would non come for aid, and in their own optics, did not need a doctor. In this passage, repentance is pictured as a patient who recognizes that illness is present and that simply Jesus, the Bully Md, can care for it.

Mercy, not sacrifice

Jewish teachers sometimes exhorted their hearers to "go and larn," but Jesus' words might seem more insulting hither.

Jesus quoted Hos. 6:6 to make the signal that God is more than interested in a person's loyal dearest than in the observance of external rituals. Jesus refers ironically to the Pharisees as "the righteous". They were not righteous; that was just how they perceived themselves because of their pious and scrupulous law-keeping (Phil. iii:6). Only Jesus explained, quoting from the familiar words of an OT prophet, that God had already judged sacrifices without mercy equally worthless. Those who valued ritual sacrifices above compassion toward others missed God'southward heart (Hos. six:half-dozen). In principle Pharisees, valued mercy—but none would have embraced sinners every bit Jesus did. He did not condone the activities of sinners, but required repentance—a change of mind that recognizes Jesus Christ every bit the just Savior.

The takeaway

Eating with sinners can exist tough sometimes. It'south easier to stay in our own lane and melody anybody else out. In this story, Jesus set the example for us by breaking social norms and looking past Matthew'southward sin. Matthew was amidst the nearly-hated, all the same Jesus cared more about his soul. Fifty-fifty if you don't have an opportunity to eat with someone who has been bandage out by gild (or by themselves), what can yous do to recognize others' humanity and love them where they're at?

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