(3)
In Matt. 9:9-17 we come to a very fine, sweet, and intimate portion of the Gospel of Matthew. After the King decreed the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens and after He manifested His authority as the King in many situations, in Matt. 9:9-13 we see Him feasting with sinners.
In 9:9 we have the calling of Matthew. This verse says, “And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the customs office, and says to him, Follow Me. And he rose and followed Him.” Matthew was also called Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). He was a tax collector who became an apostle by God’s grace (Matt. 10:2-3; Acts 1:13, 26). He was the writer of this Gospel.
The calling of Matthew is somewhat different from the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. When Peter and Andrew were called, they were casting a net into the sea; and when James and John were called, they were mending their nets. The Lord called them, they left their work, and they followed the Lord Jesus. As the Lord Jesus was passing by the customs office, where the tax collectors were, He saw Matthew and called him, and Matthew followed Him. According to the record in 9:9 it seems that this was the first time the Lord met Matthew. There must have been some attracting power with the Lord, either in His word or appearance, that caused Matthew to follow Him.
To follow the Lord includes believing in Him. No one follows Him unless he believes in Him. To believe in the Lord is to be saved (Acts 16:31), and to follow Him is to enter the narrow gate and walk the constricted way to participate in the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 7:13-14).
Verse 10 says, “And it came to pass as He was reclining at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined at the table together with Jesus and His disciples.” The house spoken of in this verse was Matthew’s house (Luke 5:29; Mark 2:15). As the writer of this Gospel, Matthew purposely did not say that it was his house and that it was he who had made a great feast for the Lord. This was his humility. But Luke 5:29 says clearly that Levi, that is, Matthew, “made a great reception for Him in his house.” Thus, Matthew opened his house and prepared a great feast for the Lord and His disciples.
Verse 10 says that “many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined at the table together with Jesus and His disciples.” This reveals the kind of person Matthew was. He was a sinful, despised tax collector who had many sinners as his friends. If he had not been such a low person, why were only tax collectors and sinners and not those of a higher rank feasting in Matthew’s house with the Lord Jesus? Although Matthew was such a low person, he was made not only a disciple, but one of the twelve apostles.
A tax collector was a despised person. Nearly all tax collectors abused their office by demanding more than they should by false accusation (Luke 3:12-13; 19:2, 8). To pay taxes to the Romans was very bitter to the Jews. Those engaged in collecting them were despised by the people and counted unworthy of any respect (Luke 18:9-10). Hence, they were classed with sinners (Matt. 9:10-11). How we must worship the Lord that even a person of such a low rank as Matthew, under God’s mercy and by His grace, could become an apostle! After being saved, Matthew was so grateful to the Lord that he opened his house and prepared a feast for Him and His disciples. Thus, this section of the Word opens in such a sweet, intimate way.
Verse 11 says, “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?” The Pharisees, the strictest religious sect of the Jews, were proud of their superior sanctity of life, devotion to God, and knowledge of the Scriptures. While the Lord Jesus was enjoying the feast with all the tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees criticized and condemned Him, and they asked the disciples why their teacher ate with such people. This question indicates that the self-righteous Pharisees did not know the grace of God. They assumed that God deals with man only according to righteousness. By asking this, they were exposed as dissenters to the heavenly King, thus rejecting Him. This is a continuation of the rejection of the heavenly King begun in verse 3 by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
The Lord took the opportunity given Him by the Pharisees’ question to give a very sweet revelation of Himself as the Physician. In verse 12 we see the Lord’s reply to the Pharisees’ question: “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill.” The Lord was telling the Pharisees that these tax collectors and sinners were patients, sick ones, and that to them the Lord was not a judge, but a physician, a healer. In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the King of the heavenly kingdom ministered as a physician, not as a judge. The judgment of the judge is according to righteousness, whereas the healing of the physician is according to mercy and grace. Those whom He made people of His heavenly kingdom were lepers (8:2-4), paralytics (8:5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-15), the demon-possessed (8:16, 28-32), those sick of all kinds of illnesses (8:16), the despised tax collectors, and sinners (9:9-11). Had He visited these pitiful people as a judge, all would have been condemned and rejected, and none would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom. Rather, He came to minister as a physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save them, so that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth. The Lord’s word here implies that the self-righteous Pharisees did not recognize their need of Him as a physician. They considered themselves strong; hence, blinded by their own self-righteousness, they did not know that they were ill.
The self-righteous Pharisees criticized the Lord Jesus and condemned all those unclean people. But the Lord seemed to say, “These people are not unclean; they are sick. I have not come as a judge to condemn them, but as a physician, as their dear, lovely, intimate healer.” As the Lord Jesus was speaking these words, He was surely indicating that the Pharisees, who thought they were righteous, were actually just as sick as the others were.
The Lord Jesus gave the Pharisees a further word in verse 13: “Now go and learn what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The self-righteous Pharisees assumed they knew all things concerning God. In order to humble them, the Lord told them to learn more.
Mercy is a part of grace for man to receive from God. But self-righteous men do not like to receive mercy or grace from God; they prefer to offer sacrifice to God, to give something to God. This contradicts God’s way in His economy. Just as God desires to show mercy to pitiful sinners, so He wants us also to show mercy to others in love (Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33).
The Lord says here that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Actually, there is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10). All the righteous are self-righteous like the Pharisees (Luke 18:9). The kingly Savior did not come to call them, but to call sinners. The Pharisees were proud of their knowledge of the Scriptures, and they thought that they knew the Bible very well. But here the Lord Jesus told them to go and learn something, to learn the meaning of the word, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” The Lord seemed to be telling the Pharisees, “You Pharisees are self-righteous, and you condemn these people without mercy. But God desires mercy. Now is the time for Me to exercise God’s mercy upon these pitiful people by being a physician to them. I am not here as a judge. I am here as a lovely physician taking care of their problems, and now I am healing them.”
Are you righteous? If you say, “No, I am not righteous,” you are blessed. Blessed are those who do not think that they are righteous, but who recognize that they are sinful. The reason for this is that the Lord did not come to call the righteous; He came to call the sinners. The Lord could say to the self-righteous ones, “If you consider yourselves righteous, you are not suitable for My coming, because My coming is for the sinners. Do not consider yourselves to be righteous. Rather, you must realize how sinful you are. If you consider yourselves as sinners, then you are ready for My coming.”
Without the environment portrayed in these verses, the Lord Jesus would not have had the opportunity to reveal Himself as the Physician. The Lord did not simply tell His disciples, “You must know that I have not come as a judge, but as a physician.” This would have been merely a doctrine. As the Lord was feasting with all those sick ones, He revealed Himself as the Physician. Those tax collectors and sinners were not physically sick; they were spiritually sick. While the Lord Jesus was feasting with them, He was healing them. The Lord was telling the Pharisees, “Pharisees, you are the judges, but I am the Physician. As a Physician, I can heal only the sick ones. If you feel that you are not ill, then I have nothing to do with you, and I cannot heal you. I have come here to call the sinners, the sick ones, not the righteous, the whole ones. On which side do you stand — the side of the righteous or the side of the sinners? If you take the side of the sinners, then I am here to be your Physician.”
Matthew reveals more than thirty-three aspects of Christ, one of which is Christ as the Physician. He is not only our King, our Savior, and our life; He is also our Physician. If we have this vision, we shall have faith in Him and trust Him whenever we are sick physically, spiritually, or mentally. We need to trust Him as our Physician.
The Gospel of Matthew is a book of the kingdom, yet it is also a book full of the riches of the heavenly King. This heavenly King is our Physician with healing authority. His healing is not simply a matter of power; it is a matter of authority. To heal us there is no need for Him to touch us directly. He needs only to speak a word, and His authority will come with His word. Remember the case of the healing of the centurion’s servant. The centurion said to the Lord, “Only speak a word, and my servant boy shall be healed” (8:8). Furthermore, the centurion could say, “I am also a man under authority, and many others are under me. I simply speak a word, and they obey it, because with my word there is authority. Lord, You don’t need to come to my home. Simply give a word, and Your authority will go with Your word.” The Lord’s word heals us not with power, but with authority. Often Christians think that the Lord heals because He is able to heal. This is a natural concept. The Lord’s healing is not a matter of His ability to heal; His healing is a matter of authority. He simply needs to say, “Illness, go away.” This is authority. With this same authority He is also fully able to command mental illnesses to flee. Thus, He heals us with authority.
Because the Pharisees were religious and self-righteous, the Lord dealt with them. The Pharisees thought that the tax collectors and sinners were rejected. This was their religious concept. The Lord took advantage of the Pharisees’ expression of their religious concept to reveal Himself as the Physician. He seemed to say, “You Pharisees, you religious people, are wrong. I am not here as a judge condemning the people. I am here as a Physician healing them. And I would heal you also, if you were willing to be healed.” How sweet and intimate is this portion of the Word!
As a book of doctrine, Matthew presents us another case in 9:14-17: the case of fasting without the Bridegroom. Verse 14 says, “Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but Your disciples do not fast?” Verses 10 through 13 record the Lord’s dealing with the question of the Pharisees, who were in the old religion. Now in verses 14 through 17 the Lord deals with the problem of John’s disciples who were in the new religion. John the Baptist dropped the old religion and began his ministry in the wilderness outside of religion. However, after a short time, his disciples formed a new religion to frustrate men from enjoying Christ, just as the Pharisees in the old religion did. John the Baptist’s ministry was to introduce men to Christ that Christ might become their Redeemer, their life, and their all. However, some of his disciples drifted away from his goal, Christ, to some of John’s practices and turned those practices into a religion. To be religious means to do something for God without Christ. To do anything without the presence of Christ, even though it is scriptural and fundamental, is religious. Both the disciples of John, the new-timers of religion, and the Pharisees, the old-timers of religion, fasted much, yet without Christ. They did not own Christ as the Bridegroom, but made fasting a matter of religion. Meanwhile, they condemned the disciples of Christ who did not fast, but had Christ with them and lived in His presence.
John the Baptist was born a priest, but later he fully abandoned everything religious. Nevertheless, less than three years after he had been put into prison, his disciples formed a new religion. To have a religion is to worship God, to serve God, and to do certain things to please God, yet without Christ. A religion is anything you do for God without the Spirit, without Christ. The Pharisees did a great many things for God, but Christ was not in them. They did many things to serve God, but they did them without the Spirit. Now the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting without Christ, without the Spirit. Nevertheless, this fasting was for God. Hence, they formed another religion. Therefore, in verse 14 we have the old religion, the religion of the Pharisees, and the new religion, the religion of the disciples of John.
How easy it is to have a religion! Do not think that you can be free from religion by simply dropping an old way and picking up another way. No matter whether the way is old or new, it is a religion as long as it does not have Christ and the Spirit in it. Your new way may simply be your new religion. Remember what religion is: it is doing things to please God apart from Christ and the Spirit.
The self-righteous Pharisees, the old-timers of religion, were bothered by the fact that Christ made Himself a companion of tax collectors and sinners, who were condemned by them (v. 11). They condemned Him for feasting with the sinners. The fasting disciples of John, the new-timers of religion, were troubled by the feasting of Christ and His disciples (v. 10) and condemned them for not fasting. The situation is similar today. On every hand the religionists condemn us. What then should we do? We should stay with the Physician.
In the case of the new religion, the Lord is not only the Physician, but also the Bridegroom. In verse 15 the Lord Jesus said to them, “Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Both the Physician and the Bridegroom are pleasant. I appreciate the Lord’s wisdom. In the case concerning the Pharisees, He likened Himself to a Physician. Now in the case with the disciples of John, He likens Himself to a bridegroom at a wedding. The Lord asked if the sons of the bridechamber can mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. It is a joyful time with the Bridegroom. But when the Bridegroom is taken away, they may fast.
The phrase “sons of the bridechamber” refers to the disciples of the Lord. In the transitory period of the Lord’s ministry on earth, His disciples were sons of the bridechamber. Later they will become the Bride (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7). The Bridegroom was taken away from the sons of the bridechamber when the kingly Savior was taken up from the disciples into heaven (Acts 1:11). After that, they fasted (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23).
In dealing with the self-righteous and dissenting Pharisees of the old religion, the kingly Savior indicated that He was a Physician to heal the sick (v. 12). In dealing with the fasting and dissenting disciples of John who had formed the new religion, He revealed Himself as a Bridegroom to take the Bride. John the Baptist told his disciples that Christ was the Bridegroom to take the Bride (John 3:25-29). Now Christ, the kingly Savior, reminded some of them of this. The kingly Savior firstly healed His followers, then made them the sons of the bridechamber. Eventually He will make them His Bride. They should appropriate Him not only as their Physician for the recovery of their life, but also as their Bridegroom for a living of enjoyment in His presence. They were at a joyful wedding with Him, not at a sorrowful funeral without Him. How then could they fast and not feast before Him? This dissenting question indicates that some of John’s disciples had fallen into a new religion and also had rejected the kingly Savior.
The question of John’s disciples seemed to be one of doctrine. But the Lord did not answer with a doctrine, but with a Person, the most pleasant Person, the Bridegroom. The religious people always care for their doctrine with their doctrinal reasonings. But Christ cares only for Himself. The living and walk of His followers should be regulated and directed only by His Person and His presence, not by any doctrine.
It would be ridiculous for someone to fast at a wedding. Moreover, to fast while others are enjoying the wedding feast would be an insult to the bridegroom. Here we see the Lord’s wisdom. He did not argue with them, but He certainly condemned the religious ones. The Lord seemed to be saying, “You religious people have missed the mark. Don’t you realize that I am the Bridegroom and that all My disciples around Me are the sons of the bridechamber? They shouldn’t be fasting. They must feast with Me.” Without these two cases, the Lord Jesus could never have been revealed as the Physician and as the Bridegroom. We should thank the Lord for the Pharisees and for the disciples of John. We should even thank the Lord for all the religions, for without the occasions afforded by religion the Lord could not be revealed in so many different aspects. It is the same today.
