LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tasters from the King's Table
The Lord had to give explanations
When the Lord called Matthew, he had to give explanations to the Pharisees, because they thought that it was unworthy for the Lord to enter and eat at the home of a publican. If they had known then that the Lord didn't only consent to eat with him, but rather he had called him to be his disciple and later his apostle!
Then, against that wicked attack of the Pharisees, the Lord opposed them with this beautiful argument: " They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick… for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:12-13).
Matthew didn't qualify to be favoured by the Teacher, because he was a sinful man, and a sinner of the worst kind, of that kind who doesn't instil pity, but repulsion. He was an ambitious collector of taxes, capable of bleeding his own people dry so as to fill the chests of the Roman rulers, and, in passing, to fill his own as well.
To be a tax collector was sign of economic prosperity, but of absolute moral insolvency. For that reason the Lord had to give explanations, and this, not even to his friends, but to his detractors.
Before, God had had to do something similar, when he spoke to Satan in favour of Job, a just man. But now the Lord has to give explanations in favour of a sinner. So attracted was the Lord to man! So strong was his vocation of the good Shepherd!
It is true, Matthew was a sick person, and a sinner, according to the Lord's own words. That's precisely why he didn't merit being cast aside, but mercy. The detractors only saw the sinful publican; but the Lord saw beyond that: he saw the transformation that grace would operate in him. He saw the apostle, the inspired writer, the martyr; he saw his name written with precious stones in one of the foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The objections of the Pharisees were severe so as to disqualify Matthew. Which would have been used against us? Satan could raise many arguments and vomit them against us through our judges, but for all those the Lord had a single and great argument, the same one that was pronounced in favour of Matthew.