LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Lord Had Some Explaining To Do
"The Pharisees said to the disciples: Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Matthew 9:11).
When the Lord called Matthew, He had to explain Himself to the Pharisees, because they thought it was unworthy for Him to eat in the house of a tax collector. If they had only known then that the Lord not only agreed to eat with Matthew, but that He had called him to be His disciple and later His apostle!
Then, against this evil attack of the Pharisees against Matthew, the Lord opposed this beautiful argument: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick... For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:12-13).
Matthew did not qualify to be favored by the Master, for he was a sinful man, and a sinner of the worst kind, the kind that arouses not pity but revulsion. He was an ambitious tax collector, capable of bleeding his own people to fill the coffers of the Roman rulers, and in the process fill his own coffers as well. To be a tax collector was a sign of economic prosperity, but of absolute moral insolvency. For this reason, the Lord had to give explanations, not even to his friends, but to his detractors.
Before, God had had to do something similar, when He spoke to Satan in favor of Job, a righteous man. But now the Lord has to give explanations on behalf of a sinner. So attracted was the Lord to the man! So strong was his vocation as a good Shepherd! He had to show his face, not because of some moral blemish of his own (which he did not have), but because of his association with man in his distress and misery.
It is true, Matthew was a sick man, and a sinner, according to the Lord's own words. That is precisely why he did not merit dismissal, but mercy. The detractors saw only Matthew, the sinful publican; but the Lord saw beyond that. He saw the transformation that grace would work in him. He saw the apostle, the inspired writer, the martyr; he saw his name written with precious stones on one of the foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The objections of the Pharisees were severe to disqualify Matthew. What would have been the ones used against us? Our great sins? Our low social condition? The iniquity of our fathers? Our absolute religious ignorance? Our condition of atheists, of rebels and adulterers?
Satan could wield many arguments against us through our judges; but, for all of them, the Lord had only one great argument, the same that He wielded in favor of Matthew: "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 to repentance". How wonderful is the grace of God!