Mercy, Not Sacrfice

 

  Matthew 9: 9-13

The Calling of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In the captivating TV series, THE CHOSEN, we see a young Levi, Matthew, carrying out his onerous duties as a tax collector but struggling within, for something is telling him that there's more to life than what he's doing. He hears of Jesus, sees his miracles and when invited with "Follow Me", he leaves his tax collector's table and follows Jesus with total loyalty, assiduously writing down what Jesus says and does. Thus we have his vivid Gospel through which we learn so much about Jesus. What a debt we owe to Matthew for his word-picture of the Jesus who desires mercy, not sacrifice, for Matthew himself received that mercy and became someone he never dreamed of, and someone to whom we are ever indebted for his Gospel   

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, thank you for calling Matthew whose Gospel gives us a telling word-picture of who you are and what you taught. Amen.