Pharisees Murmur as Jesus Eats with Sinnersby CBPepper
9:11Matthew 9:11
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
The Pharisees saw Jesus sharing a meal with despised tax collectors and outcasts at Matthew's feast and challenged His disciples over why He would eat with such people. They asked the disciples rather than Christ Himself in hope of planting prejudice and shaking their trust in Him. Their question sprang from pride, envy and self-righteous contempt for those they counted as spiritually lost. Jesus sat with sinners in sympathy and social kindness to draw them toward truth and new life, not to share in their low habits or be corrupted by them. He did so because He came as a physician for the sin-sick to call sinners to repentance, showing that God desires mercy rather than exclusionary sacrifice.
Setting at Matthew's Feast
The question was asked at Matthew's feast in a house where Jesus sat at meat with His disciples when many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him. Publicans were hated as agents of Roman rule who often extorted the people and were despised as betrayers and outcasts. Matthew was judged by the Pharisees according to that work, while Jesus saw his openness to truth.
At that feast the criticism of eating with tax collectors and sinners came from the Pharisees, but John's disciples joined them in condemning His practice. This was while they were mourning and fasting over John's imprisonment. They had not accepted Jesus as the world's Redeemer as fully as John had, and thinking He needed to reform His practice because He did not do in every particular as John did, they saw His disciples being molded differently from themselves and from the scribes and Pharisees. Their condemnation came from misinterpreting His object in going where sinners were.
The chapter is interesting because it shows His work reached people from every class.
Pharisees' Accusation and Motives
When the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with publicans and sinners they did not address him himself but questioned his disciples, asking why their Master eats with such people. Christ himself met the charge for his disciples. His carrying the gospel to all people and accepting invitations to feasts and to houses of publicans was the occasion of the question, for he knew only in this way could he reach them with heaven's message.
They aimed the question at the disciples hoping to arouse prejudice already in their minds, spread doubt, shake their weak faith, turn them against him, and bruise and wound where it would harm his work. Their arrows were aimed where they would bruise and wound, yet the disciples' confidence in Christ kept them from accepting the insinuation. The attempt was malicious, meant to discredit him and alienate hearts from him.
The charge was scandal, reproach, falsehood and malicious misreading meant to make Christ appear a criminal and a deceiver, to furnish a pretext for condemning him, and to have him reported in a distorted light. It belonged to constant spying in which every word and action was watched, with false witnesses greedily received. It is the same accusation brought against commandment-keeping people.
The question arose from bitter prejudice and hostility, from envy and jealousy, from intense hatred, and from hearts closed to conviction that refused the evidence that he was the Teacher sent from God. The envious and jealous Pharisees misread his conduct and accused him of impiety, misrepresenting his actions as impious company. They misread his purpose and judged his practice by their own expectations.
They exalted themselves and with pride, contempt, self-righteous bigotry, exclusiveness and narrow ideas of salvation depreciated, hated and despised publicans and sinners who had not their privileges and light. They regarded them as disreputable and spiritually lost. They resented that Jesus' example influenced the people while disregarding their customs and traditions, clinging to prejudice and reliance on tradition against those most in need of forgiveness and mercy and openness to truth.
Their guilt in God's sight was greater because heaven's light flashed across their pathway and they spurned the gift. Their strict observance of outward religious forms concealed envy and strife. Their proud, foolish fasting in pride and self-righteousness for strife and debate, to smite with the fist of wickedness, the world's Redeemer could not honor.
Their Pharisaism watches for flaws, refuses to forgive, turns from the erring youth or worker as from a pestilence, and finds it easier to destroy fallen human beings than to reform them. By standing in the way their objection kept needy people from finding hope, freedom and courage in his words and works.
Christ's Fellowship with Sinners
Jesus sat at meat with publicans and sinners calm and self-possessed, kind and courteous and friendly, and in humility He drew them to Himself to declare that they were not shut out from His presence. His presence as an honored guest at a publican's table was sympathy and social kindness, affirming the human dignity of publicans and other outcasts whom others despised, and He did not approve those who stood apart in self-esteem and looked down on others. His words awakened new desires and impulses in them and brought life to their hearts, enlightening them and strengthening those convicted of truth and drawing them toward His wisdom, so that the possibility of a new life opened before them and they longed to become worthy of His confidence.
He mingled with them and accepted invitations to feasts and to houses of publicans, and also of Pharisees, and He did not separate Himself from ordinary social life and common people. He met people where they were, at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in synagogues and the temple, and on crowded thoroughfares where multitudes were willing to admit they were sinners. He carried the gospel to all people knowing only in this way could He reach them with heaven's message, mingling with all classes so they could receive His blessings and learn His character. That mingling rejected society's distinctions of birth, wealth, learning and rank, and let them see how His generous conduct and teaching differed from the Pharisees' censorious spirit, in contrast with their self-righteous bigotry and narrow ideas of salvation.
He did not eat with them to adopt their low habits or share their earthliness and debasement, nor to join their plans and work, nor to partake of luxuries, amusement and feasting, nor to become tainted and corrupted by their company and conversation. He used every word and influence there with purpose to teach right principles by word and godly example, turning conversation and thoughts to matters of eternal importance and eternal interest and using His words and influence for their good. His manner was to sit at table sowing seeds of truth in hearts, seeds that would spring up and bring forth fruit as some afterward responded to His call to follow Him and accepted Him as Redeemer and were converted. Those seeds scattered in almost every place sprang up after His resurrection and ascension under the teaching of the apostles, when in one day five thousand believers were converted.
His sharing a meal with them was holy, and He spoke to them words of life. That eating at Matthew's feast was not mere indulgence but, like His fasting in the wilderness, part of His self-giving work to save the lost. His high and noble and pure character let the light of truth shine in marked contrast to the Pharisees, priests and rulers who disregarded their commissioned work. True devotion is not shown by formal fasting or bodily humiliation but by surrendering self in willing service to God and others. Many of those the Pharisees scorned accepted Him as their Redeemer and would be gathered into His kingdom, while the self-righteous accusers would share the portion and fate of hypocrites and unbelievers when He came in glory.
Christ's Mission and Answer
When the charge was brought to the disciples, Christ Himself met it for them. His answer was that those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick do. He came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance. His presence among the sin-sick was the work of a physician, to reach those most in need of forgiveness, mercy and repentance rather than to avoid them.
Their need made them fitting recipients of His help. The Pharisees' contempt and prejudice kept them from recognizing their own need. God will have mercy and not sacrifice, so mercy rather than religious exclusion or ritual sacrifice is the fitting response to sinners' need. Their objection stood in the way of people who needed His words and works to find hope, freedom and courage.
Seeking and saving the lost is His work. His purpose in taking human nature and bearing the penalty of transgression was to uplift and elevate the race so that repentant sinners may stand accepted. He restores in man the image of God by drawing sinners with pardoning love instead of pushing them into darkness and death.
Example for Followers
Seeking and saving the lost is the work given to followers, for the questioning of why eating with publicans and sinners drew the answer that the call is to sinners to repentance. That work is to be done through personal effort and by direct appeals to the unconverted, rather than by concentrating effort only on people who already know the truth. Willingness to share the company of tax collectors and sinners displayed generous mercy and gave them a chance to know him, in contrast to exclusiveness. His example rebukes bigotry and exclusiveness, teaching followers to seek the company of others in order to bless them with the good received from God. They are to join themselves to people and their concerns and meet every class where they are, including in homes and at social gatherings, without abandoning or avoiding social contact.
Followers are called by his example to mingle with common people, eat with publicans and sinners, and do good among unbelievers in order to teach right principles by word and example and lift them up. Mingling gave a way to reach them, and accepting invitations to meals with both Pharisees and publicans became an occasion to teach lessons suited to the hearers. That presence did not mean joining their plans and work, becoming like them, adopting their low habits, or adopting the conversation usually heard there. His words and influence were used for their good to turn conversation and thoughts toward matters of eternal importance and eternal interest. In the same way the words and speech of followers in such company can impart spiritual lessons, recommend Christ, and turn minds toward eternal realities.
He associated with publicans and sinners not to share their character or spirit and not to be tainted or corrupted by their company or conversation. He did not eat with them to partake of luxuries, amusement, and feasting, but to diffuse and scatter the precious gems and jewels of truth while sitting at their table and to sow the seed of life through words that could take root in the heart. Those truths remain in hearts, and although they may not yield at once to the influences of the Spirit, they are affected by them and will finally yield because he keeps drawing them all the time. Followers are therefore to remain among people in the world and shine amid its moral darkness, with effective influence that enlightens and unites to him, so others may see their good works and come to the light. Even with an unpopular faith that separates from the world, they must not place themselves in sympathy and views so far from the world that they cannot reach souls. His sympathies were identified with suffering humanity, reaching the sinful, helpless, and needy where they were and making their necessities his own, and followers must not judge other men's consciences or bind exacting burdens that God does not bind, lest exacting traits close the door of access to souls by a burdening restraint they cannot endure.
His fellowship was an intentional way to encourage people who had gone wrong, meet their deepest needs, and offer the guidance the religious leaders withheld. His words were wise and truthful, reaching troubled hearts and turning minds toward eternal realities. The account belongs to a ministry to the sick that holds precious lessons for healing work, drawing the answer that those who are whole do not need a physician but those who are sick do, that God will have mercy and not sacrifice, and that the call is not to the righteous but to sinners to repentance. The chapter is interesting because it shows the work reached people from every class, and this is applied to receiving and laboring for the poor and suffering in sanitariums.
The Pharisees saw Jesus sharing a meal with despised tax collectors and outcasts at Matthew's feast and challenged His disciples over why He would eat with such people. They asked the disciples rather than Christ Himself in hope of planting prejudice and shaking their trust in Him. Their question sprang from pride, envy and self-righteous contempt for those they counted as spiritually lost. Jesus sat with sinners in sympathy and social kindness to draw them toward truth and new life, not to share in their low habits or be corrupted by them. He did so because He came as a physician for the sin-sick to call sinners to repentance, showing that God desires mercy rather than exclusionary sacrifice.
Setting at Matthew's Feast
The question was asked at Matthew's feast in a house where Jesus sat at meat with His disciples when many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him.
Publicans were hated as agents of Roman rule who often extorted the people and were despised as betrayers and outcasts.
Matthew was judged by the Pharisees according to that work, while Jesus saw his openness to truth.
At that feast the criticism of eating with tax collectors and sinners came from the Pharisees, but John's disciples joined them in condemning His practice.
This was while they were mourning and fasting over John's imprisonment.
They had not accepted Jesus as the world's Redeemer as fully as John had, and thinking He needed to reform His practice because He did not do in every particular as John did, they saw His disciples being molded differently from themselves and from the scribes and Pharisees.
Their condemnation came from misinterpreting His object in going where sinners were.
The chapter is interesting because it shows His work reached people from every class.
Pharisees' Accusation and Motives
When the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with publicans and sinners they did not address him himself but questioned his disciples, asking why their Master eats with such people. Christ himself met the charge for his disciples. His carrying the gospel to all people and accepting invitations to feasts and to houses of publicans was the occasion of the question, for he knew only in this way could he reach them with heaven's message.
They aimed the question at the disciples hoping to arouse prejudice already in their minds, spread doubt, shake their weak faith, turn them against him, and bruise and wound where it would harm his work. Their arrows were aimed where they would bruise and wound, yet the disciples' confidence in Christ kept them from accepting the insinuation. The attempt was malicious, meant to discredit him and alienate hearts from him.
The charge was scandal, reproach, falsehood and malicious misreading meant to make Christ appear a criminal and a deceiver, to furnish a pretext for condemning him, and to have him reported in a distorted light. It belonged to constant spying in which every word and action was watched, with false witnesses greedily received. It is the same accusation brought against commandment-keeping people.
The question arose from bitter prejudice and hostility, from envy and jealousy, from intense hatred, and from hearts closed to conviction that refused the evidence that he was the Teacher sent from God. The envious and jealous Pharisees misread his conduct and accused him of impiety, misrepresenting his actions as impious company. They misread his purpose and judged his practice by their own expectations.
They exalted themselves and with pride, contempt, self-righteous bigotry, exclusiveness and narrow ideas of salvation depreciated, hated and despised publicans and sinners who had not their privileges and light. They regarded them as disreputable and spiritually lost. They resented that Jesus' example influenced the people while disregarding their customs and traditions, clinging to prejudice and reliance on tradition against those most in need of forgiveness and mercy and openness to truth.
Their guilt in God's sight was greater because heaven's light flashed across their pathway and they spurned the gift. Their strict observance of outward religious forms concealed envy and strife. Their proud, foolish fasting in pride and self-righteousness for strife and debate, to smite with the fist of wickedness, the world's Redeemer could not honor.
Their Pharisaism watches for flaws, refuses to forgive, turns from the erring youth or worker as from a pestilence, and finds it easier to destroy fallen human beings than to reform them. By standing in the way their objection kept needy people from finding hope, freedom and courage in his words and works.
Christ's Fellowship with Sinners
Jesus sat at meat with publicans and sinners calm and self-possessed, kind and courteous and friendly, and in humility He drew them to Himself to declare that they were not shut out from His presence. His presence as an honored guest at a publican's table was sympathy and social kindness, affirming the human dignity of publicans and other outcasts whom others despised, and He did not approve those who stood apart in self-esteem and looked down on others. His words awakened new desires and impulses in them and brought life to their hearts, enlightening them and strengthening those convicted of truth and drawing them toward His wisdom, so that the possibility of a new life opened before them and they longed to become worthy of His confidence.
He mingled with them and accepted invitations to feasts and to houses of publicans, and also of Pharisees, and He did not separate Himself from ordinary social life and common people. He met people where they were, at the guest table, in the streets, by the lakeside, in synagogues and the temple, and on crowded thoroughfares where multitudes were willing to admit they were sinners. He carried the gospel to all people knowing only in this way could He reach them with heaven's message, mingling with all classes so they could receive His blessings and learn His character. That mingling rejected society's distinctions of birth, wealth, learning and rank, and let them see how His generous conduct and teaching differed from the Pharisees' censorious spirit, in contrast with their self-righteous bigotry and narrow ideas of salvation.
He did not eat with them to adopt their low habits or share their earthliness and debasement, nor to join their plans and work, nor to partake of luxuries, amusement and feasting, nor to become tainted and corrupted by their company and conversation. He used every word and influence there with purpose to teach right principles by word and godly example, turning conversation and thoughts to matters of eternal importance and eternal interest and using His words and influence for their good. His manner was to sit at table sowing seeds of truth in hearts, seeds that would spring up and bring forth fruit as some afterward responded to His call to follow Him and accepted Him as Redeemer and were converted. Those seeds scattered in almost every place sprang up after His resurrection and ascension under the teaching of the apostles, when in one day five thousand believers were converted.
His sharing a meal with them was holy, and He spoke to them words of life. That eating at Matthew's feast was not mere indulgence but, like His fasting in the wilderness, part of His self-giving work to save the lost. His high and noble and pure character let the light of truth shine in marked contrast to the Pharisees, priests and rulers who disregarded their commissioned work. True devotion is not shown by formal fasting or bodily humiliation but by surrendering self in willing service to God and others. Many of those the Pharisees scorned accepted Him as their Redeemer and would be gathered into His kingdom, while the self-righteous accusers would share the portion and fate of hypocrites and unbelievers when He came in glory.
Christ's Mission and Answer
When the charge was brought to the disciples, Christ Himself met it for them. His answer was that those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick do. He came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance. His presence among the sin-sick was the work of a physician, to reach those most in need of forgiveness, mercy and repentance rather than to avoid them.
Their need made them fitting recipients of His help. The Pharisees' contempt and prejudice kept them from recognizing their own need. God will have mercy and not sacrifice, so mercy rather than religious exclusion or ritual sacrifice is the fitting response to sinners' need. Their objection stood in the way of people who needed His words and works to find hope, freedom and courage.
Seeking and saving the lost is His work. His purpose in taking human nature and bearing the penalty of transgression was to uplift and elevate the race so that repentant sinners may stand accepted. He restores in man the image of God by drawing sinners with pardoning love instead of pushing them into darkness and death.
Example for Followers
Seeking and saving the lost is the work given to followers, for the questioning of why eating with publicans and sinners drew the answer that the call is to sinners to repentance. That work is to be done through personal effort and by direct appeals to the unconverted, rather than by concentrating effort only on people who already know the truth. Willingness to share the company of tax collectors and sinners displayed generous mercy and gave them a chance to know him, in contrast to exclusiveness. His example rebukes bigotry and exclusiveness, teaching followers to seek the company of others in order to bless them with the good received from God. They are to join themselves to people and their concerns and meet every class where they are, including in homes and at social gatherings, without abandoning or avoiding social contact.
Followers are called by his example to mingle with common people, eat with publicans and sinners, and do good among unbelievers in order to teach right principles by word and example and lift them up. Mingling gave a way to reach them, and accepting invitations to meals with both Pharisees and publicans became an occasion to teach lessons suited to the hearers. That presence did not mean joining their plans and work, becoming like them, adopting their low habits, or adopting the conversation usually heard there. His words and influence were used for their good to turn conversation and thoughts toward matters of eternal importance and eternal interest. In the same way the words and speech of followers in such company can impart spiritual lessons, recommend Christ, and turn minds toward eternal realities.
He associated with publicans and sinners not to share their character or spirit and not to be tainted or corrupted by their company or conversation. He did not eat with them to partake of luxuries, amusement, and feasting, but to diffuse and scatter the precious gems and jewels of truth while sitting at their table and to sow the seed of life through words that could take root in the heart. Those truths remain in hearts, and although they may not yield at once to the influences of the Spirit, they are affected by them and will finally yield because he keeps drawing them all the time. Followers are therefore to remain among people in the world and shine amid its moral darkness, with effective influence that enlightens and unites to him, so others may see their good works and come to the light. Even with an unpopular faith that separates from the world, they must not place themselves in sympathy and views so far from the world that they cannot reach souls. His sympathies were identified with suffering humanity, reaching the sinful, helpless, and needy where they were and making their necessities his own, and followers must not judge other men's consciences or bind exacting burdens that God does not bind, lest exacting traits close the door of access to souls by a burdening restraint they cannot endure.
His fellowship was an intentional way to encourage people who had gone wrong, meet their deepest needs, and offer the guidance the religious leaders withheld. His words were wise and truthful, reaching troubled hearts and turning minds toward eternal realities. The account belongs to a ministry to the sick that holds precious lessons for healing work, drawing the answer that those who are whole do not need a physician but those who are sick do, that God will have mercy and not sacrifice, and that the call is not to the righteous but to sinners to repentance. The chapter is interesting because it shows the work reached people from every class, and this is applied to receiving and laboring for the poor and suffering in sanitariums.