6 Jan 2015
Matthew 9:11-13
Matthew 9:11: “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
The Pharisees were mortified that Jesus actually spent time with the lowest members of society. They would never dream of doing such a thing, and they couldn’t understand why Jesus would either.
Jesus gave them a simple answer: the lost need Him. He came to seek and to save them which were lost, and these people were most certainly lost. (The Pharisees were lost too, but they could never understand that.) Jesus was the Good Shepherd, searching for the lost sheep so that He might save them. They needed Him and He would not turn them away.