Matthew 9:9 continued.

So Jesus quoted Hos. 6:6.  “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” As I see it, under the Law, a person can maintain perpetual cleanness but only by offering all the sacrifices that were required by the Law – many, of course. But that does not touch the heart of God. That kind of sacrifice means nothing to Him.  What pleases God is when I am merciful, not judgmental, on myself and on another. A “righteous Jew” should be merciful toward “sinners” like Matthew!

The fact that Jesus could embrace Matthew the tax collector showed the righteous Jews just what Jesus is doing. They could not possibly understand much less applaud his open- armed attitude toward those that all Jews know as “sinners.”

He could not say it more clearly, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  So ends Matthew’s account of his “calling.”  In itself the grace of God shines as the noonday sun.