Learning the Jesus Way of LifeSample

Go and Learn What This Means …

Pray: Jesus, give me the faith to go where you go, do what you do, trust what you say, and love how you love. Today, I commit to following you. Amen.

Yesterday we took the opportunity to examine our response to Jesus. Who He is and what He did demands a verdict. Is He worth everything we have and everything we are? Or not?

Today, we are going to see how two other groups of people responded to Jesus and what that means for us.

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. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. Matthew 9:9–10 NIV

Like lepers, tax collectors were social outcasts in Jewish culture. Not because of a condition they had, but because of the profession they chose. Jews who worked as tax collectors had teamed up with their Roman oppressors to enforce Rome’s control. How? By collecting taxes from their friends, family, and community to fund Rome’s interests. To make things worse, tax collectors would take more than what Rome asked for and use the extra to stuff their own pockets. So, while their own people were struggling to make ends meet, they were living it up in mansions.

Enter Matthew, a tax collector and traitor to his people. Despised, looked down on, and sitting in the very place of his compromise with Rome—this is where Jesus sees him and invites Matthew to follow Him. This is the same Matthew who will eventually, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, write the very Gospel we are studying.

If you ever needed any proof that you don’t have to clean your life up in order to be accepted by God, think of Matthew. Because in the very place of his brokenness, that’s where Jesus calls him to start following. What’s that place for you? Chances are it’s not a tax collector’s booth, but maybe it’s your desk at school where you keep copying off your friend’s test. Maybe it’s in front of your computer at night when you’re tired and alone. Maybe it’s with your boyfriend or girlfriend, when no one else is around. Wherever that place is, Jesus sees you, just like He saw Matthew. And He is calling you to get up and follow Him.

That’s exactly what Matthew does. But, what will you do? Don’t wait until you get cleaned up or covered up. Right now, where you are, get up and follow Jesus. Because on the other side of obedience, we discover joy.

This is exactly what we see in Matthew’s story. Right after being invited to follow Jesus, Matthew invites Jesus and everyone he knows over for dinner. And just like Matthew said yes to Jesus’ invitation, Jesus says yes to Matthew’s invitation. Because when we invite Jesus into our lives, He responds. This probably would have surprised Matthew, and it certainly would have surprised Matthew’s guests—other tax collectors and sinners—because Jesus is a rabbi, a holy man who they would likely assume wouldn’t want to be caught dead with the likes of them. But, like so many others, their expectations are about to crumble under the weight of His grace. Grace that was absolutely scandalous to the “religious people” around Him.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:11–13 NIV

The Pharisees, the teachers and keepers of God’s holy Law, have completely missed the point of the Bible. They’ve forgotten that God’s heart has always been set on bringing home the lost and building up the found. So, when they see people like Matthew, they see a problem to be solved, instead of a person to be loved. Instead of patiently and compassionately leading people like Matthew back into the loving arms of their Heavenly Father, they beat them down with a seemingly endless list of rules and laws that nobody can ever satisfy.

Jesus reminds them of what matters most by telling them to “go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” What lesson is Jesus teaching us here?

As the Bible scholars of their day, the Pharisees would have known that Jesus was quoting the words of God that came through the prophet Hosea. Hosea was a prophet called by God to marry a prostitute named Gomer, to pursue her and love her unconditionally. In spite of Hosea’s love for her, Gomer still turned her back on him. She abandoned him and their children and went back to her life of prostitution, eventually becoming a sex slave. And even though Hosea had every right to end the marriage, God told him to go and win her back. Hosea went to his own wife and bought her freedom so she could come home.

Why would God ask Hosea to do all of that? Because Hosea’s unconditional and relentless pursuit of his wife is a vivid picture of God’s unconditional and relentless pursuit of us. No matter how unfaithful we are, God is always faithful. Even though God has every right to turn His back on us, He never does. Through our own choices, we have become slaves to sin. But, just like Hosea, God purchased our freedom. Not with thirty pieces of silver, but by shedding His blood for us on the cross.

All of us are like Matthew: sinners separated from the love of God. All of us are like Gomer: slaves to the disease of sin. But, because of Jesus, we have been reunited with God and liberated from sin. Now, we are called to serve as His partners, playing our part in bringing others into the redeeming love of Jesus.

The Pharisees had forgotten what mattered most. They were so caught up in religious rituals and spiritual performance that they forgot that God’s heart is for sinners and sufferers like us.

Have you ever fallen into this trap? Have you ever felt the checklist syndrome when it comes to your relationship with Jesus? Where you’ve prioritized doing spiritual things over loving people like Jesus? Have you bought into the lie that God’s view of you is based on strict adherence to the Bible and getting others to do the same?

God loves you—and them—apart from anything you do or don’t do. His grace is a free gift based on His kindness, not a reward for the good things you—or they—have done.

To those of us who feel we need to earn God's grace, Jesus would say to go and learn what it means that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. One of the most holy things we can do is show mercy to others. Because that’s exactly what our holy God does for us.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:36 NIV

Let the weight of needing to perform fall off your shoulders. Let the grace of Jesus take its place.

Application: Is there an area of your life where you are choosing your own comfort over entering into the mess to truly love the people around you? Is there a relationship where you are withholding mercy from someone because it makes you feel like you’re in control? Is there a place of pride in your heart that you need to confront? Ask the Holy Spirit to search you and teach you how to choose mercy today.