When Levi (Matthew) began to follow Jesus, the Scriptures record that he “made him [Jesus] a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” (Luke 5:29-30). Matthew, being a publican himself, had come to recently know the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and wanted his friends and fellow publicans to know that same grace likewise.
But the scribes and Pharisees were self-righteous and were loath to associate with such folk as those who attended the feast. Consequently, they found fault with our Lord and his disciples in such a social wrongdoing. In their minds, attending this gathering put our Savior in the same lowly standing at those wretched publicans.
The Lord backhandedly rebuked these high minded hypocrites by simply reminding them that “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32). Those who owned their sin and recognized their need, he would deliver. But he could do nothing for those who were righteous in their own eyes.
But the Lord gave them something else to bring focus to their condition that they might see their own need. Matthew (the same Matthew of this story) recorded this additional instruction from our Lord in his gospel account of this event. He referred them to the prophecy of Hosea and told them “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). These religious leaders had missed God’s standard for righteousness just as those had in Hosea’s day.
Hosea confronted a people who were in part blinded to their sin by their practice of religious ceremony. They offered the required sacrifices, but there was no changed life to accompany their worship. Hosea confronted them for their sins, not their sacrifices. God surely deserves worship for he is a great King (Malachi 1:14). But worship that does not come from a life lived daily in the presence of God is rejected and despised in the Lord’s eyes.
The Pharisees in Christ’s day were the same. They took pride in their adherence to the minor elements of the law, yet completely ignored the more substantive matters. They were wrapped up in themselves and had no regard for the great needs of their Jewish brethren. As our Lord declared, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23).
Micah spoke to the same issue in his time. “Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old…He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:6,8). May we do just that!
From the Chaplain 