Verse 11 says, “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?” The Pharisees, the strictest religious sect of the Jews, were proud of their superior sanctity of life, devotion to God, and knowledge of the Scriptures. While the Lord Jesus was enjoying the feast with all the tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees criticized and condemned Him, and they asked the disciples why their teacher ate with such people. This question indicates that the self-righteous Pharisees did not know the grace of God. They assumed that God deals with man only according to righteousness. By asking this, they were exposed as dissenters to the heavenly King, thus rejecting Him. This is a continuation of the rejection of the heavenly King begun in verse 3 by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
The Lord took the opportunity given Him by the Pharisees’ question to give a very sweet revelation of Himself as the Physician. In verse 12 we see the Lord’s reply to the Pharisees’ question: “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill.” The Lord was telling the Pharisees that these tax collectors and sinners were patients, sick ones, and that to them the Lord was not a judge, but a physician, a healer. In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the King of the heavenly kingdom ministered as a physician, not as a judge. The judgment of the judge is according to righteousness, whereas the healing of the physician is according to mercy and grace. Those whom He made people of His heavenly kingdom were lepers (8:2-4), paralytics (8:5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-15), the demon-possessed (8:16, 28-32), those sick of all kinds of illnesses (8:16), the despised tax collectors, and sinners (9:9-11). Had He visited these pitiful people as a judge, all would have been condemned and rejected, and none would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom. Rather, He came to minister as a physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save them, so that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth. The Lord’s word here implies that the self-righteous Pharisees did not recognize their need of Him as a physician. They considered themselves strong; hence, blinded by their own self-righteousness, they did not know that they were ill.
The self-righteous Pharisees criticized the Lord Jesus and condemned all those unclean people. But the Lord seemed to say, “These people are not unclean; they are sick. I have not come as a judge to condemn them, but as a physician, as their dear, lovely, intimate healer.” As the Lord Jesus was speaking these words, He was surely indicating that the Pharisees, who thought they were righteous, were actually just as sick as the others were.
The Lord Jesus gave the Pharisees a further word in verse 13: “Now go and learn what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The self-righteous Pharisees assumed they knew all things concerning God. In order to humble them, the Lord told them to learn more.
Mercy is a part of grace for man to receive from God. But self-righteous men do not like to receive mercy or grace from God; they prefer to offer sacrifice to God, to give something to God. This contradicts God’s way in His economy. Just as God desires to show mercy to pitiful sinners, so He wants us also to show mercy to others in love (Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33).
The Lord says here that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Actually, there is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10). All the righteous are self-righteous like the Pharisees (Luke 18:9). The kingly Savior did not come to call them, but to call sinners. The Pharisees were proud of their knowledge of the Scriptures, and they thought that they knew the Bible very well. But here the Lord Jesus told them to go and learn something, to learn the meaning of the word, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” The Lord seemed to be telling the Pharisees, “You Pharisees are self-righteous, and you condemn these people without mercy. But God desires mercy. Now is the time for Me to exercise God’s mercy upon these pitiful people by being a physician to them. I am not here as a judge. I am here as a lovely physician taking care of their problems, and now I am healing them.”
Are you righteous? If you say, “No, I am not righteous,” you are blessed. Blessed are those who do not think that they are righteous, but who recognize that they are sinful. The reason for this is that the Lord did not come to call the righteous; He came to call the sinners. The Lord could say to the self-righteous ones, “If you consider yourselves righteous, you are not suitable for My coming, because My coming is for the sinners. Do not consider yourselves to be righteous. Rather, you must realize how sinful you are. If you consider yourselves as sinners, then you are ready for My coming.”
Without the environment portrayed in these verses, the Lord Jesus would not have had the opportunity to reveal Himself as the Physician. The Lord did not simply tell His disciples, “You must know that I have not come as a judge, but as a physician.” This would have been merely a doctrine. As the Lord was feasting with all those sick ones, He revealed Himself as the Physician. Those tax collectors and sinners were not physically sick; they were spiritually sick. While the Lord Jesus was feasting with them, He was healing them. The Lord was telling the Pharisees, “Pharisees, you are the judges, but I am the Physician. As a Physician, I can heal only the sick ones. If you feel that you are not ill, then I have nothing to do with you, and I cannot heal you. I have come here to call the sinners, the sick ones, not the righteous, the whole ones. On which side do you stand— the side of the righteous or the side of the sinners? If you take the side of the sinners, then I am here to be your Physician.”
Matthew reveals more than thirty-three aspects of Christ, one of which is Christ as the Physician. He is not only our King, our Savior, and our life; He is also our Physician. If we have this vision, we shall have faith in Him and trust Him whenever we are sick physically, spiritually, or mentally. We need to trust Him as our Physician.
The Gospel of Matthew is a book of the kingdom, yet it is also a book full of the riches of the heavenly King. This heavenly King is our Physician with healing authority. His healing is not simply a matter of power; it is a matter of authority. To heal us there is no need for Him to touch us directly. He needs only to speak a word, and His authority will come with His word. Remember the case of the healing of the centurion’s servant. The centurion said to the Lord, “Only speak a word, and my servant boy shall be healed” (8:8). Furthermore, the centurion could say, “I am also a man under authority, and many others are under me. I simply speak a word, and they obey it, because with my word there is authority. Lord, You don’t need to come to my home. Simply give a word, and Your authority will go with Your word.” The Lord’s word heals us not with power, but with authority. Often Christians think that the Lord heals because He is able to heal. This is a natural concept. The Lord’s healing is not a matter of His ability to heal; His healing is a matter of authority. He simply needs to say, “Illness, go away.” This is authority. With this same authority He is also fully able to command mental illnesses to flee. Thus, He heals us with authority.
Because the Pharisees were religious and self-righteous, the Lord dealt with them. The Pharisees thought that the tax collectors and sinners were rejected. This was their religious concept. The Lord took advantage of the Pharisees’ expression of their religious concept to reveal Himself as the Physician. He seemed to say, “You Pharisees, you religious people, are wrong. I am not here as a judge condemning the people. I am here as a Physician healing them. And I would heal you also, if you were willing to be healed.” How sweet and intimate is this portion of the Word!