"And as [Jesus] sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' But when he heard this, he said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.'"[Matthew 9:10-13]
So... when Jesus answers back to the Respectable Religious People who have criticized him for sharing a table with THOSE PEOPLE (the so-called "sinners"), is it good news... or bad news?
Well, I suppose at first blush it depends on who you are in the story. If you're one of the publicly pious Pharisees, who have in this scene declared themselves to be the guardians of morality and decency, Jesus' response is a withering insult. If you're there among the finger-wagging spiritual scolds, upset that Jesus has accepted a whole dinner party full of "unacceptables," this sounds like terrible news. If you were among those holding little protest signs with arms crossed outside the party of the outcasts among whom Jesus is celebrating, it is a shot across the bow to hear him quote back from the prophets, "Go learn what this means--'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'." But if you're one of the ones who's been told over and over that you are unworthy and unlovable, Jesus' truth brings you back to life.
This is the thing we're going to have to face if we are really going to seek "the truth" from Jesus--whatever we think "the truth" really is, it is never our possession to weaponize against others. In fact, Jesus reserves the right to show us "the truth" of just how far off the mark we've gotten when we have failed to love like he does. He reserves the right to call us out when we've gotten up on our high horses and started looking down on other people. he reserves the right to show us from the Scriptures that God's will has always been to restore the lost ones, welcome back in the outcast, love the unloved, and to give a new start to people stuck in dead-ends. And Jesus insists that he has the authority to show us when and where we've gotten it wrong and missed the heart of God.
I think for me that's the most frightening thing about this passage: the Respectable Religious people think that they're doing God's will by chastising Jesus for associating with the "sinners." (This is a reminder of the wisdom of Blaise Pascal's insight that "People never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.") They think they're "defending God's honor," or "speaking up for God's word," or "fighting for the truth," when Jesus shows them that they've missed the point. They think that Jesus, who claims to represent God, will taint God's good reputation by sitting at a table with the tax collectors and collective "sinners." They know, of course, that table fellowship communicates a great deal--especially in their culture. They know that sharing a meal with someone is a statement of acceptance, of welcome, and to some degree, of love--and so they understand that when Jesus shares a table at the dinner party in this scene (possibly at Matthew the tax collector's house?), he is making a provocative claim: that these people others view as reducible to being "sinners" rather than human beings are accepted already. Not just "acceptable" in the hypothetical sense that someone might, possibly, theoretically accept them, but that they are already accepted by God.
You'll note that when the Respectable Religious people question Jesus (or rather, his disciples, because they are too afraid to actually confront him directly), Jesus doesn't respond by throwing the party guests under the bus. He doesn't say, "Oh, don't you worry, my fellow Guardians of Holiness--I don't actually accept these people as they are; I'm here to warn them of fire and judgment if they don't shape up! So don't get the wrong idea here--I certainly don't accept these people as they are." Jesus had that as an out if that were his perspective--that would have gotten the Pharisees off his back in this scene. But instead, Jesus doubles down on his choice to share table and break bread with the whole list of party guests. And he quotes a line from the prophet Hosea at them just to make it clear that Jesus' focus on mercy--on love for those others have deemed unlovable--is in fact God's own priority as well. When the Respectable Religious folks get all bent out of shape about how wide a welcome Jesus' table offers, Jesus has to speak a truth that is difficult for them to hear, but which comes from a place of love. And that love is both for the ones who have been ostracized and other-ized by the Publicly Pious People, and it is for the Pharisees, too--if they would listen to what Jesus says, they would be opened up to a wider and deeper love than they dared imagine. Jesus' response to this group of Pharisees here is a hard pill for them to swallow, but it is a truth that is meant to allow both the "not-good-enough" crowd and the "holier-than-thou" crowd to discover that they are all beloved.
It can be so hard for us to face stories like this because we never want to admit that WE could be wrong today, or that WE could be guilty of excluding people whom Jesus has included. It's scary to face the truth that the Respectable Religious People in Jesus' day were convinced they were on "God's side," only to have Jesus show them that whether they admitted it or not, the Reign of God was setting up shop at the parties where the outcasts gathered. And reading a story like this today, which many of us heard this past Sunday, forces us to ask, "Where have I been keeping people out whom Jesus has already welcomed in with open arms?"
The hard part is that this isn't just a once-and-for-all question to ask, but that we are called to keep asking, to keep looking for what tables Jesus has pulled up a seat at, to keep letting ourselves be open to how Jesus will stretch our understandings to be big enough to get at least a glimpse of God's Reign among us.
So, is it good news or bad news to hear Jesus say that the tax collectors are sinners are embraced in his mercy? Well, for the ones who had been told they didn't belong, it's unquestionably good news right off the bat. And for the Respectable Religious Crowd, it might have stung as bad news at first and turned their old thinking upside down, but it really is good news even for them. To discover that God's welcome is not based on anybody's impression of our "worthiness" but simply and wholly grounded in God's grace changes us. It frees us. And it makes us come alive. The question for us is whether we will let Jesus' truth here surprise us with joy, or make us scowl in judgment.
What will we do with the Good News of wide welcome that Jesus speaks right now?
Lord Jesus, enable us to rejoice at your welcome of the ones we thought unworthy, and allow us to be transformed with the breadth of your love.
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