Combined reading Matthew 9:9-13/Mark 2:13-17/Luke 5:27-32 NIV
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw a man named Matthew, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Matthew got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Matthew held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
But when the Pharisees and the teachers of the law saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they complained to his disciples, “Why does your teachers eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “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 to repentance.”
Then Matthew held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
But when the Pharisees and the teachers of the law saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they complained to his disciples, “Why does your teachers eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” — Revelation 3:20
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
“…I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” — Mark 2:17b NLT
“You do not delight in sacrifice… My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” — Psalm 51:16–17 (NIV)
When Jesus calls us to follow Him and we respond, it should move us to create space for others to encounter Him and hear His call to them.
Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend… Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. – Henri Nouwen
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