When Jesus called Matthew, everything changed in a single moment. One quiet invitation—“Follow me”—and the man everyone despised left his tax booth behind. Matthew had no pedigree, no social standing, no community that loved him. He was a collaborator with Rome, a man his own people avoided. The only ones who would sit at his table were other tax collectors and sinners. Yet that was the very man Jesus chose to follow Him.
It’s not hard to imagine Matthew’s heart after that encounter. When Jesus’ call touches your life, you can’t keep it to yourself. You want to tell everyone what He’s done. But what happens when “everyone you know” are the very people polite society wants nothing to do with? That was Matthew’s reality.
“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.” (Matthew 9:9–10 ESV).
Matthew didn’t host a banquet for the holy—he invited the broken. And when Jesus came, the outcasts came too. They reclined with the Savior, maybe for the first time feeling that they truly belonged. How many hearts found their way to Christ that night because Matthew opened his table instead of closing his circle?
But not everyone celebrated.
“And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Matthew 9:11 ESV).
Matthew wasn’t excusing sin, and Jesus wasn’t endorsing it. This was mercy in motion—grace sitting down at the table. The religious elite couldn’t see it; they were too busy guarding their purity to recognize God’s heart for the lost.
Jesus’ reply still stirs the soul:
“But when he heard it, 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, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (Matthew 9:12–13 ESV).
Maybe we still face that same tension today. Some will judge the company we keep when we share the gospel with those society calls “unworthy.” Yet Jesus still sits with sinners. He still reclines at tables where grace and need meet.
So let’s not hesitate to invite others to dine with Him—even the ones others would turn away. That invitation might be the first act of evangelism our hearts ever live out. Let’s do it cheerfully, faithfully, and without fear of what the modern Pharisees might think.
What truth from this passage speaks to you most today? I’d love to hear your reflection—your insight might be what someone else needs this week.