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Friends,
today's Gospel reflects on Jesus' banqueting with Matthew and his
friends after he calls him to be a disciple. The very first thing that
Jesus does is to invite Matthew into intimacy with him, reclining around
a table for a meal with friends.
In
this account, the Pharisees saw the intimacy of Matthew with Jesus and
they comment, "why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?" We notice first that it never occurs to them that the
influence might move from Jesus to the sinners rather than from the
sinners to Jesus.
And
then Jesus' wonderful comment: "Those who are well do not need a
physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but
sinners." He is admitting that Matthew and his fellows are sinners. He
is not in the least "soft" on sin. But he has come to bring precisely
such people into intimacy with him, and he is not proud about how he
does it.
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