Matthew 9:9-13

The Calling of Matthew
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Some people think they need to clean themselves up before they come to God; others think they need to prove themselves spiritual before they step foot in a church.

But as Jesus points out to his detractors when calling Matthew, it isn't the healthy that he came for but the sick saying “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners”.

Matthew clearly fit the bill of sinner, but with Jesus’ leadership would later author the first book of the New Testament. Imagine what Jesus can do was sinners like you and me.