Go and Learn

Mt. 9: 9-12
KV 9:13; Go and learn what this means

Jesus’ Messianic ministry disturbed many religious leaders because it was different from the type of ministry that they had learned from their seniors and had practiced. The heart of matter was Jesus' attitude toward the sinners. He mingled with them. The religious leaders confronted Jesus, demanding him to change his method. Jesus not only defended his ministry, but also challenged them to change their method. When he did so, he did not rely on his idea, nor his insight. Rather he relied on the Scriptures; go and learn what this means.

In this passage, Jesus returned to his own town and healed a paralytic while he taught in a house (Mt. 9:1). Not only healing the paralytic from his paralysis, Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins (Mt. 9:2). The religious leaders were furious at this saying, "This fellow is blaspheming!" Despite the Pharisee’s protest, people recognized Jesus’ authority over the forgiveness of sins and praised God (Mt. 9:8). He had become popular and highly respected among the people and many followed him because of his teachings and his healings. But Jesus did not dwell on his popularity. His mind was on those who were lost in their sins. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth and told him, “Follow me,” and Matthew got up and followed him (Mt. 9:8).

Matthew was a tax collector and in those days, a tax collector was treated like a traitor by the Jews. It was not because of the specific duty itself, but because of the particular circumstances in which tax collectors carried out their duties. Israel was under the rule of the Roman Empire. To impose taxation on their territories, the Roman Empire hired tax collectors from among the Jews and used them to collect money. It was a tax without representation. The Roman Empire set the rate at her whim and imposed it with force. It was too much for the Jews to bear, so some Jews even revolted and fought because of this. What was worse, some tax collectors abused their authority to collect taxes and collected more than what was ordered. They kept the difference in their pocket. The Roman authorities were not concerned as long as she got what she wanted. The Jews suffered so much that they hated tax collectors. Nobody liked them. Nobody made friends with them. Although they did not break God's commandments, they were treated like sinners. So it was remarkable that Jesus noticed Matthew and was interested in him. He took initiative in loving him and making friends with him. And he went further than this. He asked Matthew to follow him. He took Matthew as his disciple. Jesus saw a great potential in Matthew. It was a great honor and privilege to be one of his disciples. Many wanted to be his disciples, but not everyone was taken.

When Matthew was called, he had no hesitation. He got up and followed Jesus. Later, he held a great banquet in his house. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples (Mt. 9:10). Matthew invited all kinds of people. Such an extravagant feast reflected Matthew’s great gratitude toward Jesus. His past had been a road to a most unhappy life. When he grew up, he had wanted to make a lot of money, so he worked hard, mastered finances and accounting, and became a tax collector. He understood business and learned how to collect money despite many challenges. He fulfilled his dream and made a lot of money. But to his dismay, he was lonely and found his life meaningless and empty. His ability and skill were not recognized. He was hated by his own people. He was also not welcomed as part of the Romans. He had been seeking for a new direction. He had been looking for a way out of his current job. He had been looking for a way to become an ordinary people so that he could enjoy life like them. If possible, he hoped to have a new life to please God. When Jesus called, he was ready. He had no reason to wait. Jesus' calling was like a spark in the woods that set a wild fire. He was full of joy and he expressed it by holding a great banquet. He invited Jesus and his disciples. He invited his friends, tax collectors and sinners. He also invited ordinary people and religious leaders. In his joy, he no longer discriminated one from the other. He shared his joy with everyone around him. His joy was not ephemeral. It was the expression of his firm commitment to Jesus. On that day he decided to follow Jesus. He gave up his job as a tax collector. He wanted to learn from Jesus and wanted to do what Jesus did. It was a day of heavenly joy. His dramatic change in Jesus was the fruit of Jesus' ministry. It was the vignette of how the kingdom of God would expand on earth. It was the day God was most delighted.

The Pharisees, however, were indignant. When the Pharisees saw his joy, they did not reciprocate it. Instead, they asked Jesus' disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners (Mt. 9:11)?” The Pharisees were unhappy with the whole matter. Their unhappiness stemmed from their different opinion from Jesus in dealing with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees despised the tax collectors and sinners and separated themselves from them. By treating them badly, the Pharisees set a tone that the sinners and tax collectors were not worthy of God's love and care. They discouraged others to follow these sinners. This was one way to deter sins in the society. There were times when such approach worked out properly for the society. When Ezra returned from the exile, he had a great vision for his people. He was well versed in the Law of Moses (Ezra 7:6). He had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel. He wanted to purify his people and dedicate them as God's people. When he found that his people married with foreigners who worshipped idols, he was greatly distressed, and fasted and mourned. Because of his tearful heart for his people some rose up and made a suggestion to separate themselves from those intermarried with infidels (Ezra 10). This included their wives and children. This was a dramatic measure, since it implied divorce and abandoning children. Yet, for the sake of purity people were willing to take such path as Ezra influenced them. It was the only way to purify his people and set a warning to the next generation to deter intermarriage, especially the marriage that would forgo their dedication to God. The Pharisees inherited such zeal for God, but developed it in a wrong way. They treated harshly the sinners who broke God's law. They considered the sinners like a dog and never mingled with them. There was no mercy for the sinners, only endless punishment and torture.

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick (Mt. 9:12)." Jesus directly challenged the ministry of the Pharisees— their stubborn and fixed idea on sinners. Jesus defended his ministry by introducing the metaphor of a doctor and his patients so that the Pharisees might grasp the nature of Jesus' ministry. A doctor studies hard. The goal of his study, however, is not to judge the sick, but to diagnose them properly. The more he studies the better he can diagnose the patient. The better he can diagnose, the better he can treat. The probability of healing the sick increases. When he meets the healthy, he greets them, shakes hands and says goodbye. When he meets the sick, he pays attention to them and cares for them. Their primary focus is the sick. When the patient recuperates, he sends them away and works on other sick people. The doctor’s ultimate goal is to restore them so that they can return to the society and live a normal life bearing fruits and contributing to society. Jesus applied such common sense to his ministry. He associated himself with sinners. Yet he had no intention to endorse their sinful lifestyle, nor to be like them. Rather his goal was to help them to repent of their sins and live a normal like in the society as a child of God. He was like a doctor who would treat AID patients at the risk of contaminating his own blood.

After Jesus had defended his ministry by the illustration, he could have stopped there and moved on with another subject. Yet he further supported his position by citing the word of God from the Scriptures. "But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ (Mt. 9:13)" This is the direct quote from Hosea. He is the prophet and is well known for buying back his wife who became a prostitute. He obeyed God's command to share God's immeasurable love for his people. Jesus commanded the Pharisees to go and learn. He did not mean to find the basis of his justification from the Scriptures. It was not a puzzle, since he spelled out the reference. It was obvious and well known to the Pharisees, since they memorized the Scriptures. If Jesus had asked where the verse came from, one of the Pharisees could have answered immediately within a second to the page. What mattered was Jesus' pick amidst of millions of verses in the Scriptures. It was the adequacy and fit of the verse in a given circumstance. Jesus did that for them.

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to go and learn its meaning. They were good at memorization and interpretation. But Jesus challenged their way of interpreting this verse. Jesus also challenged the way they studied the Scriptures. Like the mistakes of their predecessors, the Pharisees made the same mistakes in their ministry. They emphasized sacrifice more than mercy. They formed a group to enforce the Law of Moses. They promoted themselves as the disciples of Moses (Jn. 9:28). They made every effort to keep it. They made effort to keep it in every detail, even to the point of setting the maximum number of buttons they could count legally on the Sabbath. They did so with great passion and even joy. Yet they were not interested in caring for sinners. If they had allocated just 10 % of their energy and devotion to the sinners they could have done remarkable work for them and pleased God more. But they were too blind to see their mistakes. So it is important to see that understanding of the Scripture is often blocked by the traditions and customs of the group. When one is disciplined and educated in such environment, it is very difficult for him to read verses literally and interpret them correctly. It often becomes necessary for him to think outside the box. When the Pharisees challenged Jesus with their policy and tradition, they had no doubt that their judgment was based on the Scriptures and it was the only way to please God, but they ended up running the ministry that displeased God. They ended up crucifying Jesus. Yet they lost not only their case, but also their very own existence. Nobody, even among the Jews, claims to be a Pharisee. Despite their zeal for God, their ministry was an utter failure when they ignored Jesus' advice.

Sadly some movements in the Christian history took the path of the Pharisees, forgetting Jesus' invaluable advice. The Puritans were a group of Protestants with many wonderful characters. They advocated greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. They were diligent and industrious. For them religious freedom was more important than anything else. When the political climate was not in their favor, they were willing to sacrifice everything on earth, leaving their own countries if necessary. In the years after 1630, many of them left for New England, supporting the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other settlements. In the Boston area, nobody worked on Sunday. Everyone was in the church that was at the center of the town. No singles were allowed to live alone until they got married. The Puritans laid firm foundation for our country to be a Christian nation. On the other hand, some harshly treated those who did not confirm to their lifestyle. For example, they persecuted the Quakers. They executed the Quaker Mary Dyer who repeatedly defied the Puritan law that outlawed the Quakers. Some even began hunting these non-conformers as witches. Despite their tremendous contribution to our society, public opinion on the Puritanism began to wane. This was reflected in the novel "Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1860. Puritans were associated with hypocrisies. Afterwards, nobody had a desire to become like a Puritan. On a modest scale, I realize some occasions where I happened to take such path. When I prepared a joint conference, I was in charge. I asked some sisters to prepare life testimonies so that they would share them with us for the glory of God. One sister struggled with this, dragging on. In my impatience I blew up on her. She never finished it until the conference was over. This only made her bitter and left a scar in her heart. I was not mature enough to strike the balance.

After teaching the Pharisees to learn God's mercy more than sacrifice, Jesus shared his life testimony saying, “For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt. 9:13).” After Jesus cited the verse of the Scriptures for the Pharisees, he shared what he had been practicing. He was not like a teacher who taught others to do something, but never did anything himself. When Jesus set out his ministry, he had a number of choices. He could have gone to the chief priests and learned from them so that he could get teaching certificate and teach others with their authorities. He could have secluded himself in a remote place and taught only those who came to him. He could contact only those who were qualified to be his disciples, at least those who were enrolled to receive a training as a religious leader. He could have made a big business by drawing ordinary people and collecting money by sharing the good news of the kingdom of God with them. Instead, he held on to Hosea 6:6. He thought about God who desired mercy, not sacrifice. When he searched for a direction for his ministry, he based it on this verse. He decided to focus on the sinners, not the righteous. Like Hosea, he sacrificed everything he had for this direction. His primary focus was on the sinners— those who were abandoned and cast out of the community. He cared for them and wanted to help them to be restored. So he practiced what he taught. This direction was very different from that of contemporary religious leaders. The religious leaders searched for talented and healthy people to become their successors. They devoted themselves to raise those type of people as leaders. Jesus took the opposite direction. It was not out of his pride, but out of absolute reverence and obedience to God who desired mercy, not sacrifice.

There are many who followed in Jesus' example on this. Martin Luther is one. The Catholic Church was literally universal in Europe. The early fathers protected the church at any cost. Some even claimed that the salvation was only through the church. Attending the church amounted to salvation. It was necessary in those day to protect God's flock against false doctrines and prophets. Her influence and glory reached the peak around 1000 AD. When Martin Luther became a priest around 1500 AD, many regulations and traditions had dominated the church. What was worse, church leaders lost a shepherd heart for God's flock and corruption smeared into the church. Although Luther was a priest, he was not sure of his own salvation. That precisely reflected the situation of the people. It was irony that all went to the church, but nobody was sure of salvation. Most of them suffered from the nightmare of the hell. When Luther found the truth from the Bible, he had the compassion for God's flock. He fought against the corruption of the church. More importantly he helped God's flock to have the assurance of salvation only by faith. The church leaders were indignant and charged him as a heresy. He withstood the trial and held on to his teachings.

Samuel Lee is another example. He was ordained as a pastor for a local community. But he had compassion on the college students who were lost for various reasons. When he started his ministry with Sarah Barry, he did not demand any ritual ceremonies from students. He only emphasized the word of God from the Bible. Students were accustomed to studying. So he invented a way for them to enjoy studying the Bible. One of them was to write and share testimony. He made an environment for them to do so out of joy. He mostly listened, found prayer topics and prayed for them. His approach bore fruits. It helped them to develop godly value system. They discovered and solved their life problems while they wrote and shared testimonies. Some students went further and became a full time staff member, or even a lay missionary. It was just one of the methods that he developed in order to raise students as Jesus' disciples. God used them to reach out many students and save them from their sins. Some church leaders, however, thought that some of his methods were outside the conventional methods of the church. They suspected his movement and even persecuted him. Samuel Lee withstood such criticism and kept his methods. He did so out of his love for college students and burning passion for helping them.

Despite his mercy, Jesus had never intended to abolish the law of God. In fact, his standard was higher than that of the Pharisees. The main difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was on the practice. The Pharisees condemned the sinners and never associated with them. On the other hand Jesus mingled with the sinners and helped them to be holy.