Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday after Pentecost

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:9–13)

The name “publican” comes from the life of those who abandoned the works of the Law and preferred to comport themselves according to common and public practice. Thus it is from his house, that is, from the sins of the body, that the Lord called Matthew in order to enter his mind and recline at its “table.” This is the self-same writer of this Gospel, and, upon leaving the home of his sin, he accepted the Lord, who illuminated his innermost dwelling place. In this place, a dinner is richly prepared from the food of the Gospel for sinners and publicans. It was then that a spirit of jealousy agitated the Jews because of the Lord’s communion with sinners and publicans. He unveiled their talk about keeping the Law as but veiled coverings for unfaithfulness, showing that He was bringing aid for them because they were sick, and was providing medicine for them because they needed it, though they thought they were healthy and in no need of treatment. But so that they would understand that none of them were healthy, he warned them to learn what is meant: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” In other words, He means that because the Law is bound up with offering sacrifices it is not able to be of help. Salvation for all people is preserved through the gift of mercy.

If He had come for all people, why then did He say that He had not come for the righteous? Was it not necessary that He should come for those that were there? But no one is made righteous by the Law. He shows that it is a worthless display of justice, although mercy was necessary for all those who, placed under the Law, offered feeble sacrifices for salvation. In fact, if justice had come from the Law, forgiveness through grace would not have been necessary.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 9.2