STUDY FOUR
For the message: “Getting Ickiness All Over Us” by Ken Pierce
March 4, 2012
Matthew 9:9-13
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.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (TNIV®)
Read Matthew 9:9-13 again.
- Jesus spoke first to one tax collector. What was the impact on the community from that conversation and Levi’s obedience?
- It seems clear that the Pharisees did not eat with the tax collectors or “sinners”. How had that impacted their understanding of the Scriptures?
- Putting yourself in the place of one of the disciples, what might you be feeling during these times?
Reflect on the question: In what community of “sinners” has God placed you, and what ways can you think of to share the presence of Christ with them?
