MATTHEW 9:9-17

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

The Pharisees focus on the failures of the people, but Jesus sees their need. He calls Matthew, and Matthew responds the way a disciple of Jesus should: with no excuses but with immediate obedience.

But, why would Jesus mix with sinful people? He tells the Pharisees that their focus on appropriate religious structure and ritual is misplaced, and that God is interested in the disposition of people’s hearts, not simply outwardly “correct” actions: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”

And then Jesus gives a brief parable to get them to think in a new way—now that God has come among his people, the old ways of thinking will need to be cast aside. I like how R.T. France sums up what’s happening here:

“Following Jesus is not like ‘discipleship’ as it was experienced in other pious circles at the time. It is characterized, at least for the present, by joy rather than solemnity, by feasting rather than fasting, and the two graphic sayings of vv.16-17 [the parable about the wineskins] indicate a fundament incompatibility between the dry formality of existing religious traditions and an exuberant vitality in the Jesus circle which cannot be confined within conventional forms. To follow Jesus is to find life on a new level.” —R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew

“To follow Jesus is to find life on a new level.”