Verse 10-13

Verse 10: “And as they were reclining in a house, many publicans and sinners came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples.”

In the Gospel of Luke, it specifically says it is the home of “Levi”. Here, a Jew (our Lord) is eating with excommunicated tax-collector and his likewise friends. The Pharisees were really infuriated. According to them, sometime before, “the One” who blasphemed by saying “your sins are forgiven”, is now breaking the social rules, too. Not only for the Pharisees, but even for many of us this is not known – that the most important thing is not to avoid the sinner but work with them and make them righteous. 

Verse 11: “And when the Pharisees saw [it] they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your Rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’”

The question was for two things: 1) Their fanatism and faulty understanding 2) They want to convince the disciples that what their Lord is doing is a grave sin. Since the Pharisees do not step into the home of a tax-collector, they probably asked it outside the home.

Verse 12: “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick’” 

Lord’s words here were against the Pharisees who prided themselves as perfect or “healthy”. But what He says is a universal truth. Without reaching out to a sick, healing is not possible. Apostle Paul says that rather than general speeches, to win over the soul, advice and being a role-model is more useful.

Verse 13: “’Go and learn what that is: I require compassion, and not a sacrifice! For I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinful.’”

Our Lord quotes Hosea 6:6. The Pharisees and Scribes were quite learned people. But Lord is asking them to go and study more. What they thought about themselves:
1. They are righteous. They have no accountability to take away someone’s sinful life. 
2. Their duty is to make laws and implement it with iron-fist; to censure and judge those who do break the law.
3. If they don’t help in anyway, by being steadfast in the rituals, they believed that everything is complete .

But Lord taught them that the most important things are brotherhood, mercy, and fulfillment of the responsibilities to God and other humans.
“For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”

This verse is important about the uniqueness of our Lord. In the Hindu religious book Geetha, it says “save the righteousness and annihilate the unrighteousness”. But Lord said that He came to call the unrighteousness and not righteousness. This call of the Lord is going on until today. Are we listening?
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