Short answer: Matthew appears in Matthew 9:9–13 as a man sitting at a tax collection office, a tax collector by trade, whom Jesus called with two words: follow me. He got up and followed, then hosted a meal where many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees questioned the company, Jesus answered that the sick need a physician and that he came to call sinners, not the righteous. The passage identifies Matthew less through background details than through his response to the call and the people he gathered around the table.
A call at the tax office and a table full of sinners
Matthew 9:9–13 opens at a tax collection office, of all places. Jesus passes by, sees a man named Matthew at that booth, and says two words: "Follow me." Matthew gets up and follows. The scene then shifts without a pause to a house, where Jesus is reclining at table and many tax collectors and sinners arrive and join him and his disciples. Luke's Gospel fills in that Matthew leaves everything and hosts the meal, but Matthew tells it sparely. The shape is deliberate: a command, a response, a table, a question, an answer. The setting itself carries the argument, because a shared meal in that world was a public statement about who belonged together.
The placement matters. Just before this, Jesus forgave a paralyzed man's sins and healed him, and the crowds responded by glorifying God for giving such authority to men (9:8). That word authority hangs over the next scene. Who has the right to summon a tax collector into discipleship? Who has the right to eat with him? The Pharisees direct their question not to Jesus but to his disciples: why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners (9:11). Their objection is about holiness and separation, and they read the table as a challenge to it. Matthew's Gospel consistently presents Jesus as fulfilling Israel's Scriptures, and what follows is framed by that scriptural backdrop.
Jesus answers in two movements. First a proverb: the sick need a physician, not the healthy (9:12). Then a command to go and learn what the Scripture means, that God desires mercy and not sacrifice, because he came not to call the righteous but sinners (9:13). The quotation is not decoration; it tells the critics where to look. Notice what Jesus does not do. He does not deny that sin is sin, and he does not promise that every table will end in peace. The welcome he extends is the welcome of a physician to the sick. Immediately after, John's disciples ask about fasting, and Jesus answers with the bridegroom image (9:14–15), so the sequence presses one point: something new is present, and old patterns cannot contain it.
The tax office, the table, and the physician
Matthew 9:9 names the setting with unusual precision: Jesus sees a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. That detail does more than locate the story. It identifies Matthew with a trade that gathered money under Roman authority, a trade widely resented and treated as disloyal. The text does not soften this. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” Matthew gets up and follows. The call comes first; the obedience follows. Matthew 9:10 then moves the scene to a house, where many tax collectors and sinners sit down with Jesus and his disciples. The word sinners is the critics' label for people whose way of life put them outside respectable religious company, and the passage reports it without apology.
The Pharisees direct their question at the disciples rather than at Jesus: why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus hears it and answers with a physician image. Healthy people have no need of a doctor, but the sick do. The point is not that everyone at the table is gravely ill while the critics are well. The point is that Jesus' presence among them fits his purpose. He then sends the critics to Scripture: go and learn what this means, that God desires mercy and not sacrifice. That line turns their question back on them as a lesson still to be learned, not a debate to be won. Mercy, not religious performance, is what God is after.
This passage shows Jesus calling a despised man and then sitting at table with his friends. It does not promise that every meal, every friendship, or every church conversation will go smoothly. The Pharisees' question is real, and Jesus answers it with correction rather than accommodation. Nor does the text tell us to place ourselves in unsafe or unwise situations in the name of welcome. What it does show is a Savior who knows why he has come: not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Grace comes first in the call itself, and repentance is the response it produces. The passage leaves us with a question worth asking: have we learned the mercy it commands, or only the sacrifice we prefer?
A tax collector gets up and follows
Matthew enters his own Gospel without a biography. Jesus passes by the tax collection office, sees a man named Matthew sitting there, and says two words: follow me. Matthew 9:9 records the whole response: he got up and followed him. The setting matters. A tax collector worked for the occupying power and handled other people's money, and the passage simply places Matthew at that desk before it places him on the road behind Jesus. Who was Matthew? Here he is defined by where he was sitting and by what he did when called. The call comes first, and the obedience follows immediately.
The next scene explains why the company at Matthew's table matters. Jesus sits in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners come and sit down with him and his disciples. The Pharisees do not ask Jesus directly. They ask his disciples why their teacher eats with such people. Jesus answers with a picture: the healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. Then he sends his critics to learn what God meant by desiring mercy and not sacrifice, and says he came to call sinners, not the righteous. The meal is deliberate. Jesus knows who is at the table and says plainly why he is there.
This scene follows the healing of the paralyzed man, where the crowds marveled and glorified God for giving such authority to men. The question of authority carries straight into the dinner: who may call a tax collector, and who may eat with sinners? Matthew's Gospel keeps showing Jesus fulfilling Israel's Scriptures, and the quotation about mercy belongs to that backdrop. Right after this, John's disciples ask why Jesus' disciples do not fast, and he answers with the bridegroom present among his friends. Something new has arrived that old patterns cannot hold. That is a claim about Jesus, not a promise that every table leads to peace; wisdom still matters in where and how we share our lives.
The passage does not promise that every welcome will be received well or that every relationship will turn out smoothly. Jesus' own table drew opposition. What the text does claim is that he came for sinners, and that he says so out loud.
Where readers disagree about Jesus at the table
Careful readers part ways over how far this scene should shape the church's own welcome. Some see a pattern here for receiving people whose lives are visibly disordered, and they point to the plain fact that Jesus sat down with tax collectors and sinners. Others answer that these meals were his own messianic initiative, a sign of who he was and why he came, and that the passage hands the church no policy about membership or table practice. Both readings can be held honestly. What the text does not do is command a specific arrangement for every congregation, and it does not promise that every relationship formed around a table will turn out smoothly.
A second disagreement concerns the quotation Jesus presses on his critics. He tells them to go and learn what God means by desiring mercy rather than sacrifice, and readers differ on how wide that principle stretches. Some hear mainly a rebuke of religious externalism, of people careful about sacrifice while careless about compassion. Others hear a broader scriptural claim about what God has always valued. The verse is a summons to learn, not a slogan that settles every debate. What stays central is that Jesus said plainly he came to call sinners, and that his critics were sent back to the Scriptures to reconsider what God desires.
The passage also sets its own limits, and honest readers should notice them. It records Jesus defending his mission, not legislating rules for every social gathering. It never says the sinners at his table were already reformed, and it never suggests that welcome replaces repentance, since Jesus names repentance as the purpose of his call. That keeps the scene from becoming a promise that every relational or church outcome will be easy, and it keeps anyone from using it to press a person toward unwise or unsafe situations. Grace comes first in Christ, and our response is to learn mercy without pretending the text says more than it does.
The call comes first, and the meal shows why
Notice who moves first in this scene. Jesus is passing by the tax office, he sees Matthew, and he speaks the call before Matthew does anything. Matthew 9:9 records it plainly: the initiative belongs to Jesus. Matthew gets up and follows, and that is the response, not the cause. The same pattern holds two verses later, when Jesus hears the Pharisees' question and answers it himself, defending the table he chose to sit at. Grace arrives before anything in us deserves it, and following comes after. That order matters for anyone who assumes they must clean themselves up before Christ would want them.
Jesus then says what he came to do, and he says it in his own words rather than leaving us to guess. The physician image is pointed: the healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. He is not flattering the tax collectors by calling them well. He is saying that knowing you are sick is the door. Then he sends the Pharisees to learn a line from the prophets about mercy rather than sacrifice, and he states his mission directly, that he came to call sinners to repentance. This is purpose, not a slogan. Christ knows whom he has come for, and he says so while the criticism is still in the air.
The bridegroom saying that follows in 9:15 belongs with this. Jesus compares his presence to a wedding, a time when mourning would be out of place, and he adds that days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away. So the joy at Matthew's table is real but not permanent in that form, and it points past itself to his departure and to what his people will wait through. The passage does not promise that every meal goes well or that every welcome settles every relationship. It shows Christ taking the first step, naming his mission, and gathering sinners to himself, and it leaves us to follow him rather than presume on him.
What faithful response looks like in ordinary life
Matthew's response to the call is immediate and public. Jesus finds him at the tax collection office, a place that marked him as a collaborator and an outsider, and says only, “Follow me.” Matthew gets up and follows, then opens his house so that Jesus sits at table with many tax collectors and sinners. He does not first tidy his reputation or wait until the company is respectable. The past is not rewritten; it is simply left behind at the office. Faithful response in ordinary life often looks like that: prompt obedience, honest about where Christ found us, without pretending the story was something else.
The Pharisees ask the disciples why their teacher eats with such people. Jesus answers that the sick need a physician, not the healthy, and sends them to learn what mercy means rather than sacrifice. That question lands on us. It is easy to assume we are the healthy ones who need nothing, and easy to keep our tables safe by filling them only with people like us. Honest self-examination is part of following him. Yet this is a wisdom principle about mercy, not a promise that every meal or friendship will end smoothly, and no one should be pushed toward situations that are unwise or unsafe.
Grace comes first here. Jesus calls Matthew before he is respectable, and the obedience that follows rests on mercy already shown. The passage promises no particular outcome in this life: no guaranteed acceptance by others, no immunity from criticism, no assurance that the house will stay peaceful. Jesus himself was questioned at that table. What it does show is that Christ calls sinners and eats with them, and that those who know they need a physician can get up and follow, trusting his mercy rather than their own standing.
Biblical fidelity check
Matthew 9:9–13 is read carefully by watching the sequence and the labels. The passage names Matthew as a man sitting at the tax collection office, then moves to a table where tax collectors and sinners sit with Jesus. The word sinners is the critics' label, not a softening description, and the text never says those at the table had reformed. The interpretive risk is turning Jesus' defense of his own mission into a rule for every gathering, or assuming the meal itself changed anyone. The physician image explains his presence, not a program.
Readers genuinely differ on how far Jesus' table fellowship models the church's welcome and membership, and on whether the mercy and sacrifice quotation mainly rebukes religious externalism or states a broader scriptural priority. The text sets limits: it records Jesus answering critics about his own mission, not a church policy, and it does not claim the sinners were already reformed. What stays central is that Jesus came to call sinners, said so plainly, and told his critics to go and learn what God desires. Grace precedes the response he calls for.
Related studies for Matthew 9:9-13
Trace how Jesus keeps crossing boundaries of reputation and religion by reading Matthew 1: Genealogy and Birth of Jesus and Matthew 10: Jesus Sends the Twelve with Authority alongside this scene, then compare the call accounts in Matthew 12: Lord of the Sabbath and Sign of Jonah and the table practice of the early church in Matthew 13: Parables of the Kingdom.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of work did Matthew do before he left it to follow Jesus?
Matthew worked as a tax collector, sitting at the tax collection office when Jesus passed by and called him to follow (9:9). His job placed him among the tax collectors and sinners who later sat at table with Jesus and his disciples (9:10). The Pharisees objected to that company, asking why a teacher would eat with such people (9:11). Jesus answered that the sick need a physician, not the healthy, and that he came to call sinners (9:12–13).
Why did Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners because he came as a physician for the sick, not for those who think they are well. When the Pharisees questioned his table companions, he answered that his mission was to call sinners, not the righteous, and he pointed them to God's desire for mercy rather than sacrifice. Matthew had just left the tax office to follow him, and the meal showed what that call meant in practice.
What does Jesus mean when he says "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice"?
Jesus is telling the Pharisees that God values compassion toward people above religious ritual performed correctly. He quotes a line from the prophets and applies it to the meal they are criticizing, where he sits with tax collectors and sinners rather than keeping them at a distance. The saying does not cancel sacrifice; it exposes a heart that keeps the rules while withholding mercy. In 9:13 Jesus pairs it with his mission, which is to call sinners, not the self-satisfied.
