Matthew 9:13

My Notes

What Does Matthew 9:13 Mean?

Matthew 9:13 is Jesus quoting the Old Testament to demolish the Pharisees' complaint about His dinner companions: "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 — eleos thelō kai ou thysian — "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." The Pharisees have just criticized Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners (9:11). His response reframes the entire encounter: you think this meal violates God's standards. God's actual standard is mercy. Your sacrificial system is less important to God than your compassion for broken people.

"Go ye and learn" — poreuthentes de mathete — is a rabbinic phrase used when a student has fundamentally misunderstood the text. Jesus is telling trained religious scholars: you haven't done your homework. Go back and study. The teachers need to become students again.

"I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners" — ouk ēlthon kalesai dikaious alla hamartōlous. The righteous (or self-righteous) aren't His target audience. Sinners are. Jesus defines His mission by who He came for, and the answer is precisely the people the Pharisees would never eat with. The dinner table is the mission field. The sinners at the table are the reason He came.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you mastered religious compliance while neglecting mercy? What would it look like to reorder those priorities?
• 2.Jesus tells Bible experts to 'go and learn.' Is there a truth in Scripture you've been avoiding because it disrupts your religious system?
• 3.Jesus came for sinners, not the righteous. Do you identify more with the Pharisees (performing purity) or the tax collectors (needing mercy)?
• 4.Who are the people you've been avoiding that Jesus would be eating dinner with? What's keeping you from the table?

Devotional

Jesus tells the Bible experts to go study the Bible. That alone should make every religious professional uncomfortable.

The Pharisees know the sacrificial system inside and out. They can catalog every offering, every ritual, every rule of purity. And they've used that knowledge to build a wall between themselves and the people they consider unclean. Jesus says: you've mastered the wrong subject. The text you should have memorized is Hosea 6:6 — I desire mercy, not sacrifice. God wants compassion, not compliance. He wants you at the table with sinners, not performing purity at a distance.

"I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners." That sentence is the Pharisees' worst nightmare. Because it means Jesus' mission isn't aimed at them. They're not the target audience. The people they've been avoiding, excluding, looking down on — those are the people Jesus came for. The tax collectors at this dinner aren't contaminating Jesus. They're the reason He showed up.

If you've been building your faith on religious performance — on the sacrifices you offer, the rules you keep, the purity you maintain — Jesus' quote from Hosea cuts through all of it: mercy. That's what God wants. Not your impressive compliance. Your active compassion toward the people you've been avoiding.

And if you're the sinner at the table — the one who showed up knowing you don't belong in religious company, expecting judgment from every direction — Jesus says: you're exactly who I came for. I'm not here for the people who think they're righteous. I'm here for the ones who know they're not. Pull up a chair. The meal is for you.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture