Each day we must learn to have mercy with others, just as the Lord is merciful to us. If He being God has mercy on us, then why should not we do the same with the others?
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Matthew 9:11
The first thing is, a person does not go to the doctor unless he feels sick, now, when a person goes to the doctor it is because he is sick. Jesus sat with sinners and publicans, because these were the ones who needed divine healing.
When the Pharisees saw these actions of Jesus, they got angry, they felt bad, because the Master was sitting among sinners, but what they did not understand was that Jesus was with them because they needed Him.
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick
Matthew 9:12
How can we explain how those people were healed? Some were perhaps physically ill, others were spiritually sick, so they needed to be healed and saved.
For this reason Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that the healthy have no need of healing, giving them to understand that those who were surrounding Jesus at that time, were those who needed to be healed.
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:13
The scribes and Pharisees were always ready to criticize and make sacrifices before men for their vainglory, that is why Jesus tells them that instead of destroying those who needed the word of life, they should show mercy to their neighbor.
