I. The religion of the Pharisees had degenerated into a religion of hatred and contempt. There was scarcely a class which did not suffer from their fierce denunciations and supercilious disdain. The world was divided into Jew and Gentile, and on the vast mass of the Gentiles they looked as on a doomed race of no importance, as thorns to crackle in the flame, created apparently as a mere foil to the very great privileges of God's favourite, the Jew. The race of man was divided into men and women, and on women they looked with insolent disdain; carefully gathering up their robes as they entered the synagogue, lest they should so much as touch them. If this unholy scorn was the normal tone of the Pharisees towards the millions of Gentiles, of women, of Samaritans, may we not imagine the sort of feelings which they must have indulged towards the lowest members of those classes, towards those of whom they would have spoken as the "scum and froth" "the dregs and outcasts of society"? Now of these classes, two were especially abhorrent to them sordid renegades who were publicans, fallen women who were harlots. We can imagine the astonishment of angry reprobation which they must have thrown into the question, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?"
II. With the views and doctrines of the Pharisees contrast the life and words of Christ. While there was one class, and one class only, which Christ denounced, namely the Scribes and the Pharisees, He had for sinners only the call of tenderness; to sinners only was His especial mission; sinners were His especial care; it was the lost sheep over which the Good Shepherd yearned; it was for the wanderers that His heart seemed to burst with tenderness; it was upon the neck of the returning prodigal that the Father wept. He gathered the publicans to His discourses. He sat at their feasts. He chose a publican for His host. He nominated a publican to be His apostle.
III. So thought, so acted, the Saviour of the world. These facts are patent, fortunately, for every one to read. They are the magna chartafreely granted to humanity by the great love of God. They show that the Son of God, inflexible in His estimate of sin, was infinitely compassionate in His dealings with sinners. He tried to win men from sin by perfect love; promise, not menace; appeal, not threatening; comprehension, not exclusion; the sweetness of hope, not the denunciation of wrath, that was the secret of Jesus.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p 33.
References: Matthew 9:10. J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 352.Matthew 9:10; Matthew 9:11. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,4th series, p. 92.Matthew 9:12. C. Kingsley, The Water of Life,p. 291; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xi., No. 618; Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 124.Matthew 9:13. J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 301; H. W. Beecher, Sermons,2nd series, p. 77; Outline Sermons to Children,p. 117. Matthew 9:14-17. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 69. Matthew 9:14-19. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 78.