Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was going on down the road, he saw a tax collector, Matthew, the same who wrote this gospel, sitting at a tax collection booth. " Come be my disciple," Jesus said to him, Matthew jumped up and went along with him. Later, as Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner at [ Matthews house], there were many notorious swindlers  there a guests!  The Pharisees were indignant. Why does your teacher associate with men like that?  " Because people who are well don't need a doctor!
  It's the sick people who do!" was Jesus reply. then he added, " Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of scripture,  ' It isn't your sacrifices and your
                                            gifts I want- I want you to be merciful.
                                            For I have come to urge sinners,
                                            not the self righteous, back to God.
  Jesus said to them, " Can the friends of the bridegroom (Christ) morn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom (Christ) will be taken from them< and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on a old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and the tear is made worst. Nor do they put new wine into old wine skins or else the wine skins will break, the wine is spilled, and the wine skins are ruined. but, they put new wine into new wine skins. God's mercy doesn't run from suffering, but rather embraces and transforms it.
 Jesus call is to be committed to love even in the midst of suffering of others.When Jesus confronted the Pharisees it was not because of they weren't devout people who cared deeply about their relationship to God; It was that their devotion to God had separated them from the needs and suffering of others. They had become so  focused on righteousness that the distance themselves from those in need of mercy. Jesus call to mercy is the call to be vulnerable, to be open to receiving mercy
and to welcome God by welcoming suffering people into our lives.
  An African proverb puts it this way: " You cannot wipe another's tears away without getting wet yourself. Jesus comes to move the stones we can't budge. Stones are no match for God. Not then,  Not now. He still moves stones.