I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Jesus said this while being criticized by the Pharisees and teachers of the law — the religious experts of his day — who were scandalized that he was eating and socializing with tax collectors and people labeled as sinners. Tax collectors in first-century Israel were widely despised; many worked for the Roman occupying government and were known for collecting more than was owed and pocketing the difference. The 'righteous' Jesus refers to may carry a note of irony — he isn't necessarily agreeing that those people are actually righteous, but responding to how they see themselves. His point is that his entire mission is directed toward people who know they need help.
Jesus, thank you for coming toward me before I had anything figured out. Help me to receive that grace fully and then pass it on freely — especially to the people I'm most tempted to write off. Remind me daily that I'm not the one who decides who belongs. You are. Amen.
There's a moment in almost every person's faith story where something clicks: I qualify. Not because they finally got good enough, but because they stopped pretending they were. Jesus isn't here recruiting the polished résumé — he's here for the honest admission. The dinner party he crashes in this passage isn't a respectable gathering; it's a celebration at a tax collector's house, full of people the religious establishment had already written off. And Jesus isn't standing at the edge looking uncomfortable. He's at the table, present, relaxed, clearly at home. It's worth asking which character in this story you're tempted to be. The one reclining at the table with Jesus, quietly relieved to be included? Or the one standing outside with arms crossed, offended that Jesus seems so comfortable with people you've already judged? Because the hardest thing about grace is often not accepting it for yourself — it's watching it get handed to someone you've decided doesn't deserve it. Jesus came for sinners. The question isn't whether you're glad he came for you. It's whether you're genuinely glad he came for them.
Who were the 'tax collectors and sinners' in this story, and why did Jesus eating with them provoke such a strong reaction from the religious leaders?
Have you ever felt too far gone, too broken, or too much of an outsider to belong in a faith community? How does this verse speak to that feeling?
Jesus says he came to call sinners — does that make the idea of earning or deserving God's acceptance completely meaningless? What does that do to how you think about faith?
Is there a person or type of person you find it genuinely difficult to imagine Jesus welcoming? What does your honest answer reveal about you?
What would it look like to open your table — literally or figuratively — to someone your community tends to overlook, avoid, or quietly exclude?
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
1 Timothy 1:16
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 4:17
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10
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.
Matthew 9:13
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Luke 15:10
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luke 15:7
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Mark 2:17
I did not come to call the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to repent], but sinners to repentance [to change their old way of thinking, to turn from sin and to seek God and His righteousness]."
AMP
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
ESV
'I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.'
NASB
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
NIV
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
NKJV
I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
NLT
I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."
MSG