10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13

The religious rulers disapproved of Jesus’ friends and company. They obviously would have never come close to touching these tax collectors and sinners let alone dining with them.

Jesus, of course, had the perfect answer, something they could not refute.

But He leaves them with this, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”

He leaves us with those words too.

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”