There are no righteous people who may disregard Jesus’ call to repentance. Jesus’ reference to the righteous is ironic, speaking of those who think that they themselves are righteous (see Luke 18:9) and able to attain salvation by means of the law, yet have forgotten the weightiest matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). Jesus contrasts them not with sinners as such, but rather with those sinners who, knowing their own sin, heed Christ’s call. Jesus came not to call or invite (kalein, see also Matthew 22:3) those who see themselves as righteous, but to call those who did not trust in their own righteousness.
No, when Jesus refers to the righteous
here in Matthew 9:13, he refers to those who are under the illusion that they themselves are righteous (see Luke 18:9) and able to attain salvation by means of the law, yet in the process forgot the weightiest matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). Jesus contrasts them not with sinners as such, but rather with those sinners who, knowing their own sin, heed Christ’s call.1
Here in Matthew 9:13 Jesus points the Pharisees to the Old Testament before noting that he did not come to call or invite (kalein, see also Matthew 22:3) those who regard themselves as righteous but sinners (Matthew 9:12). Those who are self-righteous cannot embrace him and as such he passes them by.2
Jesus here rhetorically draws attention to the self-conception of the Pharisees as a means of rebuking them. The Pharisees closely studied the Scriptures, yet the Scriptural principles outlined here by Jesus were things they were still fully ignorant of.3.
13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”