“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.”
Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. The go and learn is a teacher's challenge: study this text until you understand it. The citation from Hosea 6:6 — I desire mercy, not sacrifice — is the prophetic critique of religion that prioritizes ritual purity over compassionate engagement. Sacrifice is the religious practice; mercy is the orientation of the heart that the sacrifice is supposed to express. When the religious practice substitutes for the heart orientation, it becomes the problem rather than the solution. Jesus came not to call the righteous — those who are already within the system and consider themselves acceptable — but sinners, those outside the boundaries.
Church Fathers on Matthew 9:13
Having wrought this miracle, Christ would not abide in the same place, lest He should rouse the envy of the Jews. Let us also do thus, not obstinately opposing those who lay in wait for us. 'And as Jesus departed thence,' (namely from the place in which He had done this miracle,) 'he saw a man sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew by name.'
The other Evangelists from respect to Matthew have not called him by his common name, but say here, Levi, for he had both names. Matthew himself, according to that Solomon says, 'The righteous man accuses himself,' [Prov 18:17] calls himself both Matthew and Publican, to shew the readers that none need despair of salvation who turn to better things, seeing he from a Publican became an Apostle.
He says, 'sitting at the receipt of custom,' that is, in the place where the tolls were collected. He was named Telonarius, from a Greek word signifying taxes.