This account, of the calling of Levi or Matthew, provides one of our clearest glimpses into the character of Jesus. And it’s a very impressive one.
Levi or Matthew is himself a tax collector — not the most highly esteemed profession then or now, perhaps, but infinitely worse then. And Jesus is portrayed as dining with a whole group of “tax collectors and sinners.”
When he’s rebuked for the society he keeps, though, he points out that, as a physician of souls, he necessarily goes to those who are sick, not to those who are well.
But well, of course, may be ironic here. In fact, it probably is. For, while the sins of the “sinners” are obvious — and let’s not fall into the error of simply calling them “sins”; they’re not imaginary, and neither Jesus nor the gospel writers were relativists — the sins of the “righteous” in this story are no less real. They’re just less easily apparent. Self-righteousness is plainly among them, as are arrogant self-satisfaction, a distinct lack of charity, and a sense of self-reliance rather than dependence on God.
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