The meal that follows is equally important. Jesus eats with “tax collectors and sinners,” people considered morally and socially unclean in respectable society. In the ancient world, table fellowship carried deep political and social meaning: to share a table was to recognize someone’s humanity and worth. Jesus’ actions challenge systems that separate the pure from the impure, the righteous from the marginalized, and the powerful from the rejected. His ministry consistently moves toward those pushed to the edges of society.
Welcome Readers! Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here.
This is Part 2 of the series A Tax Collector, A Marginalized Woman, and A Sleeping Girl
(Read this series from its beginning here.)
The criticism about Jesus’ fellowship with the marginalized reveals a competing vision of holiness based primarily on separation. Jesus responds to it by quoting Hosea: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Mercy in this verse is not sentimental kindness. It is covenantal justice, faithful solidarity, and compassionate action that restores human dignity. Jesus teaches that true faithfulness to God cannot be separated from the way people are treated in society.
In the context of our justice work today, this passage challenges communities to examine who is excluded, demonized, or denied belonging. It also asks whether faith communities merely preserve respectability or actively participate in healing the socially, politically, economically, and even religiously wounded. Jesus does not ignore injustice. Neither does he abandon people to the identities oppressive systems assign to them. Instead, he creates a new community where transformation for those entangled in unjust systems, whether as oppressed, oppressor, or both, become possible together.
Matthew’s calling reminds readers that the gospel is not only about individual morality. It is about rebuilding human relationships and reshaping society according to compassion, liberation, and radical inclusion.
Next, we encounter the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Like the calling of Matthew, this story is also far more than a private miracle narrative. It is a profound confrontation with systems of exclusion, purity, power, and human dignity, and this brief encounter reveals Jesus standing in solidarity with a woman pushed to the margins of society.
According to the purity laws of the ancient world, a woman experiencing continual bleeding was considered ritually unclean. Her condition was not merely medical; it also carried devastating social, economic, and religious consequences. She would have been excluded from normal community life, likely isolated from worship, avoided in public, and treated as a source of contamination. Her suffering was therefore physical, economic, emotional, and spiritual. Matthew’s Gospel presents her not simply as sick but as socially displaced too.
What makes the story radical is that the woman acts with agency. In a culture where women often lacked public power, she pushes through the crowd and reaches for the fringe of Jesus’ cloak. Her movement toward Jesus is an act of courage and resistance against a system that had taught her she was untouchable. She refuses to accept exclusion as the final word over her life.
Equally important is Jesus’ response. Rather than rebuking her for violating purity expectations, Jesus publicly restores her dignity. He turns toward her, calls her “daughter,” and affirms her faith. This language matters. In a society that had defined her by impurity, Jesus redefines her by relationship and belonging. He does not treat her as a problem to remove, but as a person to honor.
In the context of justice, this story challenges religious and social systems that exclude vulnerable people in the name of order, purity, respectability, or tradition. Jesus consistently moves toward those whom society pushes away: the poor, the sick, women, foreigners, sinners, and the oppressed. The healing of the bleeding woman demonstrates that the kingdom of God is not built around protecting social boundaries, but around restoring human beings to fullness of life and community.
The story also speaks powerfully today. Many people still live at the edges of society because of illness, poverty, gender, disability, race, orientation, or stigma. The woman with the issue of blood reminds readers that justice is not merely charity or private compassion. Justice involves restoring dignity, breaking systems of exclusion, and creating communities where those once considered “unclean” or unwanted are fully welcomed and valued. Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus as one who transforms not only bodies but social realities as well.
Lastly, we read the story of Jairus’ daughter in our reading this week.
Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.
Sign up at HERE.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In