This chapter develops Matthew's account of the hostility which the Pharisees,, showed towards Jesus and his disciples. Following the calling of Matthew, Jesus and his disciples are invited to eat in the house and "many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples". The Pharisees in all three synoptic gospels ask the disciples why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners and the question is either relayed back to Jesus or he overhears it.
Verses 12–13
Jesus' reply in [|verses 12–13] comes in three parts:
a saying, "healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do"
a reproof made by appealing to "a passage of Scripture with which they ought to have been acquainted: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice"
a summary of his mission - "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners ".
The words to repentance are "of doubtful authority here, and more than doubtful authority in Mark 2:17; but in Luke 5:32 they are undisputed".
Fasting
Verse 14 aligns both the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees in the practice of regular fasting, and contrasts this with the practice of Jesus' disciples, who appear not to fast. In Matthew's gospel it is John's disciples who ask the question, for themselves and for the Pharisees, about why Jesus' disciples do not fast. In Mark's gospel, the question is in some interpretations asked by apparently impartial observers - "some people came and asked Jesus...".
Raising of Jairus' Daughter and Healing of the Bleeding Woman
In the Gospel of Luke, the miracles follow the exorcism at Gerasa. Back in Galilee, Jairus, a patron or ruler of a Galilee synagogue, had asked Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter, who was dying. As they were travelling to Jairus' house, a sick woman in the crowd touched the border of Jesus' cloak and was healed of her sickness. Jairus' daughter was then reported as having died, and Jairus was therefore advised not to trouble Jesus, 'the teacher', any further. Jesus, however, continued to the house, stating that the girl was not dead but asleep, and restored her to health. The chapter ends with Jesus' mandate that Jairus and his wife should tell no-one what had happened.
Tzitzit
Matthew's accounts specify that the bleeding woman touched the "fringe" of his cloak, using a Greek word kraspedon which also appears in Mark 6. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on fringes in scripture, the Pharisees, who were the progenitors of modern Rabbinic Judaism, were in the habit of wearing extra-long fringes or tassels, a reference to the formative çîçîth. Because of the Pharisees' authority, people regarded the fringe with a mystical quality.
Jesus' compassion
The chapter concludes with a summary of Jesus' ministry "in all the cities and villages". When he saw the crowds he was moved with compassion for them, seeing the crowds as "sheep without a shepherd". According to the Westcott-HortGreek New Testament, the crowds were, in ἐσκυλμένοι καὶ ἐριμμένοι, eskylmenoi and erimmenoi, but in the Textus Receptus the first adjective here is ἐκλελυμένοι, eklelymenoi. According to Bengel's Gnomon, "the reading ἐκλελυμένοι is clearly deficient in authority". English translations vary widely in how they translate these two adjectives:
Version
ἐσκυλμένοι
ἐριμμένοι
ASV
distressed
scattered
ERV
worried
helpless
ISV
troubled
helpless
KJV
fainted
scattered abroad
NET
bewildered
helpless
NIV
harassed
helpless
NKJV
weary
scattered
The portrayal of "sheep without a shepherd" reflects Moses' prayer for God to appoint a leader to succeed him after his death during the Israelites' Exodus journey: Jesus' ministry of curing "every disease and every sickness" is matched identically in the authority he gives his twelve disciples in to cure "every disease and every sickness".
