Matthew 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners? 12 Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. 13 But go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Those whom He made people of His heavenly kingdom were lepers (8:2-4), paralytics (8:5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-15), the demon-possessed (8:16, 28-32), those sick of all kinds of illnesses (8:16), the despised tax collectors, and sinners (9:9-11). Had He visited these pitiful people as a judge, all would have been condemned and rejected, and none would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom.
Rather, He came to minister as a physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save them, so that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth. The Lord's word here implies that the self-righteous Pharisees did not recognize their need of Him as a physician.
They considered themselves strong; hence, blinded by their own self-righteousness, they did not know that they were ill. The self-righteous Pharisees criticized the Lord Jesus and condemned all those unclean people. But the Lord seemed to say, “These people are not unclean; they are sick.
I have not come as a judge to condemn them, but as a physician, as their dear, lovely, intimate healer.” As the Lord Jesus was speaking these words, He was surely indicating that the Pharisees, who thought they were righteous, were actually just as sick as the others were.