Tax Collectors and Sinners

Part 1

17^th November 2012

Matthew 9v9-13
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples.
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

The people really shouldn't have been surprised. In the previous story, which probably happened earlier the same day, some people had brought a paralysed man to Jesus and Jesus said "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven". Some scribes and Pharisees (Luke 5v21) were there. A scribe is a person who knows what the Bible says and thinks he knows what it means, but it's possible to know what the Bible says and not know what it means. And these scribes were in that state (I'm sad to say that I met some at Bible college). And a Pharisee is a person who thinks that paying scrupulous attention to the letter of the Law is all we need to have a right relationship with God (I'm sad to say that I've met some in church). If I may paraphrase a little, these scribes said "That's blasphemy. You can't say that" and Jesus replied "Oh yes I can, and I'll prove it". And he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home". And the man got up and went home.

The people in Capernaum should have seen then that Jesus had come for the purpose of forgiving sinners their sins. And the next thing we read is that Jesus went out, and he found a tax man called Matthew (also called Levi) sitting at his tax booth. And they had a chat (I'm sure they had more of a chat than is recorded in scripture). And at the end of the chat, Matthew got up, left tax collecting, and followed Jesus.

Tax collectors today may not be the most popular people on the planet, and I don't enjoy paying taxes any more than the next man, but tax collectors in Galilee in those days were utterly different. They were known as thieves, because many of them collected more tax than was appropriate, and pocketed the difference. Worse still, they were seen as traitors, because they were not collecting tax for the Jewish authorities, but for the occupying Roman Empire. Surely they were evil men! They really were sinners!

Perhaps the nearest equivalent in our society would be drug dealers. They're only interested in getting rich, they don't mind taking money from vulnerable people, they don't care about the rest of society, they don't care that they're making evil men rich, they don't care what harm comes to others, they just care about themselves.

But Jesus asked Matthew to be his follower. I think the people would have been genuinely shocked. They may have grasped the principle that Jesus could for give sins, but Matthew? A tax collector? How can Jesus have anything to do with a tax collector?

All this makes me think that, in our own society, and even in the church, we still retain the idea that some of us do, admittedly, sin a little bit, but we're still nice, respectable people, but some other people are "real" sinners. We think our sin is somehow acceptable sin, but their sin is unacceptable sin. "We go to church, we tithe, we pray, we sing worship songs, we don't commit adultery or murder, we're nice people. Our sin's not really a problem. It's their sin that's a problem."

And the Scribes and Pharisees and others were appalled that Jesus met and ate with "tax collectors and "sinners"", as if they (or we) could forget that we're sinners, too.

Matthew (presumably) had lived a life of selfishness, working for the hated occupying power, stealing from poor people to enlarge his own bank account. Matthew heard the words of Jesus and somehow knew that his sins were forgiven. And Matthew put it all behind him, gave up his lucrative if evil business, and began to follow Jesus. There is no sinner so far gone that the blood of Christ can't pay for his sin, and the love of Christ can't reach down and help him.

But there will always be people in society and, I fear, in church, who will refuse to accept that. You could call them "Scribes and Pharisees". If a bunch of drug dealers were in the front row at your church next Sunday, I expect some people in your church would be appalled. Some would probably not come back the following week, "Well if that's the sort of people they have in that church, I don't want to be there!".

But Jesus welcomed Matthew.