Jan 18 2019 Mark 2: 13-11

When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, 'Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?

And today, we join Mark’s whirlwind narrative of Jesus’ ministry as Jesus called Levi the tax collector. Just to clarify, Levi is the Hebrew version of Matthew, which is Greek. This is the narrative of how Matthew was called and joined Jesus.

Matthew was a tax collector; he was a Jew employed by the Romans to collect exorbitant taxes on his fellow occupied Jews. Tax collectors were not only doing dirty deeds for the Romans, which was bad enough, but they were also known for taking more than they were supposed to, and pocketing the difference. Their employers, the Romans, didn’t care – as long as Rome got what was coming to them.

Matthew was a person who was like the opposite of Robin Hood – taking from the poor and giving to the rich, reveling in his position of corrupted power. Jesus comes to dinner at Matthew’s house, and is dining with his disciples, other sinners and tax collectors.

If we were to fast forward this caricature to modern day, mightn’t modern day wealthy conservative politicians fit the bill of the tax collectors of Jesus’ time? People, who started as equals, but some ended up authorized to tax people who were poorer for the benefit of those in power? To be as clear as I can, couldn’t we agree that our current federal administration could be likened to Matthew and his fellow tax collectors?

And if that’s the case, it seems to me a little damning to the argument of modern day political ranters. Jesus came to dine with not the saved, but the sinners. As Jesus says later in this section, “Those who are well have no need of a physician… I have come to call not the righteous but the sinners.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that the ways of the historical or modern day tax collectors are good or enviable or defensible. But I do feel a little convicted by the Gospel, when I hear people rail against the ungodliness of the modern day tax collectors. Especially when I think about the fact that Matthew is specifically called out as one of Jesus’ original disciples. And Jesus called HIM to follow. Jesus came to save him, not the righteous. I’m guessing that was as hard to swallow for Matthew’s poor conquered peers as it is for us now.