Saturday 28 February 2009

Background

Jesus mixes with tax collectors and eats with sinners. Why wasthat so questionable? What was wrong with tax collectors andsinners?

In the Gospels, tax collectors are seen as despised. It probablywasn't because they worked for the occupying Romans, because thisstory takes place in Galilee, where the Jewish King Herod ran thelocal tax collection. So the main reason was probably that theyused their position to line their own pockets, collecting more thanthey had to.

The description of a group of people as "sinners" is very vague.Who would these people have been? Probably it partly referred topeople who were seen as guilty of particular things such asdrunkenness or prostitution, and partly to others who could notkeep every part of religious ritual law because of theiroccupation. Many agricultural workers might have been in such aposition.

These people were not brought together by anything they shared incommon, but by the way they were seen by others. People with ASBOsmight be a kind of modern equivalent. In addition, table fellowshipwas important. Who you ate with was a mark of who you respected.The people you sat down and broke bread with should give anindication of those who were fellow travellers with you.

Jesus is questioned about his liaison with people such as Levi -the tax collector. His answer might seem straightforward. Doctorswouldn't do much good if they avoided sick people. The way to treattax collectors and sinners was not to avoid them, but to talk tothem, teach them and offer them healing.

If it is that straightforward then Jesus' attitude seems a littlecondescending. Knowing how fierce his criticism of the respectablePharisees could be (eg Luke7:36-50 and 11:37-54) is it notpossible that his words here are heavy with irony? Can therespectable, who are so ready to judge others, claim to be free ofthe sickness of sin, and have no need of repentance?

To Ponder

Are there people you would rather not eatalongside? Why do you feel that way?

If sin is like a sickness, then sinners should behelped rather than castigated. Is Jesus right to see sin in thisway?