Mark 2: 13-17

There was a special hate reserved for tax collectors in the Roman Empire, particularly amongst the Jews.  Many of the nations and territories conquered by the Roman Empire accepted that life was actually better under the Roman Empire, some nations even surrendered voluntarily looking forward to the peace and protection that the Roman Empire offered.

For the most part, life as part of the Empire was pretty good. The expansion of the Empire led to improved roads and trade routes as Pax Romans (Roman Peace) spread throughout the Empire.  Sure being part of the Empire led to some sacrifices such as national autonomy and imposition of the Empire’s tax system.

Now taxing areas as large as the Roman Empire isn’t an easy task, and so the Empire contracted out the tax collecting responsibility to tax farmers.  Tax farmers would tender for different parts of the Empire and the Roman administration would offer the contract to the famer who promised the greatest return.  On top of what they promised the Empire the tax farmer was free to collect a percent for himself or herself.  The tax farmer similarly sub-contracted smaller areas to individual tax collectors.  Therefore the common people were being taxed three times – the national tax, plus the tax farmers’ commission, plus the tax collectors’ commission.  No wonder the tax collectors weren’t all that popular.

Now if you lived in an area that generally considered that life was better off under the Roman government, you may not have particularly liked the collection of tax, nor the individual tax collectors, but this may not have extended to violent hate.  Yet to the Jewish people, who greatly despised living under Roman rule, the tax was fervently opposed and the tax collectors were thought to be the worst of human kind.

So when Jesus, a so-called man of God, was seen eating lunch at Matthew’s, a tax collectors, house the accusations came thick and fast.  If Jesus were really a man of God, surely he would know the type of person he was breaking bread with.  See in Jewish culture to break bread, that is to share a meal, with a person is a significant event depicting friendship and close relationship. And here was Jesus eating with the worst kind of sinners, in the house of a tax collector.

And then Jesus responds, the anti-hero speaks up again.  “Don’t you get it – I didn’t come for you who think you are so righteous, I came for those who need me the most.  A doctor doesn’t spend all their time trying to heal those who are well, no a doctor is of most use to those who are sick.  I came not for the righteous but for sinners’

Jesus knew that unless people were willing to admit that they are sinners, that in fact they are in rebellion with God and are separated from him, then he was unable to save them.  Jesus had nothing to offer those who thought they were righteous, because they fully believed that through their own actions they would be saved.  It was those that knew that they were sinners who also knew how much they needed Jesus.

It is the same for us, until we admit how much we need Jesus, we will never be willing to fully follow him.

Now: Read Mark 2:13-17

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)