During the time of Jesus, very few were hated more than the tax collectors. This hate stems from two things: one, tax collectors often resorted to extortion in order to gain profit. Two, they were considered traitors to their people because they are collecting taxes for the enemy, the Romans.
In this Sunday’s gospel however, Jesus chose to call Matthew, a hated tax collector, to become His disciple. The significance of Jesus’ choice is made further evident when one considers that very few people mentioned in the gospels are specifically named by the gospel writers. Jesus’ choice of Matthew the tax collector leaves no room for doubt that Jesus wanted to raise a point.
But Jesus raised no less than a scandal in making that point. He later shared a meal with Matthew and his friends, who unsurprisingly were like Matthew himself: tax collectors. For the self-righteous Pharisees, this was intolerable and, in fact, scandalous because Jesus was considered a religious teacher.
In Jesus’ time and more so under Judaism, sharing a meal signifies a participation in the host’s “benediction” at the start of the meal; and so, it means an association before God. In the eyes of the self-righteous Pharisees, Jesus was associating himself before God with the enemies of God. Tax collectors are sinners in their eyes and all sinners are God’s enemies.
Sinners, especially the worst ones, are the preferred people who are called to be disciples. Of course, this is not to say that one must sin, to become a disciple. It is to say that self-righteousness has no place in Jesus’ disciple. When we begin to think that we are closer to God than the other person, then we become closer to the Pharisees.
Application Questions:
Among those we encounter in our everyday life, who do we consider as self-centered, difficult, or sinful? What is my attitude towards people them?
By Mike Gan (May 31, 2008)
