Pimps, Informants, and Tax Collectors
So, what’s so bad about tax collectors?
‘The tax situation in the first century was complex… The tax was collected for the government by the person who submitted the best bid. He would then hire out additional men to collect it. With the addition of middlemen came the potential for extra surcharges to be passed on to the taxed citizen. So the citizen would be taxed by the system of collection as well as by the state. There were generally three types of taxes: a citizen’s (or poll) tax, a land tax and a type of sales tax on items purchased or leased in a region. Tax collectors fell into public disfavor because of this system. The biblical phrase “tax collectors and sinners” shows just how far this disfavor went’ (Bock, 71).
‘They were extortionists. And, more than that: they were working for the Romans, or for Herod, and their necessary contact with Gentiles put them under political suspicion (collaborating with the enemy) and ritual exclusion (they might well be unclean)’ (Wright, 63).
‘toll collectors as a group were despised as snoops, corrupt, the social equivalent of pimps and informants’ (Green, 246)
So, tax collector = despised and excluded as a corrupt middleman extortionist (dishonest abuse of authority) collaborating with the heathen overlords and thereby being unclean to the community. Remember John the Baptist's words to them in Luke 3:12-13.
Once Again, Jesus Openly Associates with a Social Outcast
‘Again Jesus’ attention turns to a social outcast… Jesus initiates relationships with outcasts, even though pious people in Israel challenge such associations (7:36-50; 15:1-2; 19:1-10)… Jesus calls sinners to righteousness and to share in mission with him. Jesus does not merely forgive sinners, he openly associates with them’ (Bock, 107).
‘Levi’ – ‘Levi is a toll collector of lesser status than Zacchaeus, who is a chief tax collector’ (Bock, 107).
(By the banquet we’ll see he hosts, Levi was obviously doing alright financially with this set up.)
The Absolute Call and the Total Response
‘Follow me.’
Here is the first time in Luke we have Jesus’ call to his disciples in these simple and absolute terms. (But, of course, this is implied in the earlier scene with Peter, James, and John.)
‘Jesus broke into that world, as he broke into the leper’s sealed-off universe with a single touch, summoning Levi to leave his work and follow him’ (Wright, 64).
And like the previous ‘new recruits’, Levi ‘leaving everything… rose and followed him.’
‘Levi’s response is total—he got up, left everything and followed him. The instantaneous and comprehensive nature of the decision to join Jesus shows both the reputation Jesus has and the quality of an exemplary response to Jesus. Levi has put Jesus first. To follow him is a priority’ (Bock, 107-08).
Indeed, the priority.
‘Leaving everything’, as Levi’s banquet will show, doesn’t mean selling all his possessions, but sanctifying, making holy, devoted only to the Lord and his purposes, all that he is and has:
‘Luke observes that Levi has repented… reorienting his life completely around God’s purpose as manifest in Jesus’ mission’ (Green, 246).
In all of these calls to discipleship I’m sure there is much in the person’s life that leads up to this, both inward in their hearts as well as outward in terms of coming to know of Jesus’ reputation and mission.
But the dramatically stark quality of these accounts helps narratively strip down the action to a naked and bold revelation of what the call to discipleship really is and looks like at its core, in its essence. It is an absolutely clear picture of Jesus’ outcasts like himself, of course! The people he knew.
‘It’s significant that whene have again only in him, in his purpose and will and ways and mission, surrendered wholly to his radically good mastery.
Festive Discipleship
Such an absolute calling and total response is certainly intensely sober and serious. Yet, once the decision is made, it is simultaneously occasion for festivity!
For Levi, answering the call to become a disciple of Jesus is an occasion for feasting! Again, how often do we think of the gospel in this celebratory, festive, holiday, jubilant way? Total surrender to Jesus is an occasion of incomparable joy.
This was the kind of life decision and good news that naturally entailed calling up all of one’s friends and family and acquaintances to celebrate a feast in honour of the One who had called him to such a noble vocation.
This is the first of a number of home feasts in honour of Jesus and the this sort of festive celebration is one of Jesus’ central images of salvation in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 15; one of Luke’s unique contributions to the fourfold canonical portrait of Jesus).
Infectious Discipleship
Levi’s faith in Jesus is infectious. Nothing could make him happier than that people he knows meet this wonderful Rabbi who changed his life.
‘Such is often the case with recent converts to Jesus. Unchurched friends are often the first to hear about the new discovery. So it should be. The tragedy is that after people have been in the church for a time, they find it hard to relate to outsiders. Jesus does not suffer from this problem; he consciously makes an effort to associate with those outside his community. He does not run or hide from the world in need, but engages with it realistically so its real needs can be addressed. Often what wins an outsider to God is a genuine friendship. Despite Levi’s low social status, he feels free to associate with Jesus. Jesus’ invitation has made that clear’ (Bock, 108).
Sinners at the Feast of the Father’s Love
Levi throws a party, most of the others present are, like him, tax collectors. They had to befriend each other, since most ordinary folk wouldn’t have anything to do with them’ (Wright, 63-64).
Levi’s gifting in ‘evangelism’ is to host people having an encounter with Jesus. This hosting a meal in honour of Jesus is a large feature of the gospels and should probably feature in our evangelism today (see Craig Blomberg’s book Contagious Holiness: Jesus’ Meals with Sinners).
‘Why does Jesus associate with sinners when so many righteous people do not want to have anything to do with them? Many people think one must choose absolute separation if one is to remain pure, but for Jesus this is a false choice. Jesus views people in terms of what God could make them into, rather than pigeonholing them into who they currently are. There is no compromise with holiness in his relationships with sinners, because one of the very characteristics of God’s holiness is the way he reaches out in mercy to those in need (1:46-53). God graciously takes the sinner who is responsive to him and begins the work of transformation’ (Bock, 107, emphasis added).
(I would add that Jesus views people not only as what they can be made by Redemption, but also as what they were made by Creation – a very important point. Created in the image of God is first, then sinful fallenness, then redemption/new creation.)
Holy Mercy
Again, Jesus is showing us what God is like. Holy Mercy. (Or as John Wesley said, ‘Holy Love’.) This is deep. Very deep. One of the very entailments of God’s holiness is that he reaches out in mercy to those who are unholy! (Cf. 1:49-50.) This is an amazing God. To be feared, worshiped, adored, admired, loved, praised, trusted, obeyed.
To follow this Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus, will be to receive this holy mercy into our own outcast, sinful lives and then to join him in his mission to extend this holy mercy to all people. (God help us!)
Is Jesus Really Doing the Righteous and Holy Thing?
But this Rabbi and his school of discipleship, spreading holy mercy, is not a given then or now. To some religious people this does not look like the right and godly thing to do at all.
‘Pharisees and scribes’ again are aware of Jesus’ movements (were they there at the party?) and again they disapprove (they ‘grumbled at his disciples’ – ‘grumbled’ being the same Greek word used of the Israelites grumbling against God in Numbers 14:26-35 LXX).
‘Their commitment to purity, their sense of what God requires of them and their fear of risking exposure to the world cause them to shun outsiders and criticize those who try to relate in a healthy and engaging way to sinners. Table fellowship in the ancient world meant mutual acceptance. So at stake in the Pharisees and scribes’ response is a worldview question. Should we really get close to the socially objectionable, to people like tax collectors and sinners?’ (Bock, 108)
As with the paralytic man, Jesus is potentially doing the wrong thing here, misrepresenting God and his kingdom.
Carefully note this aspect of discipleship to Jesus: no sooner have these first people begun to follow Jesus than 1) they are known as his disciples and 2) they are grumbled at because of Jesus! (Cf. Luke 2:34-35.)
Contagious Holiness vs. Quarantine Holiness
Why indeed do Jesus and his disciples ‘eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Again, they are practicing ‘contagious holiness’ (rather than separatist holiness or ‘quarantine holiness’).
In Christ, we have been given a holy contagion to spread to the world through prolonged and constant contact. Like Jesus touching the leper, rather than being infected by worldliness, we infect the world with holiness.
There are, of course, balancing Scriptures that warn us not to compromise and join in the world’s idolatry as Israel did (e.g. 1 Corinthians 8-10), but these sorts of warnings are there precisely because God has sent his people on the mission of infecting the world with his holiness through intimate ongoing contact (cf. John 17:14-19).
Evangelism in its Most Authentic Form
‘Some are still uncomfortable with such an open ministry, but this is evangelism in its most authentic form. Jesus’ ministry is about compassion and grace. When Jesus proclaims God’s love, the outsider knows Jesus means it. Both his words and his actions show it. In his openness Jesus risks criticism and ridicule. But given that Jesus pursues such contacts with gusto, can his disciples do otherwise?’ (Bock, 109)
Pictures of the Sin-Disease
We have seen that the human condition is one of sinfulness (Peter), uncleanness (the leper), paralysis and unforgiven sin (the paralytic), and now we see in this same vein that we are sick in such a way that we are not righteous (not in right relation with God, and thus not with ourselves, each other, and our world; not living according to that right relation but against it in self-centred destructiveness rather than loving shalom; we are morally guilty of not keeping God’s good law).
Are You Healthy or Sick?
Jesus’ response to the religious leaders’ criticism sets things up starkly:
| ‘Those who are well’ (‘the righteous’) | ‘those who are sick’ (‘sinners’) |
| ‘have no need of a physician’ Jesus has not come to call these people to repentance. | ‘have… need of a physician’ Jesus has come to call these people to repentance. |
Just taking what Luke has shown us in this chapter, we see that ‘sinners’ are people who deeply feel and know that they are full of sin and would wish Someone truly pure and good in their presence to just go away and leave them alone because they are so unfit in their sinfulness (Peter); ‘sinners’ are ‘unclean’ and thereby unfit to participate in the pure and holy Community that is the Trinitarian God (the leper); ‘sinners’ are comprehensively paralysed in their sins, in their relationship to God (the paralytic); ‘sinners’ are traitors to God’s cause who ‘sold out’ and would never dream of him accepting or using them.
These are people who have no hope in themselves to get out of alienation and into friendship with God.
The Doctor Will See You Now
What does Jesus do for such sinners? Jesus raises sinners up and tells them not to be afraid because from now on they will join him in his redemptive work in the world.
Jesus compassionately reaches out and touches untouchable sinners, assures them that he is willing to make them clean, and purifies them and reintegrates them into God’s Community.
Jesus forgives sinners of their sins and makes them able to operate on every level again.
Jesus says to sinners in all their unlikeliness to be his disciples, ‘Follow me’ and becomes the centre of their festive celebration.
‘Jesus’ reply makes it clear that recovery, not quarantine, is the message of his ministry. Jesus pictures himself as a doctor who treats the sick, not the strong… Jesus’ point is that those who know they need help will respond to the Physician. Often the unrighteous are aware of their need, whereas the unrighteous “righteous” are not. The unrighteous need a breath of potential acceptance and a whiff of God’s grace to open up to his work’ (Bock, 108-09). (If you know you’re unrighteous, hear God’s grace extended to you in Jesus, come to him for healing.)
This is the nature of Jesus’ role as physician and the nature of the cure he works in otherwise hopeless sinners. This ‘is a mission statement that explains why he seeks the outsider’ (Bock, 109), like Luke 19:10.
(This aspect of the Gospel portrait of Jesus is one of many reasons why I find Jesus such an attractive character. He is altogether admirable and incomparable in both compassion and power. There really is no one in history like Jesus.)
What Does Repentance Look Like? Openness to Receiving God’s Medicine for Life
What is the call to ‘repentance’? (Cf. Luke 1:16-17; 3:3, 8.)
‘Repentance is a major Lukan theme, and only Luke mentions it in this scene… Here Jesus offers a picture of true repentance: it is like going to repentant heart is open to God and to his administering the necessary medicine for life. God graciously gives this medicine to those who seek forgiveness through him. Jesus sees opportunity for restoration for sinners and works to achieve relationship with them so they can experience the healing they need. When tax collectors and sinners come to the table in the clinic, Jesus, the Great Physician, is not about to turn them away. As in other events chronicled in Luke 4:31-5:32, Jesus reaches out to all types of needy people. All can benefit from the power of his healing presence’ (Bock, 109).
Are we willing to seek the doctor for help and take the medicine he administers to us? That is the question for each of us. Jesus is graciously among us (the unclean outcasts!), calling us to repentance. How will we respond?
The Kingdom of God According to Jesus: Anticipating the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
Whatever the religious leaders and the political powers may say, this is the kingdom of God Jesus is on a mission to usher in:
‘No longer are people to be placed in two categories, with no movement possible between them (except, of course, when a “righteous” person commits sin). The new age is breaking in, and this new age is the time of forgiveness. That’s what God had always promised. This is the new covenant spoken of by the prophets; forgiveness is here, walking down the street, and when people repent it is theirs. Never mind if it upsets the tidy classifications of the old system. This is a party – the first of many in Luke’s gospel – and like all Jesus’ parties it is a sign of the new age. It is, for those with eyes to see, a miniature messianic banquet’ (Wright, 64).
That is, our parties in honour of Jesus now are little anticipations of the great feast of Jesus and his Bride in the Eschaton, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-10).
Works Cited:
Darrell Bock, Luke
Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke
Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone
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