Friend of tax-collectors & sinners? Matthew 9: 9-13
With thanks to Susan Durber for the "church meeting minutes from the early church" in this sermon! When I was growing up in Merthyr we had lovely next door neighbours: Ed & Elma Evans. They made us very welcome when we moved in, had children about the same ages as us lot, and the 2 grandads used to enjoy talking over the wall. So I was baffled to find so many references in the New testament to what a bad person the gentle dad next door, Ed, was – because he worked in the tax office – he was a tax-collector. There it is in our gospel reading today – the Pharisees ask Jesus’ disciples “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”. As I grew up, I realised that the tax-collectors of the time of Jesus and the tax-collectors of today are very different. Tax, in Jesus time, was not the money everyone paid to help society run better – it was a charge laid by the Roman authorities on the people of the lan...