Luke 15:1-32

Tax collectors and sinners… The very first verse of chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel, our reading today, tells us we’re going to talk about tax collectors and sinners. Who are THESE people? How’d they come to be tax collectors and sinners? Who’s to blame for their plight? And, what are we, as God’s caring people, supposed to do about them?

So, let’s get right at it… Tax collectors… I can’t imagine any good Jewish kid of the day waking up one morning and deciding that he wanted to grow up and be a tax collector. Being a tax collector was a terrible job that essentially required that you rip off and exploit friends, neighbours, and relatives by spying on them to know what they “really” owned and earned (vs what they tried to get away declaring) so that you then could collect not only the full tax owed but also whatever bribes the market might bear – a few shekels for overlooking this or that asset... money to the tax collector in lieu of taxes…a bribe to buy a few more weeks to try and pay off your debts before being thrown in the poor house… a little lea way before your children would be seized and sold into slavery to cover off your back taxes…. Nobody liked tax collectors… Nobody dared be seen by their neighbours talking to them…. Tax collectors were feared and shunned- excluded from social gatherings, denied place in church or society… Nobody WANTED to be a tax collector: and so, most often, the job fell to the desperate and destitute- perhaps a landless peasant whose farm failed during the most recent drought who now finds himself in the city and, along with thousands of others, unable to feed their family… or perhaps someone with debts owed to Caesar- who, unable to pay, is coerced into working off their debts on pain of execution… or perhaps a bully- a social misfit who seeks to build up their own ego by tearing down the lives of others… or some soul sold out to the God mammon… the lost and the lonely- tax collectors.

Tax collectors and…who else is today’s reading about? …Sinners! Really? Sinners? …Ya but, you’ve got to know that, in Jesus’ day, there were sinners and there were SINNERS. In verse 2 of the reading, we’re alerted to the context of Scribes and Pharisees on deck and, right away, we need to know that a lot of people that THEY’D call sinners really weren’t bad sorts at all… We’ve talked before about how the temple authorities, in Jesus’ day, multiplied the transgressions, or at least what they chose to define as, at least technical transgressions, in order that they could collect more and more ever-increasing “fines.” They would have “sanctified” their extortion talking about “sacrifices” and “offerings” and “penances” for sin, gifts of appreciative Thanksgiving given to the priest who “certified them” as clean or forgiven or disease free and entitled to return to home and family and church and society… Corruption at the temple- profiteering that allowed the temple authorities to get hold of enough money to pay off their political masters so they could keep their cushy jobs and all the entitlements of their exalted offices… Half the people they called “sinners” were no more evil than you or I…VICTIMS would be a better descriptor: but calling them “sinners’ was a great tactic because, in theory at least, that label clicked on a dose of social “shunning” that upped the anti and pressured “sinners” hopefully (the Scribes and Pharisees thought) making them frantic to find enough money to be “forgiven” and freed of such label.

The Pharisees, in verse 2 of today’s reading, are frustrated, alarmed, down right furious because Jesus, by his teaching and actions, threatens to undermine their profitable business. By welcoming tax collectors and re-integrating them into polite society, Jesus extends kindness that could tame a bull…He leads the crowds with him to empathize with the plight and desperation of tax collectors: and, without condoning their ruthless tactics, he seeks to change the dynamic of the relationship between tax collectors and citizens- knowing that as one gets to know the other, sharing meals, life and concerns, justice will be the fruit of friendships new and renewed….Take away the climate of fear and exploitation loses sway…Justice in the tax system might be the result and THAT would cost the Romans money and THAT would upset the applecart and if the apple cart is upset- the Pharisees and temple authorities know that they’re the ones the Romans will blame… It was their job to ensure the peaceful compliance of the citizenry… They couldn’t tolerate Jesus reconciling tax collectors and citizens! …And, even more of a direct threat to the income of the Scribes and Pharisees, they couldn’t have Jesus circumventing, and encouraging others to circumvent, their profitable monopoly that sold “sinners” forgiveness and acceptance in society -for a price that many couldn’t afford! Jesus, by example, encouraged ordinary people to be accepting of, to eat with, friends and neighbours- so called “sinners” -whether they’d been to “confession” yet…or not! Jesus encouraged people to take “shunning” out of the equation! No longer would ‘the people’ be the defacto “enforcers’ of arbitrary Pharisaic law! Yikes! Clearly, as everyone standing there that day could see, the Pharisees were not amused!

Battle lines drawn, Jesus turns away from the Temple authorities and addresses the people, inviting them to consider the merits of his approach vs that of the Pharisees… His unspoken question- How shall we, as a society and as people of God deal with others who, for whatever reason, find themselves on the black list of social respectability? Tax collectors, real sinners and/or arbitrarily denounced transgressors? Victims of social change… Left overs and left outs of social evolution...Some would say cast-offs and cast-aways…

As Jesus formulated his teaching on all these issues, I think we can imagine him, weighing in the wisdom of scripture, the teachings of the prophets and values of antiquity… In saner and safer moment I think Jesus would have addressed the issues on the table directly- perhaps offering people a sermon on the text of Proverbs 29… I’ve printed selected verses of that chapter so we can follow the passage through and see what God, in it, would say…

A Manifesto for Social Activism!

Proverbs 29- selected verses

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule (Yup…like now, Jesus’ audience would have said, “When the Romans rule) the people….(WE the people- this passage is about communal response) the people groan (everyone feels the pain- even those who might be temporarily cushioned by prestige, power or money will eventually find that their immunity from suffering is entirely contingent on their usefulness to the ruler: and, when that diminishes, so will they! “Ultimately, when the wicked rule,” we can imagine Jesus re-iterating the idea Proverbs proclaims, “we’re all losers!”)

By justice a king ( a good King…a Davidic king… a Hebrew king) gives stability to the land, but (a bad king or, worse yet, a Caesar) one who makes heavy exactions (excessive taxation... a King concerned not for the people but only about what’s in it for him) such a King ruins the land and despoils the people…

The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding… (We can see right through the pompous veneer of religiosity and false piety that the Pharisees, in their long fringes pretend, can’t we people,” Jesus might continue his sermon)

The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, (in greed they don’t care WHO they destroy) and they seek the life of the upright…. (and, they won’t tolerate voices of opposition, social activists, ordinary people like you and I…The Pharisees are way past reasoning with but…they do have choices and they are responsible for their actions because…)

The poor and the oppressor have this in common: the Lord gives light to the eyes of both…. (There is a choice)

If a king judges the poor with equity, his throne will be established for ever….(but if he doesn’t….)

When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases (desperation born of oppression eg a poor man stealing bread for his child or a good man accepting the necessity of work as a tax collector) but the righteous will look upon their downfall (as I am inviting you to consider the plight of tax-collectors and so-called sinners and understand and address the root causes of the prescient reality)

Many seek the favour of a ruler (like those Scribes and Pharisees standing over there kowtowing to Roman Masters), but it is from the Lord that one gets justice…(and how’s that going to happen? Jesus might well have asked wrapping up his sermon… “I’ll tell you how it’s going to happen. You and I, we’re going to make it be so!”)

The unjust are an abomination to the righteous, The scribes and Pharisees are a pain in the side for us all but, in God’s scheme of things, where good always eventually triumphs over evil, be assured that we’ll get to them and we’ll win because… the upright are an abomination to the wicked and when good people demand justice, eventually justice will prevail!

I imagine Jesus would have liked to SAY all that in the gospel encounter with the scribes and Pharisees: but, red rag to the bull, that kind of openly seditious challenge would have got him and probably half the crowd arrested and crucified! …Good Jews in Jesus’ day, as in ancient days before, knew how to bury such teaching, such words of hope, such clarion call for justice in story form- avoiding confrontation: and, that’s what Jesus does in the three stories of Luke 15.

He starts with the story of the Lost Sheep which raises and answers a fundamental question about the value of human life. How will we, the 99, respond to the loss of any, one, member of our flock? The answer? …There’s no blaming the victim for getting lost. There’s not a hint of wait and see if he can pull himself up by his own bootstraps. There’s no wait till he comes begging attitude… And, in contrast with the approach of the Pharisees who would wait for the victim to, somehow, find his way to them (with appropriate penance in hand), in Jesus’ parable, the community –at the risk of some peril to themselves -they themselves, remember, are pictured as at in a “wilderness”…This is not their finest hour…They might well make excuse that they can’t be worrying about one lost sheep in a time of trial, uncertainty, economic hardship or social instability and transition- but they don’t….instead, in this story, the ninety-nine eagerly and anxiously, watches its best and brightest, their shepherd, race out to search and, hopefully find, the lost sheep. The shepherd, and with him the whole community, accepts mandate to seek the lost and, when they find him and get him back, the story ends with great rejoicing…

Second story- The Parable of the Lost Coin… extends the mandate of social or community responsibility to situations of economic hardship…And, although this lady finds the coin on her own, clearly the community was there for her and they are there to celebrate and share her joy at happy ending.

And finally, and longest story- the Parable of the Prodigal which, augmenting all the important lessons we usually take from it, can also be interpreted as commentary on the stress of social change occasioned by Hellenization….A younger son wanting to take his inheritance “off farm” and try his entrepreneurial skills in the city- big issue in Jesus’ day- a rural urban migration: and, with it, new choices for kids who once would have automatically stepped into their Dad’s footsteps….Roman roads facilitating travel- this kid ends up in a “distant” country- caught up in the romanticism of travel, the allure of novelty, new vistas for curiosity and learning- overwhelming sensate and potential realities…. More than enough to blow the kid away- no wonder he crashes and burns! This young man, in his struggle and failure, a caricature typical of everyone in Palestine trying to keep pace with the enormity of change that was happening around them- like it or not! We tend to jump all over younger son and make him the “villain” in the story but, in reality every character is struggling with new realities and not doing too well… In the good old days, as in the tradition of old Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau, a Dad wouldn’t think to pass on his inheritance until his last breath- but, clearly, the Dad in today’s story is aware and trying to accommodate new economic realities thinking thereby to both give his kid a chance and serve the best interests of the family at larger…. Older brother is also struggling… Notice the words he uses to describe his tenure at the family farm…He complains that he has “slaved” for his Dad for years and has got nothing to show for it- master/slave terminology to describe his partnership in the family business and his relationship with Dad- tell me this kid is really happy with the status quo- he simply lacks the gumption that younger brother showed. Could be that he’s spending his days looking at the farm up the road already taken over by Roman corporate business interests and now run by managers making big bucks and for all that he wants it all –cause it’s all he can imagine ever having, the idea of eventually having the family farm, and just that, isn’t working for this kid either…And what’s the story say to them all? Jesus doesn’t deny the stress of change and transition. And he doesn’t guarantee that every change will be for the best: in fact, the tale of the younger son can be read as illustration of the necessity to try and fail and learn from failure so one can try and try again…But what Jesus, again in this third story argues, it that, in all the pain and trial of struggle and adaptation and making do and eventually, one would hope, thriving- the key is that family and community hang tough and hang together and forgive and support and care for one another… Do that and, again in this last story, those who do it will share great joy…. Tax collectors, sinners, prodigals and Dads; the ninety-nine themselves feeling threatened nevertheless persisting in caring for others even more in peril- one poor man lending a hand to another- if that be the case; widows and other vulnerable people facing economic peril –not alone but with supportive community behind them…a fellowship of those who look reality in the face and challenge it together- this, as opposed to the self-serving, every man for himself approach that the Pharisees evidence, is the way we will all get on and endure and, in time, fed by rejoicing along the way come to rejoicing at the end… By this path the victory of God and the righteous is assured is assured and those who persevere shall wear the crown! Strength that endures is no one’s private domain: it is our common heritage: good- for the common good! In Jesus’ day and in every day- then and now and for always. Amen

(Comments to Charlie at rev_love@hotmail.com)

St. Andrew’s United Church, Bayfield