Tax Forgiveness
Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:29–32)
Monday of last week was Tax Day. If you had a large tax bill to pay, IRS employees may not be your favorite people right now, but I’d be surprised if you view them as the worst evildoers in the country.
Yet that was how Jewish tax collectors were seen in first century Israel. They operated as subcontractors gathering taxes on behalf of the enemy: Rome. To make matters even worse, they typically charged more than necessary and pocketed the difference. You could compare these tax collectors to the French officials who willingly collaborated with the Nazis after France was defeated in 1940. And you could also compare them to mobsters demanding money from store owners who have no choice other than to pay. Both those elements—traitorous collaboration and heartless extortion—were rolled up into one hated profession.
But instead of keeping a respectable distance between himself and the tax collectors, as everyone else did, Jesus ate with them.
That doesn’t mean Jesus approved of extortion or betraying your country. He’s not overlooking the wrongness of what the tax collectors did. As he says in verse 32—with tax collectors in view—he came to call sinners to repentance, which means living life God’s way instead of your own way. Jesus only accepts Levi’s hospitality after Levi has already taken the decisive first steps of repentance.
But there’s still a shock in these verses. It’s a shock that, if we let it sink in, will set our feet dancing: Jesus wants even the worst sinners to join his fellowship.
See how quickly and how wholeheartedly Jesus befriends Levi! Levi has only just left his tax collecting booth (verse 27) and yet already he and Jesus are eating together at the feast in Levi’s house. Jesus offers that kind of personal friendship to repentant concentration camp guards, repentant pedophiles, repentant drug cartel leaders, and repentant human traffickers. It’s shocking. But if you know your own sinfulness, it’s wonderfully good news. All who come to Jesus with repentance and faith, even Levi, even you and I, are welcomed into friendship with him forever.
Bernard Howard