Tax Collectors and Sinners, II

Matthew 9:10-13 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (NRSV)

Why was Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus provided his own exegesis: he was a spiritual physician, come to tend to the needs of spiritually sick. And like the prophets before him, his emphasis was on mercy—what today we might call social justice—rather than on mechanical observances of the law.

Borg and Crossan (and I can hear the eyes of some of you rolling now, but please bear with me) push this in an interesting way. Judaism makes purity (a.k.a. cleanliness) a central concept, ascribing purity both as a primary attribute of God, and as a prerequisite for humans who want to approach God. This is largely operationalized by avoidance of contact with impure things, and by observances through which an individual who had become impure might regain ritual purity. The Pharisee's question, in a style that today we might call concern trolling, asks, “Why does your teacher voluntarily surrender his ritual purity through contact with the impure?,” and “Why do you chose to follow someone who is impure, and who involves you in impurity?” Jesus's counter-argument involves a fundamentally new understanding of contagion, in which contact with God's purity makes impure things become pure. This is a beautiful metaphor for the Kingdom of God in the world, and sets the expectations we should have for ourselves.

I'd like to take this is a somewhat different direction. We're often taught that sin does not consist of actions that are displeasing to God, but rather to a state of broken relationship with God. Concisely, sin is separation from God. Yet in the story above, it was the tax collectors and other sinner who were eating with Jesus Christ, and the Pharisees who were not. Who then was separated from God? And who was in relationship with him?

So what does this mean for us today? I think we are too hasty to judge people around us, and to view people who's differing circumstances have lead to different choices as “sinners.” I do not doubt the power or ubiquity of sin, but I think that too often, we see mere difference as a sin, and rush to judgments that we ought not be making. And I am even more convinced that we should not for a moment think of our churches as “God's club for the righteous,” lest we join the Pharisee of Luke 18:11, and pray, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Instead, let our churches be open to all who seek God.

Peace