Luke 15:1-2
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
What follows in the coming chapter are some of the most familiar images and popular parables of the whole of Luke’s gospel and, indeed, the New Testament. But to understand any of it, we need first to tarry over these opening verses.
Notice that the evangelist directs our attention to two groups, really two audiences paying attention to Jesus’ words. The first are the tax-collectors and sinners. As a reminder: the tax-collectors of the Bible have nothing in coming with those who work for the Internal Revenue Service today. Nothing. Rather, they are those Jews who have been recruited by the Romans to collect a tax from their neighbors, a tax that in turn supports the ongoing Roman occupation of Israel. Moreover, tax-collectors were given a quota by their masters, and the more they exceeded that quota – that is, the more they could squeeze their neighbors on behalf of the occupying Romans – the richer they became. They were, therefore, considered traitors, cheats, and thoroughly and completely unrighteous.
The second group St. Luke describes as sinners, and we must take care to note that Luke is not a child of the Reformation that declared that all were sinners. Rather, he is using that term more precisely to describe those people who stood so far outside the pale of what was considered decent behavior that they were routinely shunned. As a colleague of mine recently said, yes, we’re all sinners, but these were the one who were called that to their face…regularly, relentlessly, publicly, and by everyone.
And these are the kinds of folks who are flocking to hear Jesus, eager to sit as his feet and listen as he spun yarns about God’s coming kingdom. It’s not hard to imagine what they loved about Jesus, for he described for them a kingdom where everyone was welcome, where power and status and social stigma were no more, and where God would set to right all the injustice of the world, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, freeing the imprisoned, and elevating the downtrodden. No, it’s not hard to imagine why they loved Jesus.
Nor is it difficult to fathom why the scribes and Pharisees despised him. For these were the people who had devoted their whole lives to studying the Scriptures, keeping the law, and running the synagogues. They were the church council members, elders, and Sunday School teachers of the first century religious world; those, that is, who cared enough to devote their time and energy to passing along the faith to a new generation. And so when they saw Jesus flaunt the law and welcome those the law condemned, they were outraged, offended, and grumbled about his choices and company.
It’s easy to get down on these folks, imagining them as overly pious and self-righteous legalists. But truth be told, I’m not sure that if I’d been in their shoes I would have reacted any differently. Because they just really, really cared about their tradition, knew the danger of frequenting with social outcasts and moral delinquents, and could not for the life of them understand what Jesus was doing.
And so Jesus tells them a story. Jesus, in facts, tells us all a story.
Prayer: Dear God, as we listen to the stories your Son told about release and redemption, let his words sink into our hearts that we may be transformed by what we hear and share what we experience. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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