Pharisees and Tax Collectors

We began studying the three-part parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Sons, found in Luke 15 of the Bible's New Testament. At the end of the hour, the homework assignment was to think about, "What was it about Jesus that attracted the untouchables and repelled the respectables?"

Jesus had told this parable because the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him, and the scribes and Pharisees were offended that Jesus didn't just shoo them away.

We probably would have been offended, too.

Tax collectors were wealthy tax farmers who were considered traitors by their fellow Jews. Tax collectors bought the right to tax a certain region. And like the mafia or loan sharks, they extorted taxes from the citizens at whatever interest rate they chose. And the Roman army was at their disposal to make sure they got paid.

Sinners were folks that you could easily recognize as sinners, like prostitutes or pig farmers.

Pharisees were generally good people. What's funny is, they were known more for their religion, their Jewish denomination, than for their vocation or where they're from. That's because they were loud about their religion. When we wear t-shirts or ties with Christian messages, or long denim dresses and no make-up, we are loud about our religion, too. Soon, our religiousness becomes the first thing people think of about us.

Pharisees were all about externals: what they did and did not do. Externals are so easy to measure, and to succeed, and to judge others about. Externals are not what faith is about. They're just markers. Jesus said the Pharisees weren't getting it. "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20).

That's because they were focusing on the wrong things. "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  [Whoever] serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men" (Rom 14:17-18).

At the Pharisees' outrage that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them, he told this parable. Join us as we discover together what Jesus is teaching through it: Parables for ThirtySomethings, Sunday mornings at Southside at 8:45.