Tag Archives: tax-collector

THE GOSPELOF MARK – HE SAW LEVI

Bible Study, ,

HE SAW LEVI

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:13-17

As Jesus walked along the edge of the lake He saw Levi collecting taxes and Levi saw Him.  What did Jesus value so much in Levi that He called him to follow Him? Did He see a man whose greed had brought everything out of him that was devious and dishonest, now disillusioned with wealth, with a heart yearning for something better? Did He value in him the willingness to leave that all behind to go after God? What did Levi see in Jesus that drew him like magnet?

Why was Jesus comfortable with what the Pharisees called “the riff-raff” – people who made no pretense of being religious; people who didn’t hide their lifestyle but who felt comfortable with Him because He didn’t judge them? He accepted them as they were. The very fact that He ate with them meant that He was at peace with them.

Does that mean that He was comfortable with the way they lived? No, but it was not an issue to Him because He knew that He could offer them a better life and He knew their potential.

He valued the fact that they were who they were. If anything, He was not comfortable with their critics whose lives were equally soiled with sin but it was all hidden under a facade of “holiness”.

What kind of honesty is Jesus looking for? Not the attitude that I am a good-for-nothing worm who is always putting myself down, but an honesty that is willing to own who I am, both good and bad, and place myself in His hands to restore what is broken and clean up what is tamai- unclean – so that I can have transparent fellowship with Him in all circumstances.

As long as our hearts are open with Him and we don’t cover up and pretend, we can journey with Him in the ups and downs because we are going somewhere together and He is leading. He is always with us whether we feel Him or not.

Judged Or Justified

Christian Life, , , , ,

JUDGED OR JUSTIFIED?

Jesus did not only teach His disciples that they must pray, but He also had things to say about their attitudes to God when they prayed. Once again the Pharisees provided a poor model for right attitudes in prayer. How must we approach the Father?

Humility

Another parable did well to illustrate wrong and right attitudes.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (Luke 18: 9-10)

Jesus could not have chosen two more opposite characters for His story – a Pharisee and a tax collector. Who were these “some”? The same ones who prayed in public to get attention – the hypocrites – the Pharisees. They were the “Noddy-badge” types who had to pat themselves on the back in case no one else did it for them. Of what was this Pharisee proud?

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Luke 18: 11-12)

Wait a bit! Have you forgotten something, Mr Pharisee? Thanksgiving is about who God is, not about who you are? What about your heart? Jesus hit the nail on the head:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matt. 23: 25)

What was the problem with this man? He was so full of his own “righteousness” that he had no sense of need. I wrote this in the margin of my Bible years ago – a truth which has come back to me again and again:

“Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.”

Self-righteous people are self-sufficient. They are self-made people who worship their creator. They need nothing from God and they receive nothing from Him but condemnation.

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18: 13)

Did you catch that? The tax collector touched the one thing that is weightiest in God – His kabot – His glory – His mercy. When he cried to God out of his deep need for mercy, he received mercy. Jesus concluded His story with the most heartening words a sinner can ever hear:

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18: 14)

Judged or justified? The Pharisee had already judged himself and, although he found himself not guilty, unfortunately for him, he used the wrong standard. He was his own measure of righteousness but it fell far short of God’s measure of perfection. He judged his life by the rules he followed, not by the heart of the Father and fell far short of God’s measure. He had no idea that the mirror of the Law into which he gazed, actually showed up the filth in his life but had no power to make him clean. He rejected the only one who could declare him not guilty because He had paid his debt. He thought he could go it alone.

Justified! What does that mean? Not guilty. No penalty for sin hanging over the tax collector’s head any longer. He never again had to feel terrified of the future because of what he had done. He had the priceless gift of peace reigning in his heart. Why? Because he came to God with the attitude of reality. “I am a sinner and I need mercy.”

It is humility, not self-congratulation that opens God’s heart to His mercy. Attitude number one is humility which acknowledges that I have no hope outside of God. When I come to Him, I must take my rightful place before Him, remembering who He is and who I am. Whatever I have become that is good – functional – is because of His grace. I can claim nothing for myself which He has not given to me.

But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. (James 4: 6-8a)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Complacent or Repentant

Christian Life, , , ,

COMPLACENT OR REPENTANT

“He told His next story to those who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people. ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, crooks, adulterers or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

“Meanwhile, the tax man, slumped in the shadows, face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner,’

“Jesus commented, ‘This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.'” Luke 18:9-14 (The Message).

Since prayer is essentially the interaction between the Father and His child, it is easy to recognise that the Pharisee in Jesus’ story did not, for one moment, fit into the category of a son. His attitude and words were completely foreign to a Father/son relationship. No true son would talk to his father the way this man talked to God. He was not praying. He was preening and boasting. His prayer was an unashamed, ‘Look at me, God. See how good I am. Aren’t you proud of me?’

Did his ‘thank you’ express true gratitude? Not at all! It was his way of congratulating himself on being a self-made man. The rest of his ‘eulogy’ was a summary of his religious achievements – his so-called ‘tsidaqahs’, his acts of generosity, but they were done out of duty, to gather ‘brownie points’ and for self-congratulation, not from a generous and loving heart that gladly obeyed God’s directives.

Who was the measure of his achievements and his judgement of everyone else? He was, of course. He did not realise that, if you measure imperfection against imperfection, you get imperfection! Since his standard was based on his own performance and not on his attitude and character, he would naturally judge himself top of the list. What he did not understand was that he was using entirely the wrong measure.

The tax man was fully aware that his life fell far short of what God required of him. He was so broken by guilt and shame that he did not even have the courage to be seen. He hid in the shadows with his eyes downcast and his face in his hands. His prayer was, ‘Don’t look at me, God. If you do, you might wipe me out of your sight.’

Which of these two men were accepted by God, the Pharisee who was so proud of his achievements or the tax man who was so ashamed of what he had done? Strangely enough, it was the tax man whom Jesus commended, not the Pharisee. But why? Surely what the tax man had been doing was abhorrent to God? Was he not robbing people to line his own pocket? Was he not a liar, a thief and a fraudster? How could God even listen to him, let alone accept him?

He was all of these things but he was also something else — honest and repentant. He saw himself in the light of who God is and was so broken up that he pleaded for forgiveness and threw himself on the mercy of God. This is the heart attitude that God hears and the foundation of a renewed relationship with God as Father. You see, every wayward person is actually a son who has strayed from the Father and for whom the Father waits to return.

The Pharisee saw no need and had no desire for forgiveness. He was completely satisfied with his own standards and performance. What God thought about him was irrelevant. He was not yet a returning prodigal. He was a self-satisfied, self-righteous elder brother who had no felt need to repent. “Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.”

As always, Jesus told this story for identification. Which of the two men are you?