Tax Collectors and Sinners, By Tobin White

I feel that the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” has become somewhat of a cliché in our churches.  We often breeze through the phrase without perhaps stopping to consider its ramifications.  Of course, we all probably learned in Sunday school that the tax collectors were dishonest people.  But I don’t think this phrase really translates to our society.  Sometimes prostitutes are lumped into the phrase “and sinners.”  I think that’s sort of a shame, because the term still holds the same meaning for us today.  Perhaps we’d be more impacted by the meaning of the scriptures if we said, “Prostitutes and sinners.”  It doesn’t sound as harmless as tax collectors, at least not in my eyes. 

We all know that Jesus made a habit of hanging with these people.  It seems to me that this is one of the hardest, messiest, riskiest things to translate to our current practice as followers of Christ.  It’s clearer to think about being selfless as Christ was, or spending time in prayer, or communing with our friends around a table.  But spending time with “sinners?”  How does this look today?  Of course, since Jesus was perfect, he was somehow able to fellowship with people steeped in lives of sin and, without demeaning them as people or offering a cheap sales pitch, call them to a higher purpose.  I’m reminded of the true but trite phrase, “God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way.”  We don’t see Jesus lingering around the doorsteps of their homes and gathering places with pamphlets about how they need to repent or be thrown into hell.  We don’t see him establishing relationships under false pretenses, being friendly enough to get his foot in the door, only to use his relationship as a springboard for bringing people to God.  Instead, Christ invested himself in these people.  He spent time eating with them and getting to know them.  He formed true relationships, and out of these relationships drew people closer to God.  But, he was the Son of God.  In my opinion, he had a little bit of a leg up on the rest of us. 

How is this practice supposed to look for us today?  It seems that too often, we tend to lean toward one of two extremes.  Either we hang with the “sinners” until the lines are so blurred that there is no longer a distinction between us and them, or we stay safe in our houses and churches, far away from “these people.”  Perhaps every now and then we venture out into these waters, attempting to form relationships with people who live lives we consider to be sinful and wrong.  But are we establishing a relationship, or are we acting as salespeople for Christ?  I remember being in a department store one day when I was approached by a woman who appeared to be a fellow shopper.  She walked up and told me that she thought I had a pretty face.  I was surprised by this random compliment and felt momentarily flattered… until she began to talk to me about Mary Kay and what a great salesperson she thought I would be.  Suddenly the compliment lost all of its meaning as I realized she was only using it as an “in” to strike up a conversation about her business.  I found myself quickly wrapping up that conversation.  Do we as Christians do this to people?  Do we use friendship as an “in” to attempt to convert those around us?  Does having an agenda ruin any chance of a real relationship?  Will we send people headed for the hills as soon as they catch a whiff of our true intentions?  These are questions I often consider.  It seems that Christ’s interactions with people grew out of who he was.  People were drawn to him, and because of the way he lived he was able to call people to a higher standard, speaking to them out of love and relationship rather than looking down his nose at them.  Christ saw the hollowness of their sinful situations and offered them something better.  I think that’s what we may sometimes be lacking – something better.  If people just see us as goodie-two-shoes with a list of rules a mile long about what we must do and cannot do, I can’t help but think that they will feel sorry for us rather than be drawn to know more about why we are the way we are.  If we think of holy as meaning separate, we may tend to look down our noses at others.  But, if we cultivate true holiness in our lives, it will separate us from sinful lifestyles in a way that will make others wonder what we’ve got that they don’t.  I believe that this can only grow out of true relationships formed with people out of a desire to love and show the love of Christ.  If we get too trigger happy about sharing the gospel, we’ll come across like a Mary Kay salesperson.  If we rub elbows with people who hold different values than we do, we have a chance for the gospel to come shining out of our lives to bring light to those who are in the darkness.

Jesus seemed to have endless patience with the “tax collectors and sinners.”  The scriptures paint a different picture of his interactions with the Pharisees.  Jesus always seems at his wits’ end with the holier-than-thou church folks.  When I was in college, I had the privilege of interning for the RE youth group for two summers.  It always surprised me how much I enjoyed working with the kids in middle school.  One day someone asked me how I could stand to be around sixth and seventh graders all the time – it’s such an awkward age.  After thinking about it, I realized that the awkwardness is just what I loved about them.  Unlike the high schoolers, junior high kids KNOW that they don’t have it all together.  This makes them pliable and, in my experience, easier to reach.  Maybe the tax collectors and sinners were the junior high kids of the Bible.  Jesus knew that they were a messed up bunch, and even they – deep down – knew it.  When your life is in shambles, your ears are open to a new message, you are longing for a breath of fresh air.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, thought they were too cool for school.  They had it all figured out and were waiting for everyone else to catch up to speed.

Jesus, in his ever-clever way, pointed out that it’s the sick that need a doctor, not the healthy.  We know this scripture inside-out, but how many of us are willing to get our hands dirty to enter in to the lives of those who are sick with sin?  It is messy work, and I find that I am often too busy or too lazy to seek it out.  The tough thing about this is that sin is a vicious cycle.  We can’t form friendships with people addicted to drugs, to sex, to power and money, and expect that they will come clean right away.  They may want to change, but we know that addictions are relentless in pulling their victims back to their old ways.  The tough part is sticking around for the healing process.  It’s much easier to say, “Get up, take your mat, and walk.”  Of course, it is only by the power of Christ that we are able to stick around for the long haul.  Frustratingly, we may never see the fruits of our labor.  But I have to believe that, with Christ’s help, I am planting seeds in the hearts of those I engage in authentic relationships with.  May we all grow more like Christ in our ability to truly love, especially those we so often see as unlovable. 

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Last night I sent my thoughts on this topic to Brooke to post on the blog.  But then I woke up this morning feeling terribly convicted about all of the things I failed to mention yesterday.  So, here are a few MORE of my thoughts on this topic!

I realized that in my previous writings on this topic, I made a pretty clear distinction between us and them, “them” being “the sinners.”  In case any of you are worried, I have not forgotten that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!  It occurred to me this morning that as soon as we identify “the sinners,” we have, in effect, become guilty of the sin of the Pharisees.  Who are we to point the finger at different groups of people when we ourselves are so flawed?

And now in defense of the prostitutes: I mentioned addictions as one form of sin in which people become entangled.  While this is true, there are many things going on in our world that have less to do with addictions and more to do with life situations.  We cannot assume that all of us come into the world on an even playing field, equally capable of making good or poor choices.  I don’t personally know any prostitutes, but I do feel confident in saying that if those women thought there was a better way to survive, they would probably take the out that was offered them.  No little girl says, “I want to be a prostitute when I grow up.”  Rather, it is the fatal combination of factors (such as abuse, neglect, poverty, hopelessness, lack of self esteem) that lead to such choices.  And then there’s the classic morality question posed by Kohlberg.  Is it wrong to steal if you are too poor to afford medicine and your wife will die without it?  When presented with the Heinz dilemma, most of us would probably be hard-pressed to call that a sin.  Yet think of all of the “sin” that stems from similar situations in our inner cities.  While not as seemingly harmless, much of the crime that takes place is a result of basic needs that fail to be met when people are crushed by poverty.  The frightening thing is to realize that we are all complicit in this systemic sin.  We have, while others do not.  We are faced with the choice of whether to gossip about a coworker or cheat on our taxes rather than whether to steal so that we can feed our children and the addictions that numb us to our tragic circumstances.  It’s easier to think that we have no connection to these people, and our suburbs, gated communities, and safe lives reinforce the idea that we are all on our own, operating independently of one another.  But in reality, we are more connected than we think.  We are indirectly responsible for the power differential that creates so much violence and hatred in our world.  Now if only there was a simple solution to this…

And now in defense of those living in suburbs and gated communities: It would also be easy to paint a picture of all sin as residing within violent, poverty-stricken inner cities, but of course we know this is far from the case.  I never cease to be amazed by the stories I hear of things that happen in seemingly perfect suburbs of Frisco.  The affairs, the gossip, the insecurity and self-loathing experienced by people trying to live up to the perfect standard set by our culture. 

There are a lot of people hurting everywhere you go, no matter the income level or family situation or chosen profession.  You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”  It seems that too often we throw out the baby with the bathwater and go ahead and hate the sinner, presuming that the “sinner” is doing something on our list of favorite sins.  (Favorite sins meaning those sins we’ve personally decided to find offensive, while we excuse a multitude of other sins for the convenience of being guilt-free when we engage in them ourselves.)  My greatest wish is that Christians could take back our rightful place in society as lovers of all of God’s creation rather than the self-appointed judges of the actions of others.  We should not be the ones waving the “God hates gays” signs.  We should not be the ones bombing the abortion clinics.  We should NEVER be the ones sending a message of hatred out to the world on God’s behalf.  That, to me, is true blasphemy.  Christ himself is the judge, yet he spent his time on earth truly loving people.  Not that he wrote off their actions as excusable or held a post-modern “do what’s right for you” stance, but he acknowledged the inherent worth of all people, created in the image of God.  My prayer is that we will learn to recognize and cultivate this image within ourselves and within all of those around us.  Anything less just separates us from God.