And as He sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:10-11)
I’m with the Pharisees on this one!
I know many of us were brought up believing that Nazis, Communists and Pharisees are always the bad guys. Even so, I look at this scene where Jesus is having a party with a group of ‘tax collectors and sinners’, and I find myself asking the exact same question the Pharisees were asking: “Why does Jesus eat with these people?”
This party scene follows immediately on the story of the calling of Matthew, who was himself a tax collector, and so the party is taking place in Matthew’s house with Matthew’s friends, and it makes complete sense to me that the local spiritual leaders found this offensive, as tax collectors were despicable people!
If we were living in Gaza now, watching our country being systematically destroyed – our homes demolished, members of our family being killed, and with us facing the real and imminent threat of starvation – who would we be most angry with?
We would hate the enemy, of course – those with guns and bombs doing all the damage. Even more than them, though, we would despise the collaborators – members of our own community who had turned against us and who were on the payroll of the enemy.
No, the Romans were not carrying out a genocide in Judea at the time of Jesus. Even so, theirs was a violent and ruthless occupation, and when the Jewish people did eventually have their own October 7 moment – rising up against their occupiers and attempting to throw off the Roman yoke in the year 70 AD – the imperial response was brutal and merciless!
First-century Jewish people hated the Romans with a passion, of course, but the one group they hated more was the collaborators: people like Matthew, the tax collector.
When the Romans conquered a new town, they would auction off the job of chief tax collector for that area. Zaccheus, whom we meet in Luke, chapter 19, was the chief tax collector for the city of Jericho. The role would have cost him a lot of money. Why would anyone pay a large sum for the right to collect taxes for Rome? Because it could make you an even larger sum! It was a way to get very wealthy, very quickly.
Chief tax collectors then subcontracted their work to smaller tax agents who sat at toll booths on the roads and city gates. Matthew was one of these smaller toll collectors. He was expected to charge people 2% to 5% of the goods they brought into the city, on top of which he added his own commission – an amount that was whatever he said it was, and if you didn’t like his calculations, he had the Roman army to back him up!
Tax collectors were crooks, and they were collaborators, and they were very wealthy. There were lots of reasons to avoid them, and zero good reasons for pious and patriotic people to party with them, so … “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Some will say at this point, ‘Well, we are all sinners, so this is us’, but it’s not us. The crowd Jesus is partying with here are people we don’t want to party with.
Of course, we don’t know exactly who was there. When Jesus dines with Zacchaeus, he is like a Mafiosi boss, and we might expect other leading gangsters and, of course, their lawyers. Matthew isn’t at that level, so it’s probably mainly drug dealers and sex workers (or their equivalent). Were there known paedophiles hanging out at Matthew’s house that night?
I saw an alleged Truth Social post from Donald Trump, saying, “Nobody knows God better than me.” I believe it’s a fake post, but the genuine quotes aren’t much better:
- “I have a great relationship with God.” — CNN interview, 2016
- The Bible is my favorite book. Nothing beats the Bible.” — Campaign video, 2015
If Jesus were to somehow reappear in the flesh, and if I saw him make a beeline for Donald Trump, lunching with him and his friends, I would have an issue with that.
If Jesus were to come back and, instead of lunching with me and my mates, He chose to attend social events put on by those supporting the war against Iran or with those opposing all forms of immigration, or if He turned up at a social gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, I would have an issue with that!
Yes, Jesus explains why He does what He does: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:12) Even so, how sick do sick people have to be before the godliest thing we can do is to avoid these people? Isn’t partying with people like this giving them the wrong message? Isn’t there a point where, if we’re going to maintain some level of moral decency, we simply need to stay away from people like this?
If we look at our larger Gospel reading from Matthew, chapter 9, it covers a series of encounters. There’s this meeting with Matthew, the tax collector, and his friends. Then there’s Jesus’ encounter with the woman who is haemorrhaging (Matthew 9:20-22), and finally, we see Jesus resurrect a young girl who has died! The common denominator in each of these encounters is that all these people are considered ‘unclean’.
The haemorrhaging woman is unclean because she is haemorrhaging. The dead girl is unclean because she is dead. Matthew and his friends are unclean because they are dirtbags, and because they worked for the Romans, mixed with gentiles, etc.
Jesus crosses the boundary between clean and unclean in a way that I find unnerving. If He had restricted Himself to preaching to the unclean, I wouldn’t have a problem, but Jesus touches the unclean. sits with the unclean. raises the unclean, and He parties with the unclean!
I remember once watching a news report on the trial of a notorious paedophile, and I remember the cameras catching the image of a Salvation Army officer who was acting as a support person for the accused. I remember thinking then, ‘Is this really what the Gospel requires – that we reach out in compassion to people like that?’
“Go and learn what this means,” says Jesus, “’I desire mercy, not sacrifice. ‘ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. (Matthew 9:13)
First published in Father Dave’s newsletter, June 5th, 2026
