Jesus didn't hang out only with poor people. Tax collectors were very rich and he hung out with them. Was it Jesus that called them to his table or did they invite themselves in Matthew 9?
What about the tax collectors did Jesus find himself attracted to? Was it because they engaged in many unscrupulous business dealings or because they didn't have friends because of that?
Who are our modern day tax collectors? Are they the corporate people who perpetrated scandals like Enron?
4 comments:
Sure. And IRS people ... and those people who start up ingenious frauds to get money... ~shrug~ could be ...
I think in order to answer those questions, especially the last one, we need to define some of the characteristics of the tax collectors.
If they were simply people who took money, then yes it would be a specific group of businessmen who steal.
However, (I've been taught...) the tax collectors were native people who were hired by the Romans to take money from their own people. They were viewed as traitors because they were helping the enemy.
Perhaps in the Christian community, they could be the people that we think have "sold themselves out to culture".
Spammers. Spammers trying to get money. I hate spam.
Probably they were both kinds, as mentioned by Jen.
Jesus was attracted because (for whatever reason) they were sinners.
~*~ Rad
Why did he hang out with them? I think people focus mainly on their vocation and not the fact that they were real people with more depth than just taking money from people. They probably had intriguing or fun personalities. I mean not to totally compare to a tax collector, but the business major is more than a business major, just like a Bible major is more than a Bible major. Look at Jen and I, we like business but that's not all we are.
So to sum up, they were people, that's what I think might have attracted Jesus to them.
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